Exploring AI's game-changing role in customer engagement

Exploring AI's game-changing role in customer engagement

The recent boom in predictive and generative artificial intelligence (AI) has triggered a new wave of customer engagement. Armed with this novel technology, brands can now move away from one-to-many marketing campaigns and instead focus their efforts on creating hyper-personalised customer experiences. We’re calling this shift the age of individualisation.

Through surveys of business leaders and consumers alike, we gained valuable insights into how brands are leveraging AI to enhance customer interactions, alongside how customers expect businesses to engage with them in 2024 and beyond. From our research results, we uncovered a number of key priorities for brands. here are three key findings.

Putting customer engagement at the forefront

It’s official: AI is redefining customer engagement. 70% of businesses say they’re already using AI to customise content and marketing, suggesting that those who haven’t yet turned to AI-powered solutions are potentially missing out.

By harnessing the power of AI, companies can gain deeper insights into customer behaviour, preferences, and needs, allowing them to adapt their offerings and communications accordingly for greater engagement. 

For example, Banking app Chime connected their AI-powered interactive voice (IVR) solution to the customer data pipeline, enabling deeper analysis of customer trends that led to a 12% increase in customer satisfaction.

Powering greater personalisation 

With 76% of businesses saying personalised customer engagement is a high or critical priority in 2024, it’s clear that greater personalisation is not just a nice-to-have; it’s now a business imperative.

By seamlessly integrating data tools and technologies with AI, businesses can improve the customer experience across multiple touchpoints, from social media interactions to customer service inquiries. Tailoring your marketing can have a significant impact on the bottom line through improving loyalty and retention rates – and can even drive new customer conversions.

Using Twilio Segment, IBM Cloud created machine learning models to recommend tailored solutions and use data to proactively reach users with 1:1 product messaging. As a result of these personalisation efforts, the Cloud team increased product adoption by 30% and revenue by 70%.

Overcoming the obstacles of AI

However, while AI presents exciting opportunities for businesses, it also comes with its own set of hurdles. 40% of businesses said finding a balance between security and customer experience will be one of their most pressing challenges in 2024, with data privacy concerns continuing to be a major issue. 

Consumers are demanding greater transparency and control over their personal information. As businesses collect and analyse vast amounts of customer data to power their AI systems, they must prioritise data privacy and security to build and maintain trust with their customers.

One way to do this is with a customer data platform (CDP). Trustpilot uses Twilio Segment – a leading CDP – to automate the collection and unification of data at scale. The CDP aligns data streams with the company’s data privacy and governance standards, enabling the Trustpilot team to proactively respect customer privacy and adhere to all relevant regulations.

Embrace AI to build better relationships with your customer

Investing in the right data and communications platforms is crucial to harnessing the full potential of AI while mitigating risks associated with data privacy. By doing so, businesses can not only deliver better engagement for their customers, but also achieve stronger results for their bottom line.

To take a deep dive into how you can leverage the power of AI, download Twilio’s 2024 State of Customer Engagement Report, where you’ll uncover actionable insights and recommendations on how to boost customer engagement.