How AI can enhance customer service

Apr 26, 2024

[[read-time]] min read

Miguel de Andrés-Clavera

Group Product Manager, Google PI

Shinji Okuyama

Vice President, Google Japan

Virtual assistants pinch a conversational beingness person been shown to summation spot — and result besides engagement — compared to purely text-based chatbots. Virtual agents tin supply much personalized and authentic customer work for automated experiences, whether arsenic virtual influencers aliases personalized shopping assistants.

The maturation of virtual assistants successful Asia-Pacific

The marketplace for these virtual assistants successful Asia-Pacific is projected to grow astatine a complaint of 51.3% successful 2030, driven by nan steadily expanding number of smartphone and net users. Asia’s fame pinch online gaming besides presents nan opportunity for group to usage this exertion to interact and definitive themselves during gametime. They tin besides coming a imaginative solution to societal challenges — for instance, supporting Japan's quickly aging organization by enhancing nan value of life for nan elderly.

According to caller information from nan Japanese government, 40% of nan country's organization is expected to scope property 65 and supra by 2050. This, coupled pinch its accent connected omotenashi — a unsocial conception of utmost hospitality focused connected anticipating needs — makes Japan an perfect spot for testing virtual agents. While existent exertion limits virtual agents' expertise to present existent omotenashi, their 24/7 readiness offers a compelling solution to reside nan shrinking workforce and expanding request for aged assistance.

Creating a conversational virtual adjunct pinch KDDI

During nan Google Cloud Next arena successful April this year, nan Google Partner Innovation squad demonstrated our virtual supplier exertion done a business pinch 1 of Japan’s starring telcos, KDDI.

In nan demo, a customer engages pinch Metako — a virtual customer support supplier — via a messaging interface. Seeking assistance astir an out-of-stock notification received aft purchase, they inquire Metako for help.

Metako is an incredibly adjuvant virtual agent, but to make Metako genuinely interactive, we employed a caller instrumentality learning exemplary for audio-driven facial animation. This exemplary translates sound input into pre-defined facial expressions for illustration “left oculus brow lift,” “mouth smile” that tin beryllium mixed together to power facial and articulator movements — ensuring Metako's expressions sync pinch her speech.

The adjacent measurement was deepening intelligence. We gave Metako a knowledge guidelines and nan expertise to understand conversational travel by utilizing Gemini 1.0 Pro, allowing for much meaningful interactions. With Metako, we tin spot nan unthinkable imaginable of next-generation virtual agents.

Future opportunities

With nan elasticity of AI, there’s ample opportunities to create customer assistance platforms for illustration Metako and accommodate them to immoderate industry. As we deliberation and scheme for nan future, virtual supplier customer experiences tin heighten nan measurement we live, work, and interact. With nan powerfulness of AI and by embracing evolving technologies, Japan could lead nan measurement successful shaping a much connected, inclusive, and adjuvant society.