It’s 2 at night. Daren is sipping his 5th coffee and answering his tenth call. He is known for his patience, but this holiday season is testing it like never before. The last call he had was about a customer receiving the wrong delivery. But he couldn’t solve the issue because of the frustration.
Is this similar kind of scenario your customer support agent faces when piled with loads of complaints? Then there is good news for you. It’s called AI chat bot. Being available 24X7 they can solve and address the queries of your customers any number of times.
But then the question arises. Are they better than human agents and will they take over human jobs?
Let’s find out in this blog.
Intelligent Virtual Agent: Introduction
AI is a hot topic of discussion today. And with Open AI about to launch ChatGPT 5 the hype is going to increase even further. One business division that has been taken over by AI in the last couple of years is customer support.
Whether it’s shopping from your favorite website or complaining about the wrong grocery you received, you may have encountered the AI powered chatbots or virtual assistant. In fact, as per a study in 2023, 92% people agreed that their trust in AI has increased in last 12 months. This has motivated many companies to integrate AI into their business. This integration has also led to improvement in their customer experience. In fact, Vandebron, a green energy company, scaled their customer support by 150% without increasing their team through virtual assistant.
Will Intelligent Virtual Assistant Replace Humans?
The answer is it depends. On what?
Let’s find out with an example.
Suppose you received the wrong pair of shoes when you ordered online. Now you go to customer support on the website and register a complaint. While registering the complaint you interact with a chatbot and answer all the questions it asks while explaining your problem. Now you get an automated reply about getting the resolution in 24 hours.
But due to some seasons the company can’t provide the resolution withing given time frame.
Now imagine if you talk to a robot again. It gives you an auto generated response of again waiting for 24 hours. How frustrating the experience will be for you. In fact you may never shop from that website again.
But if you get a response from the human agent, he explains the problem to you, requesting you to give some time with assurance. This interaction with the human agent will at least give you an assurance that the company is working on your concern. This is where a human agent is irreplaceable.
AI is always available but not with the emotions of a human. So, for routine questions like where’s my order, return, etc. AI can replace human.
But for more specific questions that need human intelligence and emotion humans are irreplaceable.
Therefore, AI will not replace humans completely but will speed up their ability to perform the tasks. This will be helpful for human agents. Because customer support agent is one of the top 10 most stressful jobs in the world. With AI agents will be able to focus on more important issues.
The Current Role of Virtual Agents in Customer Support
Understanding Customer Better
Customers interact with a business in many possible ways. Whether it’s through email, calls, social media etc. AI can analyze this information and discover pattern in their way of communication.
They can understand how they will react in certain scenarios, what kind of resolution will work better and how to respond to solve their query. This will help human support agents to solve their concern better and faster.
24×7 Availability
Remember how frustrated Daven was due back-to-back calls on holiday season. But what if we add AI chatbot to that scenario? With AI chatbot, he only must face important and specific queries. This will lead to better resolution of customer queries and less frustration.
Thus, AI can handle customer requests any time of the day and solve basic questions like how to change password, how to create an account etc. without human intervention. And for other important queries AI can inform human agents, and they can solve the query once they are available.
Multilingual Support
ChatGPT 4 can understand and talk in 50+ languages. So, even if your support agent doesn’t understand specific language, they can help the customer with the help of the AI chatbot.
Uber has recently launched a similar chatbot powered by Open AI for their drivers. The chatbot helps their EV drivers with EV related questions in any language of their choice. For example, they can find nearby battery stations without opening any search engine.
Routing Customer to Right Agent
AI can find problem of customer and connect them with the respective agent. The agent can then solve the query faster.
For example, bank has different departments like loan, credit card, savings account etc. So now, if a customer wants to cancel their last credit card transaction AI will identify keyword credit card and connect the customer with credit department. Banks like ICICI are already doing the same.
The Future of AI in Customer Support
Predictive Analysis
Imagine solving any customer query before they come to you complaining about the same. Seems impossible? But with AI it’s possible.
Let’s understand with an example. Imagine you sell software and some of your users face a problem with one of the features. If you have AI integrated, it can identify these patterns and inform you about the same. It can also share instant tool tips to your users so that they don’t get stuck.
Personalized Support Based on Customer Groups
Ecommerce businesses deal with many customer queries. AI can form groups of similar types of customers and identify the common problem they face. For example, certain groups of customers often need support regarding returns. AI can identify this pattern, and that ecommerce business can make return easier for the customer group by offering them guidance in prior.
Example of AI in Customer Support
Sephora
Sephora is a global beauty retailer. They sell skincare, makeup and other beauty products. Using AI, their virtual agent allows customers to virtually try makeup like lipstick, foundation and more such products. This helps their buyers to select the right shade of any product leading to reach their ecommerce sales $3 billion from $580 million.
Salesforce
Salesforce has AI assistant Einstein which makes their customer support better. It analyzes past customer interactions and predicts future needs based on patterns. For instance, if you are getting more queries on any specific day constantly it will identify this pattern and suggest scheduling more agents during peak hours. Moreover, it will also handle simple questions like what the business hours are or how to change passwords so your sales executive can focus on more important questions.
Walmart
Walmart has made their mark in the ecommerce sector as well using virtual assistant in 3 ways. First through voice and text shopping where you can add products by speaking to the assistant directly. Second through chatbots where AI helps customers in solving questions in multiple languages. This helped them increase customer satisfaction by 38%. And last is through Ask Sam AI that helps customer find items, check prices, access store maps and more.
How Intelligent Virtual Agents Can Help Customer Support Executives
Letting Agents Focus on What Really Matters
AI takes care of all the repetitive, straightforward tasks, so agents get to spend more time on conversations that need a human touch—ones that require empathy, creativity, and a bit of finesse. This setup is a win-win: customers get more satisfying help, and agents find more purpose in their work.
New Roles & Skills: Career Growth with a Twist
As AI becomes a bigger part of customer support, it opens some cool new roles for agents. Instead of just handling tickets, agents can now step into roles like “conversation designer” (think of it as writing scripts for chatbots) or “automation production owner” (managing and fine-tuning how AI tools work). It’s an upgrade that brings fresh skills and new growth opportunities.
Breaking Down Language Barriers
Thanks to AI’s multilingual capabilities, agents can now chat with customers from all over the world. This is huge for companies working on a global scale, and it means agents aren’t limited by language barriers. AI jumps in to help with translations, making agents more effective and boosting the company’s reach.
Lightening the Load When It Gets Busy
AI really shines during those crazy busy seasons—like holidays—when questions pour in nonstop. Instead of agents scrambling to keep up, AI steps in, answering simple questions and handling routine stuff. This lets agents breathe easier and focus on the trickier issues that need their expertise.
More Meaningful Work for Agents = Happier Customers
With AI tackling the mundane, agents are free to dive into the tasks that bring them real job satisfaction, like solving complex problems and building customer relationships. It’s a game-changer for morale and productivity, which also leads to happier customers and higher satisfaction scores.
Ending Notes on Intelligent Virtual Agents Replacing Humans in Customer Support
AI isn’t here to replace customer support agents; it’s here to make their lives easier and their roles more fulfilling. By managing the repetitive stuff, AI gives agents more freedom to do what they’re best at, while also opening new career paths and bridging language gaps. In the end, it’s all about creating better experiences—for both customers and the agents helping them.