Infobip released a report with research insights by analyst firm IDC. The new Infobip eBook titled “Unlocking the potential of GenAI in CX” takes a closer look at how GenAI is enabling businesses to scale their customer service operations and provide more proactive and impactful customer experiences.
Generative AI (or GenAI) is already making waves globally as companies and brands begin embracing this cutting-edge technology.
It is anticipated that by the end of 2027, the proportion of AI investments across the APAC region in GenAI will increase from 15% to 29%. Several business functions are being prioritized for GenAI initiatives – among the top areas that C-Level Execs are looking into using GenAI are Operations (47%), Customer Experience (38%), and Marketing (33%).
The report also highlighted that APAC business sectors that are adopting GenAI are also following a similar trend as global top adopters of GenAI, especially within the Transportation and Logistics (74%), Telco, Media and Entertainment (72%), Financial Services (59%), and Healthcare and Life Sciences (54%) sectors.
How GenAI improves customer experiences
Business leaders have long recognized the importance of having superior customer experiences and improved operational efficiency, but they face numerous challenges that have prevented them from effectively carrying out their CX strategies.
Among the top factors include the accelerated pace of tech adoption such as GenAI (33%), rising costs of CX transformation services (32%) and increased digital offerings from competitors (31%).
Leveraging GenAI-augmented solutions may just be the ticket for companies looking for a way out of their CX challenges. GenAI empowers customers to curate their own rich customer journeys and quickly troubleshoot problems while allowing businesses to scale and publish high-quality creations to multiple digital channels.
GenAI is also capable of identifying patterns in unstructured data, automatically mapping them to be more understandable for businesses.
“Research shows that 69% of CEOs in APAC see AI as a significant opportunity for business growth and differentiation. At Infobip we believe that GenAI will enable businesses to create fully automated flows, delivering welcome messages, product recommendations, and support —both before and after purchase — through a single automated conversation,” said Ivan Ostojic, Chief Business Officer at Infobip.
“As AI continues to evolve, we can expect increased customer satisfaction, better marketing and sales conversions, improved operations and lower customer support costs.”
Slow adoption despite a record of successes
Despite the huge potential of GenAI to revolutionize customer experiences, only 18% of APAC businesses are still in the early stage of AI adoption while 64% have either leveraged AI or Machine Learning in selected use cases.
Just 18% of APAC businesses have advanced AI/ML capabilities. GenAI’s slow adoption among organizations may be due to certain key challenges that need to be addressed first, such as regulatory compliance and security concerns.
“GenAI is set to transform how we design, implement, deliver, and scale customer experiences. In IDC’s June 2023 Future of Customer Experience Survey, 35% of CX executives believe that innovations like GenAI and Web3 will be most pivotal in shaping their future CX strategies,” said Nikhil Batra, Senior Research Director, IDC Asia-Pacific.
“Amidst economic uncertainties and rising costs, businesses must focus on differentiating themselves through value-driven, empathetic customer experiences, to stay competitive in an increasingly digital marketplace.”
With GenAI technology quickly becoming more sophisticated and advanced, APAC brands investing in GenAI are poised to greatly stand out from the competition and drive business growth. Organizations interested in embarking on GenAI customer journeys must choose a seasoned and trained local tech solution partner that is well-versed in conversational customer experiences.
Once organizations have cleared the initial hurdles of GenAI, both customers and clients can enjoy the best of everything that GenAI technology can offer.