INNOVATION LABS
Sam
’ s Club Begins National Deployment of Automated Inventory Analytics Robots
Beyond a 1960s-style sci-fi creation “ When people think ' robot ' they may visualise a 1960s-style sci-fi creation , but today ’ s robots mainly come in affordable , digital forms , via things like chatbots and automated services . These may be invisible to consumers but are forging the way for a new era of customer experience ( CX ),” says James Stokes , Sales Director , UK & ROI , Infobip , a telecommunications service provider .
“ We ’ ve seen many dynamic use cases of robots in modern day retail , from Amazon introducing automated retail through their digital Amazon Fresh grocery stores and robot-powered micro-fulfilment , to a whole host of organisations investing in chatbots to provide assistance to online shoppers .
“ For some time , we ’ ve spoken of chatbots as ‘ the future ’. Yet we ’ re well past the tipping point of automated conversation as a new and emerging technology . Chatbots are now simply part of modern life , accelerated by the pandemic and an increased desire from consumers to engage with brands instantly and digitally . For businesses , this means embracing automation to greet customers at the digital front door , on a landing page website , or providing support for FAQs by making sense of what ’ s been said , understanding intent , and generating a suitable answer .
“ Integrating automation isn ’ t just novelty – it has real , tangible benefits on the bottom line by increasing availability across channels and making more efficient use of human resources . What ’ s more is that , thanks to machine learning , chatbots get smarter over time as they ’ re exposed to more conversational data , so CX should only get better as a result . All of this leads to increased customer satisfaction , which , as we enter the endemic , is what businesses need to prioritise in order to meet their customers on the right channel , with the right message at the right time ,” says Stokes . technologymagazine . com 57