Alex is an experienced CTO and founder who largely focuses on all the technical areas of My AskAI, from AI Engineering, Technical Product Management and overall Platform Development.
AI is revolutionizing just about every industry, including customer support, today. More and more businesses are adopting artificial intelligence to boost their engagement and provide more accurate help to their clients. And it’s time you consider integrating an effective AI customer support platform into your business, too.
In this guide, we’ll discuss how exactly AI helps in customer support, along with the best platforms you can find in 2024.
What Is AI Customer Support?
AI customer support offers automated, intelligent, and personalized support experiences 24/7. Unlike traditional customer support teams, they’re AI-powered, utilizing chatbots, virtual assistants, and natural language processing to answer customer queries.
Tools that leverage AI can also initiate automated and smart conversations based on customer behavior. Additionally, they’re more efficient in handling basic tasks and providing instant answers.
Benefits of AI in Customer Support
So, how exactly does AI help in customer support?
AI chatbots can handle the bulk of common inquiries, deflecting calls and emails from human agents. They can also provide support around the clock, improving accessibility.
Unlike human teams, AI can handle large volumes of inquiries efficiently, ensuring consistent service even at peak times. In turn, your team members are freed from routine tasks and can focus on more complex interactions.
Best AI Customer Support Solutions
Here are the five best customer support solutions taking an AI-first approach that you can consider.
1. Zendesk
Zendesk offers a comprehensive suite of customer support tools, including its flagship helpdesk software. It has a user-friendly interface but needs some technical knowledge for its more advanced features, such as setting up rule-based automation.
API access enables you to build custom integrations. Zendesk also supports popular platforms like Slack, Salesforce, and Google Analytics.
Features
Zendesk AI, powered by OpenAI, which makes your customer interactions smoother
Answer Bot, a chatbot that automatically generates recommendations for your clients
Intelligent triage, an AI feature that helps determine the intent, sentiment, and language of a support ticket submitted by a customer
Benefits
Better ticket prioritization due to intelligent triage
Predictions related to the overall experience and satisfaction of customers
Hands-off approach with AI chatbots
Improved ticket routing
2. Intercom
Intercom positions itself as a conversational customer relationship platform with a focus on customer support tools. It’s primarily designed for non-technical users, as evident with its easy-to-use chatbots and messaging features.
It offers drag-and-drop tools to simplify creating in-app guidance and product tours. Intercom also allows you to utilize ready-made templates for chatbots, messages, and in-app guides—minimizing upfront work.
Intercom offers omnichannel support (whether on WhatsApp, Messenger, or other sites) and integrates well with tools like Google Analytics and Salesforce.
Features
AI-powered shared inboxthat makes it easy for teams to manage the bulk of your support volume
Fin, an AI-powered chatbot that helps customers resolve on their own without the intervention of another human
In-context automated prompts, which are much like in-app tutorials
Benefits
Accurate and verifiable answers linked to your business’s knowledge base
The shared inbox feature allows for comprehensive monitoring of support tickets
Customizable responses can be set
3. Drift
If you’re looking for an AI-powered platform that allows you to communicate with your customers in real-time, Drift might be a great option. It has a focus on lead generation with AI at the frontline before human agents take over.
Drift is intuitive to use and offers pre-built bot templates. Customizing your chatbots is also straightforward with its drag-and-drop tools. It integrates well with CRM tools like HubSpot and Salesform, as well as with marketing tools like Marketo and Pardot.
Features
AI-powered chatbots
Meeting schedulers for proper lead management
AI engagement scoring to determine customer intent insights
Video messaging support
Benefits
Helps in improving lead generation KPIs
Personalized customer interactions
Self-service customer options thanks to AI
Streamlined meeting schedules for better sales processes
Reporting and analytics
4. Tidio
Tidio is a versatile customer support platform offering chatbots, live chat, email ticketing, and knowledge base integration. It’s primarily intended for small and medium-sized businesses, making it very user-friendly.
Tidio helps reduce setup time with offers of ready-made chatbot greetings and templates. It also connects with Shopify, WordPress, Zapier, and other related platforms. If you have a dedicated developer team, you can also use its API to create custom integrations. It also offers options to customize your bot for branding.
Features
Lyro, a chatbot powered by conversational AI that can respond to your customers’ queries
TheSmart Viewsfeature, which helps categorize requests according to intent and sentiment
Canned responses for quicker replies to frequently asked questions
Reply Assistantfeature for branding-wise better responses
Benefits
Frees up human agents with Lyro handling the bulk of customer inquiries
Personalized responses for the customer using NLP and Tidio’s AI Phrase Matcher feature
Automatic categorization of requests using Smart Views
5. Netomi
Netomi is focused on conversational AI, offering cloud-based intelligent chatbots for channels like email, messaging, web chat, and voice. One of its main offers is extensive integration with other customer support tools like LivePerson and Zendesk Chat.
Building and managing chatbots with Netomi is quite easy, thanks to its no-code tools and pre-built templates. You can also use its intuitive dashboard to visualize key metrics and manage agent interactions. Netomi also provides training materials, tutorials, and a knowledge base to support users of all levels.
Features
Multi-lingual support
Auto-pilot mode for hands-off responses and co-pilot mode for AI-powered assistance to human agents
Performance analytics dashboard
Benefits
Timely optimizations to AI performance with real-time analytics
Wider reach with multiple languages supported
Flexible live agent option
AI Customer Support Solutions
Customer Support involves a huge scope, and customer support is only one particular area focusing on providing technical help to your clients. If you’re looking for a specialized AI customer support solution, here are two of the best choices on the market.
My AskAI
My AskAIspecializes in applying the power of conversational AI in building robust customer support chatbots. It allows you to create custom bots that carry your branding, and you can easily add them to your website.
The best thing about My AskAI is its incredible ease of use—for both the user and the developer. You can add it to your website with just one line of code, requiring little technical knowledge.
Features
Integrates with Slack, Teams, Zendesk, and more
Robust documentation
AI summary provided during human handover
Email notifications for new actionable AI-generated insights
Benefits
Freeing up your human agents by deflecting 75% of all basic customer inquiries
Affordable pricing model
Actionable insights are automatically generated from chatbot interactions
You can add self-service options to reduce wait times
Verifiable AI answers with links to your knowledge base
LivePerson
LivePerson is another well-established platform in the AI customer support space. In addition to offering customer help, it provides tools for proactive customer engagement for payments and appointments.
It can deeply integrate with existing CRMs, helpdesks, and other marketing platforms with its robust API. It also offers pre-built connectors with Zendesk, Facebook Messenger, and Salesforce.
Features
Multi-channel support, including traditional messaging options
Self-service customer options for faster resolutions
Voice AI and generative AI options
Benefits
Wider reach due to multiple channels supported
Seamless transitions between AI and human agents
Proactive engagement with customers
Detailed analytics gathered and turned into insights by AI
Conclusion
AI offers a range of benefits for customer support, from improved efficiency and cost reduction to personalized experiences and valuable data insights. While it can’t replace humans in the field of support yet, it can greatly assist you. Start creating yourAI customer support chatbotwith My AskAI today.
Alex is an experienced CTO and founder who largely focuses on all the technical areas of My AskAI, from AI Engineering, Technical Product Management and overall Platform Development.