Have you ever thought about who Siri actually is? How does she work? How is she able to respond to us? Who is actually speaking? So many questions have remained unanswered–until this very moment.
Siri is not a human being; more accurately, she is a conversational AI, which is a type of artificial intelligence that simulates human conversation, which explains why she feels so real. This is done through natural language processing (NLP), which is another field of AI that understands and processes human language.
Systems are trained on large amounts of data, such as speech in Siri’s case. They utilize data to teach themselves how to understand human language, then use this knowledge to interact with humans in a natural way.
But there is so much more to conversational AI and its everlasting impact on our daily lives. Think about ChatGPT, or even your favorite music streaming service that tailors its offerings to your specific needs, questions, and problems. That leads us to one burning question: what does the future of conversational AI hold?
The Future of Conversational AI
Conversational AI’s advancement promises a new age of interaction that not only allows these chatbots to understand you but also to predict your needs. This inherently changes the way we interact with digital platforms, increasing our reliance due to their usage being more seamless and intuitive.
Rapidly evolving with the digital world
“The conversational AI market size is expected to increase from USD 10.7 billion in 2023 to USD 29.8 billion by 2028, and the AI chatbot market size specifically is expected to reach USD 27,297.2 million by 2030.” - Markets and Markets
Multi-bot experiences
There is not one chatbot, but rather an entire ecosystem of specialized chatbots that are each individually designed to master a specific domain of the business operations. This allows conversational AI to bring a solution to users by giving them specific and personalized support through intelligent context understanding.
Using the example of the retail business operations, we can explore the diverse range of chatbots:
Chatbot 1 would be responsible for handling returns/exchanges.
Chatbot 2 functions to guide customers based on their preferences and past purchases.
Chatbot 3 provides assistance for shipping and tracking inquiries.
Multi-bots work under the central chatbot, which functions as the initial point of contact and then directs customers to other specific bots based on their specific problems, needs, and inquiries. This inherently improves the user experience and streamlines the customer service system through the bots’ capability to handle customer inquiries with training and intellectual knowledge.
Voice assistants
Going back to Siri, voice assistants are a key component of conversational AI that is evolving to understand and interact with humans with precision and accuracy. This is done through the employment of automatic speech recognition, which can hear, understand, and recognize speech regardless of accent, dialect, or any background noise.
A real-time example could be Amazon’s Alexa, which shows how voice assistants have become an extension of our daily lives due to their capability of understanding and responding to our needs with simplicity and reliability.
Hyper-personalization based on data
The future of conversational AI goes back to its offering of hyper-personalized experiences through the use of data.
Consider Spotify, a popular music streaming service. Its recommendation engine is not random, but is instead based on your mood and preferences and the music you listen to, which allows Spotify to offer playlists that are tailored specifically to your musical needs and what exactly you want to listen to.
This level of personalization provides services that align with your interests and desires, increasing users' dependence on conversational AI.
Improved contextual awareness
Through data analysis, systems of conversational AI remember past interactions in order to provide more contextually relevant and personalized responses.
This in itself transforms customer support, making conversations and interactions more empathetic and tailored to user needs, where the customer is always prioritized. AI’s awareness can sometimes inspire users by providing new ideas and insights we may have never considered.
Enhanced emotional intelligence
Advancements in natural language processing and machine learning are enabling AI to recognize and respond to emotional and social cues, such as tone or word choice.
AI that is emotionally intelligent can be useful in mental health support, where its understanding can improve empathy and compassion for people's troubles and stresses.
Ethical and Unbiased AI
AI systems are often less biased than humans when trained on diverse data. This enables AI to provide necessary insights to make unbiased decisions.
This fosters trust and transparency, increasing human reliance on AI systems that can at times make better decisions that are not one-sided but rather balanced.
Transformation of the education sector
As we have seen with ChatGPT, AI has had a significant impact on educational institutions. Conversational AI offers personalized learning and administrative support, which helps both students and staff in an institution.
For example, AI-driven chatbots allow students to receive customized training and guidance that caters specifically to their individual learning styles and needs. Educational institutions can use chatbots even for administrative tasks, which not only enhances the efficiency of their work but also improves student services and support.
Wrap-Up
The million dollar question, ‘Is AI going to steal our jobs?’ often overlooks the true impact of AI systems and how they can help us rather than replace us.
The future of conversational AI is what we make it; it’s in our control. As much as we have created dependence, AI systems also depend on us to give them information.
Therefore, it is necessary to view it as a tool that is ever-growing and can help humans manage daily life in various ways.
Are you interested in the dynamics of AI? If so, you would love to hear more about our AI Engineering Bootcamp, which covers these specific topics and teaches you how to create your own chatbot!
