Conversational AI Takes Hold of Customer Engagements in APAC

New Infobip report aims to provide insights into the current landscape of Asia Pacific companies seeking AI-powered conversational AI tools

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Global cloud communications platform Infobip has launched a new report featuring research insights by leading analyst firm IDC. The Infobip eBook titled "Driving Meaningful Customer Engagement with Conversational AI" highlights the growing importance of unified conversational solutions powered by conversational AI, especially within the Asia Pacific region.

Customer expectations have changed in today's digital information era. They expect authenticity and more personalized attention from brands. Yet many organizations have little to no capabilities to deliver unique experiences. The IDC Future of Customer Experience Survey 2023 revealed that 37% of organizations in China do not have the capability to maintain customer context across the customer journey and channels. This figure is higher in Malaysia (40%), Indonesia (60%) and India (60%).

The same survey also reports that more brands are prioritizing interacting with their customers to establish superior customer experiences through increased allocations for corporate budgets towards improving customer experience (CX). Customer satisfaction and trust are the top investment areas for businesses in Malaysia (87%) and China (58%), while customer service and support are the main priorities for Indonesia (97%) and India (83%) businesses.

Everyday Conversations Powered by AI

The industry shift towards better CX is not unexpected. In the past, customers would have to wait for an available service agent to respond to their queries. Today, APAC businesses are empowering customers to find answers, request services, and complete transactions independently through the help of omnichannel communication solutions powered by conversational AI.

By providing instant replies to common customer queries via conversational AI chatbots, businesses can accelerate time to first resolution and make customers feel more appreciated.  Conversational AI chatbots' functionalities now go beyond automatic simple replies – they provide a variety of useful features including automated data collection, promotional activities, and even purchase process guidance.

"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," said Lavanya Jindal, Senior Research Analyst, Asia/Pacific Customer Experience and Value Streams, IDC Asia/Pacific.

Messaging Apps on The Rise

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 telcos are swiftly establishing their brand presence on popular platforms like WhatsApp and Viber, ensuring their services are readily available where their customers are most active. According to Infobip's latest messaging trends report, there was 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.

WhatsApp continues to dominate globally with more than 2.8 billion active users. But cultural preferences, local language, and integration have seen other messaging platforms gaining popularity in certain regions, such as LINE in Taiwan and Thailand, KakaoTalk in South Korea, and Zalo in Vietnam. In some countries, a messaging platform can claim market dominance due to its significant user bases, such as WeChat boasting 1.3 billion active users – almost all based in China.

"In today's AI-driven landscape, CPaaS empowers businesses to easily orchestrate customer engagement across the entire journey, driving efficiency and maximizing value. It's about doing more with less, reducing costs, and enhancing operational effectiveness, all while prioritizing long-term customer relationships", said Velid Begovic, VP Revenue at Infobip.

APAC is Investing in Conversational AI

The IDC Business Value Engineering 2023 Survey revealed that about 39% of businesses in the APAC region consider conversational AI to be a critically important investment priority in the next two years. The primary business motivators for investing in AI-powered apps for improving CX are mainly to improve customer success, loyalty, and advocacy, as well as products/services that reflect customer's needs.

Chatbots are one of the top 2 areas that APAC businesses are planning to integrate GenAI, according to IDC's Future Enterprise Resiliency & Spending Survey Wave 1, January 2024. Conversational AI chatbots today 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.

"Conversational AI has gained significant momentum in recent years. To truly excel, it must be properly integrated across the technology stack alongside the human elements throughout the customer journey. Infobip stands ready to support businesses on this transformative journey," commented Begovic.

To learn more about how conversational AI is reshaping customer experiences in the APAC region, download the report here: https://bit.ly/44UjRXE.

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About Infobip

Infobip is a global cloud communications platform that enables businesses to build connected experiences across all stages of the customer journey. Accessed through a single platform, Infobip's omnichannel engagement, identity, user authentication and contact centre solutions help businesses and partners overcome the complexity of consumer communications to grow business and increase loyalty. With over a decade of industry experience, Infobip has expanded to 70+ offices globally. It offers natively built technology with the capacity to reach over seven billion mobile devices and 'things' in 6 continents connected to over 9,700+ connections of which 800+ are direct operator connections. Infobip was established in 2006 and is led by its co-founders, CEO Silvio Kutić, Roberto Kutić and Izabel Jelenić.

Recent award wins include:

• Infobip named to Fast Company's Annual List of the World's Most Innovative Companies (March 2024)
• Infobip ranked as number one Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) provider, in the inaugural MetriRank CPaaS Report from Metrigy (Dec 2023)
• Omdia Ranks Infobip as Leader for the second year running in its CPaaS Universe Report (Nov 2023)
• Infobip named a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) 2023 (Sept 2023)
• Infobip named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) 2023 Vendor Assessment (May 2023)
• Infobip named a leader in the CPaaS Leaderboard, Juniper Research (March 2024)
• Infobip named a leader in the CCaaS Leaderboard, Juniper Research (Dec 2023)
• Infobip named a leader in the Juniper Customer Data Platform Leaderboard Report (July 2023)

SOURCE Infobip