The Progressive Rise of Generative AI: A Conversation With David Wong and Joel Hron

Generative AI In Conversational Analytics: A Demo & Discussion

Small and medium businesses (SMBs), in particular, face a series of pain points across the customer journey, including heavy reliance on offline marketing channels. This leads to limited reach for customer acquisition and challenges in establishing digital storefronts and managing payments. Conversational platforms can be a powerful solution, addressing key challenges related to discoverability, commerce, payments, and communication. Early signs of success are already evident, with 15 million SMBs using WhatsApp for Business to create digital presence and drive traffic through click-to-chat ads. As knowledge bases expand, conversational AI will be capable of expert-level dialogue on virtually any topic. Multilingual abilities will break down language barriers, facilitating accessible cross-lingual communication.

In addition, a CA including text and voice functionalities might support individuals with cognitive, linguistic, literacy, or motor impairments. However, a recent study found text-based chatbots were better at promoting fruits and vegetable consumption57. This suggests that the effectiveness of chatbot modality may vary based on context and desired outcomes, underscoring the importance of adaptable, tailored CA designs. Moreover, a significant subgroup difference in psychological distress was noted regarding CA’s delivery platform.

Most generative AI models lack explainability, as it’s often difficult or impossible to understand the decision-making processes behind their results. Conversely, predictive AI estimates are more explainable because they’re grounded on numbers and statistics. But interpreting these estimates still depends on human judgment, and an incorrect interpretation might lead to a wrong course of action. Generative AI (gen AI) is artificial intelligence that responds to a user’s prompt or request with generated original content, such as audio, images, software code, text or video. In a statement, the company said the event brought together marketing and communications professionals, tech enthusiasts, and industry leaders to explore the future of digital transformation and customer engagement.

The Benefits of Generative AI in the Contact Center

Google Cloud’s new catalog and content enrichment solution, also introduced today, can help simplify and accelerate product cataloging, a time-intensive and costly process for many retailers. This includes creating and analyzing product images and descriptive text, and then automatically generating content, like product descriptions, product meta-data, language tuned for search engine optimization (SEO), and more. For example, a merchandising team for a sporting goods store can use this solution to automatically bring their entire product catalog online for the first time with complete and accurate product descriptions.

“It’s a reinforcement of our belief in AI assistants being in the hands of every professional and a reinforcement of our commitment around AI across our entire product portfolio,” Hron said. They also highlighted the Thomson Reuters acquisition of Materia, an AI assistant and platform for accounting and auditing professionals. They also discussed balancing the need to innovate and go fast conversational vs generative ai with the need for ethical, responsible and high-quality AI development. “The agentic behaviors of the models have become more robust in their ability to plan and ability to use reason over complex information,” Hron added. David Wong, chief product officer, Thomson Reuters, and Joel Hron, chief technology officer, Thomson Reuters, reflect on the growth of generative AI in the past year.

• We fine-tuned our search strategy based on previous systematic reviews3,51,62 to locate sources related to AI-based CAs for addressing mental health problems or promoting mental well-being.
• As LLMs evolve and expand, chatbot providers place more emphasis on orchestrating various models and optimizing them for particular use cases and costs.
• The goal of Opus Research awards is to highlight the tangible, real-world business benefits gained from implementing Conversational AI technologies.
• I think those are really great applications for generative AI, and I really want to highlight how that can take a lot of cognitive load off those employees that right now, as I said, are overworked.
• One area where we can clearly see this is in conversational intelligence platforms, which use AI to optimize communications and business processes.

NTT Data also ensures companies can preserve compliance, with intelligent data management and controls. There are even tools for tracking NPS and CSAT scores through conversational experiences. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. The conversational AI solutions offered by Avaamo ensure businesses can rapidly build virtual assistants and bots with industry-specific skills. Within the platform, organizations can experiment with full conversational AI workflows, and implement AI systems into their existing technology stacks and applications.

So that they can focus on the next step that is more complex, that needs a human mind and a human touch. And until we get to the root of rethinking all of those, and in some cases this means adding empathy into our processes, in some it means breaking down those walls between those silos and rethinking how we do the work at large. I think all of these things are necessary to really build up a new paradigm and a new way of approaching customer experience to really suit the needs of where we are right now in 2024. And I think that’s one of the big blockers and one of the things that AI can help us with.

What GPT Stands For and What Is ChatGPT?

He also emphasized that the current Alexa LLM version is unchanged from the 100 billion-parameter model that was used for the September 2023 demo, but has had more pretraining and fine tuning done on it to improve it. (To be sure, 100 billion parameters is still a relatively powerful model. Meta’s Llama 3, as a comparison, weighs in at 70 billion parameters). The problem is, as hundreds of millions are aware from their stilted discourse with Alexa, the assistant was not built for, and has never been primarily used for, back-and-forth conversations. Instead, it always focused on what the Alexa organization calls “utterances” — the questions and commands like “what’s the weather?

When a user asks an assistant a question, watsonx Assistant first determines how to help the user – whether to trigger a prebuilt conversation, conversational search, or escalate to a human agent. This is done using our new transformer model, achieving higher accuracy with dramatically less training needed. Conversational search is seamlessly integrated into our augmented conversation builder, to enable customers and employees to automate answers and actions. From helping your customers understand credit card rewards and helping them apply, to offering your employees information about time off policies and the ability to seamlessly book their vacation time. A lexicon is a vocabulary set that businesses drill into their bots so they understand the jargon that customers and employees often use. Around 90% of contact centers say they handle calls faster and more efficiently after implementing cutting-edge AI tools.

To ensure the safe and effective integration of AI-based CAs into mental health care, it is imperative to comprehensively review the current research landscape on the use of AI-based CAs in mental health support and treatment. This will inform healthcare practitioners, technology designers, policymakers, and the general public about the evidence-based effectiveness of these technologies, while identifying challenges and gaps for further exploration. Generative AI models create content by learning from large training data sets using machine learning (ML) algorithms and techniques. For example, a generative AI model tasked with creating new music would learn from a training data set containing a large collection of music. By employing ML and deep learning techniques and relying on its recognition of patterns in music data, the AI system could then create music based on user requests. Businesses continue to engage consumers via traditional channels, such as SMS, email, and IVR, but they are actively looking for more effective alternatives with higher ROI and engagement.

Additionally, we conduct narrative synthesis to delve into factors shaping user experiences with these AI-based CAs. To the best of our knowledge, this review is the most up-to-date synthesis of evidence regarding the effectiveness of AI-based CAs on mental health. Our findings provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of AI-based CAs across various mental health outcomes, populations, and CA types, guiding their safe, effective, and user-centered integration into mental health care. Large online platforms will spearhead the adoption of conversation journeys by developing proprietary chatbots and building AI-assisted journeys on conversational platforms.

Generative AI and LLMs Transform the Market

In a practical sense, there are many use cases for NLP models in the customer service industry. When a customer submits a help ticket, your NLP model can easily analyze the language used to divert the customer to the best agent for the task, accelerating issue resolution and delivering better service. LLMs are beneficial for businesses looking to automate processes that require human language.

As such, its bots can adjust their responses to the changing context of the conversation, resulting in more “personalized, near-human planning experiences” – as per Yellow.ai, Pelago’s tech partner. Furthermore, we conducted meta-analyses for specific psychological outcomes reported by at least three trials, including depressive symptom, generalized anxiety symptom, and positive affect and negative affect. While not a modern language model, Eliza was an early example of NLP; the program engaged in dialogue with users by recognizing keywords in their natural-language input and choosing a reply from a set of preprogrammed responses. Traditional LLMs use deep learning algorithms and rely on massive data sets to understand text input and generate new text output, such as song lyrics, social media blurbs, short stories and summaries. Juniper Research anticipates that AI-powered LLMs, including ChatGPT, will play a pivotal role in distinguishing conversational commerce vendors in 2024. Their forecast indicates that global retail spending through conversational commerce channels will surge to $43 billion by 2028, a substantial increase from the $11.4 billion recorded in 2023.

Another now uses AI to help its customers reach 15% higher win rates,” says Prachie Banthia, VP of Product at AssemblyAI. Retailers can save valuable IT resources with three small form-factor servers that are managed by Google Cloud and can be conveniently installed in any store. With this product in a store’s back room, retailers can do everything from gathering comprehensive store analytics to streamlining mission-critical store operations.

Examples of popular generative AI applications include ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Jasper AI. Additionally, it’s important to ensure that the chatbot is properly trained and can handle a wide range of customer queries and tasks. A recent report predicts that AI-powered chatbots will handle up to 70% of customer conversations by the end of 2023.

• We can see generative AI used to create more natural-sounding conversational AI, such as chatbots and virtual agents, as well as empowering employees for everyday work.
• Google Cloud’s new catalog and content enrichment solution, also introduced today, can help simplify and accelerate product cataloging, a time-intensive and costly process for many retailers.
• We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google’s cutting-edge technology, and tools that help developers build more sustainably.
• Additionally, educators must be vigilant about potential biases in AI-generated content, as these models are trained on vast datasets that may inadvertently perpetuate stereotypes or cultural preferences.

Experience from successful projects shows it is tough to make a generative model follow instructions. For example, Khan Academy’s Khanmigo tutoring system often revealed the correct answers to questions despite being instructed not to. The RAND report lists many difficulties with generative AI, ranging from high investment requirements in data and AI infrastructure to a lack of needed human talent. A Gartner report published in June listed most generative AI technologies as either at the peak of inflated expectations or still going upward.

Generative AI hype is ending – and now the technology might actually become useful

As users engage with ChatGPT, its ability to learn from individual preferences empowers the creation of tailored responses, revolutionizing the way humans interact with AI systems (Aljanabi and ChatGPT, 2023). Within the realm of education, ChatGPT’s potential to enhance learning experiences takes center stage. This powerful language model fosters dynamic and evolving learning environments by transcending traditional search engine constraints. Students are encouraged to actively participate in interactive sessions actively, promoting deep engagement and reflective thinking. Drawing on its powerful Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT-3), ChatGPT analyzes vast amounts of data, providing personalized and relatable responses while seamlessly integrating new knowledge through follow-up question responses. This unique feature opens exciting opportunities for educators to adopt innovative teaching methods and create a more interactive and enriching classroom experience (Ollivier et al., 2023).

However, when these tools are combined with conversational analytics, the opportunities for building more advanced self-service flows are enhanced. Google Cloud’s new conversational commerce solution, announced today, can enable retailers to easily embed generative AI-powered virtual agents on their websites and mobile apps. Retailers can build virtual agents that can have helpful and nuanced conversations with shoppers using natural language and can provide product options based on a shopper’s preferences. For example, a virtual agent can converse with a shopper looking for a formal dress for a wedding, and provide personalized product options based on preferred colors, venue type, weather, matching accessories, and budget. Critically, retailers can deploy these advanced conversational AI agents in a couple of weeks versus months.

Wong said he’s most excited about large language models’ ability to have longer context windows, enabling them to keep more information in their short-term memory and answer ever-more complex questions. So that again, they’re helping improve the pace of business, improve the quality of their employees’ lives and their consumers’ lives. Instead of feeling like they are almost triaging and trying to figure out even where to spend their energy. And this is always happening through generative AI because it is that conversational interface that you have, whether you’re pulling up data or actions of any sort that you want to automate or personalized dashboards. Because even if we say all solutions and technologies are created equal, which is a very generous statement to start with, that doesn’t mean they’re all equally applicable to every single business in every single use case. So they really have to understand what they’re looking for as a goal first before they can make sure whatever they purchase or build or partner with is a success.

We are likely to have to learn (and re-learn) how to use different AI technologies for years to come. Vendor Support and the strength of the platform’s partner ecosystem can significantly impact your long-term success and ability to leverage the latest advancements in conversational AI technology. But many of the employees Fortune spoke to said they left in part because they despaired that the new Alexa would ever be ready—or that by the time it is, it will have been overtaken by products launched by nimbler competitors, such as OpenAI. Those companies don’t have to navigate an existing tech stack and defend an existing feature set. The former employee who has hired several who left the Alexa organization over the past year said many were pessimistic about the Alexa LLM launch.

Large enterprises see many benefits from using conversational platforms, such as high engagement rates and personalized interactions at scale. As a result, more than 60% of enterprises are planning to increase spending on conversational platforms over the next three to four years, focusing on building end-to-end journeys. Generative AI emerges as a top-of-mind priority for businesses, with approximately 95% of surveyed enterprises in India demonstrating familiarity and more than 80% planning to invest in generative AI-based solutions within the next one to two years. However, scaling these humanlike conversational journeys has been challenging for both large and small enterprises. While larger enterprises have automated simple use cases through artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots (e.g., raising service requests and order tracking), handling complex or urgent interactions still requires human involvement. Consequently, crafting and scaling end-to-end journeys cost effectively across all key use cases remains a challenge for large enterprises.

“Generative AI is one of those things where it’s death by a thousand use cases,” Chandhu Nair, svp of data, analytics and computational intelligence and marketing technology at Lowe’s, said in a session on Monday. Likewise, with generative AI, “you can test fast, you can fail fast and you need to embrace that mode of thinking,” Jessyn Katchera, executive director and head of e-commerce for France at Carrefour, explained. EWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. EWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more. You.com is a private and secure search engine that summarizes and personalizes results with generative AI.

IBM watsonx Assistant Conversational Search provides a flexible platform that can deliver accurate answers across different channels and touchpoints by bringing together enterprise search capabilities and IBM base LLM models built on watsonx. Today, we offer this Conversational Search Beta on IBM Cloud as well as a self-managed Cloud Pak for Data deployment option for semantic search with watsonx Discovery. In the coming months, we will offer semantic search as a configurable option for Conversational Search for both software and SaaS deployments – ensuring enterprises can run and deploy where they want. Let’s say a customer opens the bank’s assistant and asks what sort of welcome offer they would be eligible for if they apply for the Platinum Card.

This remarkable growth of over 280% will be fueled by the advent of personalized services facilitated by the integration of AI and LLMs. The integration of conversational AI into these sectors demonstrates its potential to automate and personalize customer interactions, leading to improved service quality and increased operational efficiency. Daily ChatGPT App work involves monotonous, time-consuming tasks like logging calls and taking notes. A recent study showed that the abilities of large language models such as GPT-4 do not always match what people expect of them. In particular, more capable models severely underperformed in high-stakes cases where incorrect responses could be catastrophic.

There’s even the option to build voice AI solutions for help with routing and managing callers. The full platform offers security and compliance features, flexible deployment options, and conversational AI analytics. Aisera’s “universal bot” offering can address requests and queries across multiple domains, channels and languages. It can also intelligently route requests to other conversational AI bots based on customer or user intent. The generative AI toolkit also works with existing business products like Cisco Webex, Zoom, Zendesk, Salesforce, and Microsoft Teams.

In addition to personalized learning, ChatGPT promotes the development of inquiry and questioning skills among students. Educators can guide students in formulating practical questions and help them interpret and analyze the responses they receive. Conversations with ChatGPT encourage students to think critically, evaluate information, and refine their questioning techniques.

Slack’s new generative AI features include thread summaries and conversational search

To understand the modern state of AI in conversational intelligence, we can examine how those platforms are using AI technology today and the latest advancements in the technology behind it. One area where we can clearly see this is in conversational intelligence platforms, which use AI to optimize communications and business processes. Studies have found sufficiently complex large language models can develop the ability to reason by analogy and even reproduce optical illusions like those experienced by humans.

The parts of the development process it helps with include planning, creating, testing, fixing, documenting, and even explaining. The platform’s focus on code completion and natural language prompts makes it extremely helpful for novice and experienced coders alike. Many users select this tool for both its robust coding features and its built-in security and governance features.

By actively monitoring and addressing these issues, educators can ensure that ChatGPT is a supportive tool for fostering an inclusive and ethical learning environment (Kasneci et al., 2023). The research paper further explores ChatGPT’s potential in reshaping academic writing, focusing on fields like healthcare, medical education, biomedical research, and scientific writing. As AI language models generate human-like text, they hold immense promise in streamlining content creation and organizing complex information into cohesive manuscripts. The AI-powered model’s ability to assist researchers in drafting, summarizing, and conducting literature reviews simplify the writing process, allowing scientists to focus on the more critical aspects of their research (Bin Arif et al., 2023).

It has since expanded Facetune and its other apps with cutting-edge AI, making it possible to conceptualize, generate, and edit new content and avatars for videos, photos, and art projects, all from one AI-driven platform. Meanwhile, Cora+ also cites the source material for each of its responses, so customers can dive deeper into it if they wish. First up, UK bank NatWest leveled up its virtual agent – “Cora” – with generative AI (GenAI), so it is able to answer particular customer questions without prior training. In the years since, an LLM arms race ensued, with updates and new versions of LLMs rolling out nearly constantly since the public launch of ChatGPT in late 2022.

That data will also drive understanding my sentiment, my history with the company, if I’ve had positive or negative or similar interactions in the past. Knowing someone’s a new customer versus a returning customer, knowing someone is coming in because they’ve ChatGPT had a number of different issues or questions or concerns versus just coming in for upsell or additive opportunities. Over the past several years, business and customer experience (CX) leaders have shown an increased interest in AI-powered customer journeys.

By harnessing AI’s power while embracing human educators’ invaluable role, we can create a learning environment that maximizes student engagement and fosters meaningful learning outcomes. Based on the selected articles, we categorized the factors previously discussed and presented them in Table 3. Table 3 summarizes the main points discussed in the paragraph, highlighting the factors influencing student engagement and learning outcomes when using ChatGPT in education. While language models generate text based on patterns observed in their training data, they need proper understanding or knowledge. Achieving higher accuracy involves advancing training methodologies, accessing reliable and diverse datasets, and developing mechanisms to verify and fact-check the data generated by ChatGPT (Ahn, 2023). With solutions for digital workplace management, employee engagement, and cognitive contact center experiences, Eva addresses various enterprise use cases.