Let’s talk about AI; more specifically, Conversational AI and Generative AI, and how both can be leveraged by enterprise brands to drive stimulating business outcomes.
Conversational AI refers to tech like chatbots or virtual agents that are able to converse with users. By combining machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP), Conversational AI can understand, process, and generate responses in a natural way, as IBM notes. (Well, as “naturally” as one would consider this branch of technology.) Online talkbots and voice assistants are typically the most frequently cited use cases (e.g. customer engagement via FAQ support, text-to-speech dictation and language translation to meet accessibility needs, human resource processes, IoT devices, etcetera). Conversational AI can be a cost-efficient and scalable solution, albeit with challenges in the veins of raw language input, privacy and security, and (especially as AI topics generate – pun intended – more buzz) user apprehension.
Generative AI, which also uses ML algorithms, is harnessed to create content like text, imagery, audio, video and more. A neural network, consisting of information and media files, forms its basis. Users then input prompts; in 2022, I personally used the heck out of Midjourney to generate images like “cerulean city skyscape with shooting stars, aspect ratio 16:9, HD” or, you know, “Super Mario Bros. as ancient Greek soldiers”. In any case, users’ inputs are processed and the end results are generated based on what the AI is trained from. Generative AI has been in the news a ton – again, generating a flock of apprehensive individuals and organizations – and it can be used for advertisements, illustrative visuals, written pieces, and a cavalcade of other purposes. (The ethics of which are being hotly debated, depending on one’s sphere and intentions.)
So, we’ve covered Conversational and Generative AI. Let’s now dive into how global conversational commerce and software company LivePerson fits into today’s story.
Last week, LivePerson announced enhancements to its Conversational Cloud platform. Now, enterprise brands interested in leveraging both Conversational and Generative AI can do so.
Here’s the rundown:
LivePerson is a long-time investor in large language models (LLMs) and has integrated them into the Conversational Cloud platform to understand user sentiment and intent, and to create challenge resolutions and fruitful interactions. LivePerson encourages enterprises, as its site states, “to cut through the hype and decode what’s really important to drive responsible, productive outcomes” and that’s an extremely salient point. Conversational and Generative AI models can excite, but they can also pose risks to regulated industries.
To highlight the secure structure of its Conversational Cloud platform, the company has enhanced it with the following:
LivePerson’s Knowledge AI includes generative capabilities from OpenAI to create safe conversations out of its knowledge assets (with existing and tested LLM integrations to help understand and process requests).
LivePerson’s Conversation Assist facilitates agent oversight at scale to ensure the AI offers factual, up-to-date responses. Generative AI is coupled in with this system so brands, for instance, can leverage generative outputs while keeping the information grounded, reliable, and industriously helpful to customers.
LivePerson’s Agent Productivity Tools enable enterprises to track customer service agent productivity and performance, and action improvements where applicable. These tools pull from reputable models (such as the pretty-much-household-name ChatGPT) for features like auto-summarization, auto-completion, and customer journey tracking.
LivePerson’s CEO Rob LoCascio lent more insight about the Conversational Cloud platform.
“With the debut of ChatGPT's LLM and other Generative AI technologies driving intense public interest in AI capabilities,” LoCascio said, “enterprise brands are scrambling to leverage them in conversational experiences to generate better business outcomes. And while these models are incredibly exciting, they also raise serious safety, security, and ethics questions. Selecting partners that can help manage these risks while delivering the most benefit from Generative AI will quickly become a business imperative for all kinds of enterprises."
LoCascio and LivePerson as a whole are certainly getting ahead of the curve; while a prediction from Gartner states that chatbots will be the primary customer service channel for roughly a quarter of organizations by 2027, LivePerson is already running more than 40% of its contact center volume through the Conversational Cloud platform. LivePerson’s customer base – telcos, retailers, airlines, banks, and technology firms – are sure to benefit from its AI (which is also governed by more than 25 years of brand-to-customer interaction management, with factual feedback and insightful conversational data).
So, the long story short of all this AI indulgence, readers?
Conversational and Generative AI are spider-climbing across industry use cases left and right. This bodes well for individual users and for business ventures in search of the latest-and-greatest type of applications for AI as it evolves.
LivePerson continues to be one such agent of change.
Edited by
Greg Tavarez
