Can't Ignore the Bots! 83% of Indian Businesses Embrace AI for Customer Love
A new report from global cloud communications platform Infobip reveals a significant shift in how brands are prioritizing customer interaction, with a marked increase in budget allocations aimed at enhancing overall customer experience. This trend is particularly evident in India, where 83% of businesses in IDC’s Future of Customer Experience Survey 2023 are heavily investing in customer service and support interactions to deliver superior customer satisfaction.
The Infobip report, “Driving Meaningful Customer Engagement with Conversational AI,” features insights from leading IT market research and advisory firm IDC. It highlights the evolving expectations of customers in today’s digital age, who now demand authenticity and more personalized attention from brands. Despite this, many organizations still lack the capabilities to deliver unique and engaging experiences. The IDC survey indicates that 60% of organizations in India do not have the tools to maintain customer context across the customer journey and channels.
The Rise of Omnichannel Communication
The rising demand for omnichannel communication and the need for scalability and flexibility are prompting businesses to adopt unified platforms with conversational capabilities. According to IDC research, companies are increasingly investing in conversational apps—such as live collaboration tools, intelligent digital assistants, and digital avatars—to provide more effortless and seamless customer experiences. In India, 82% of businesses surveyed plan to maintain or increase their spending on conversational applications.
The report further underscores the growing relevance of unified AI-powered conversational solutions in India and the broader Asia Pacific region. The industry’s shift towards improved customer experience (CX) is not surprising. Previously, customers had to wait for a service agent to respond to their queries. Now, businesses in the APAC region are enabling customers to independently find answers, request services, and complete transactions using omnichannel communication solutions powered by conversational AI.
Transforming Customer Engagement with AI
Harsha Solanki, VP GM – Asia at Infobip, remarked, “It’s no surprise that businesses in India are prioritizing superior customer experiences through conversational AI. Increasingly, brands are using a network of diverse chatbots and AI algorithms to facilitate timely actions at crucial stages of the customer journey. In today’s AI-driven landscape, CPaaS is enabling businesses to seamlessly orchestrate customer engagement throughout the entire journey, enhancing efficiency and maximizing value. This approach allows businesses to achieve more with less, reducing costs and improving operational effectiveness while focusing on long-term customer relationships. At Infobip, we are prepared to support businesses on this transformative path.”
Lavanya Jindal, Senior Research Analyst at IDC Asia/Pacific, added, “Generative AI has reshaped conversational experiences. Having a single source of truth across interactions and channels powers context. This customer context allows for more relevant and intelligent conversations and raises the bar for personalization.”
Messaging Apps: The New Frontier
Messaging apps have become increasingly popular across Asia, as customers prefer to communicate and purchase through digital channels. Recognizing this trend, brands in retail, digital commerce, financial services, and telecommunications are swiftly establishing their presence on popular platforms like WhatsApp and Viber, ensuring their services are readily available where their customers are most active.
Infobip’s latest messaging trends report highlights significant increases in messaging app usage: a 509% increase in WhatsApp messages in Indonesia, a 226% increase in chat apps in Vietnam, and a 34% increase in Viber messages in the Philippines. In India, there was a 43% year-on-year rise in WhatsApp messaging, a 155% increase in mobile app messaging, a 166% increase on social media, and a 36% increase on email.
While WhatsApp continues to dominate globally with more than 2.8 billion active users, other messaging platforms are gaining popularity in certain regions due to cultural preferences, local language support, and integration capabilities. For example, LINE is popular in Taiwan and Thailand, KakaoTalk in South Korea, and Zalo in Vietnam. In China, WeChat boasts 1.3 billion active users, making it the dominant platform there.
APAC's Investment in Conversational AI
The IDC Business Value Engineering 2023 Survey revealed that about 39% of businesses in the APAC region consider conversational AI a critically important investment priority over the next two years. The primary business motivators for investing in AI-powered apps to improve CX include enhancing customer success, loyalty, and advocacy, as well as developing products and services that reflect customer needs.
According to IDC’s Future Enterprise Resiliency & Spending Survey Wave 1, January 2024, chatbots are one of the top two areas where APAC businesses plan to integrate Generative AI. Today’s conversational AI chatbots are capable of quickly pulling contextual data relevant to customers and using it to offer not only delivery updates and product recommendations but also simple personalized greetings to make customers feel more welcome.
As the landscape of customer experience continues to evolve, businesses are increasingly recognizing the importance of leveraging conversational AI to meet rising customer expectations. By investing in these technologies, they can provide more personalized, efficient, and satisfying interactions, paving the way for a new era of customer engagement.
Source- Infobip Report “Driving Meaningful Customer Engagement with Conversational AI”