LivePerson's State of Customer Conversations
2024 report reveals clear divide between business leaders and their
customers on topics of AI adoption, enthusiasm, and
education
With only 50% of consumers feeling positive
about using AI to interact with brands,
survey data uncovers how to improve digital engagement to bridge
the gap
NEW
YORK, Jan. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/
-- LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN), the global leader in enterprise
conversations, released the results of its State of Customer
Conversations 2024 report today. The annual report surveyed
thousands of business leaders and consumers across the world about
artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and chatbots.
Among the report's key findings is that a significant divide —
or "AI Gap" — is emerging between business leaders and consumers
regarding adoption, enthusiasm, and education around AI. While
organizations of all kinds are doubling down on AI and automation,
the average consumer lacks clarity regarding how AI can be used to
make their lives easier and more convenient.
Data from the report shows that business leaders have a lot of
work to do to close the AI Gap — and ensure their investments in
artificial intelligence pay off with customers:
- While 91% of business leaders feel positive about using AI to
engage with customers, only 50% of consumers say the same.
- The AI hype is fading — 62% of consumers felt positive about
engaging with AI last year, before the generative AI boom and
backlash took off.
- When given the choice between interacting with a human or an AI
chatbot to take care of common tasks, business leaders overestimate
the percentage of consumers who say they'd choose bots for each
task by an average of 19%.
- Business leaders are much more familiar with and educated about
AI, with 92% saying they're learning to work with AI to do their
jobs better, versus just 36% of consumers.
This split between business leaders and their customers is
emerging at the same time that brands have reached a tipping point
for AI-powered customer engagement, with just over half of business
leaders reporting they're now prioritizing messaging with AI over
traditional customer service channels like phone (55%), email
(51%), and ticketing systems (54%).
"We're at a pivotal moment: brands are all-in when it comes to
AI, but their customers have yet to experience the true benefits of
this much-hyped technology," said John
Sabino, LivePerson's CEO. "As business leaders transition
from today's costly, frustrating call centers to the digital-first,
AI-powered contact centers of the future, they must prove the value
of AI to their customers now — or risk turning them against the
very tech they're investing in so heavily."
While the AI Gap poses challenges for businesses today,
consumers report they do anticipate benefits from AI over the long
term, with 2 out of every 3 saying they expect how they work with
businesses to improve over the next five years thanks to AI.
In addition to the divide between business leaders and their
customers, the conversational AI trends report also found AI
gaps between different age groups, with especially wide differences
of opinion emerging between Gen Z and senior citizens.
- 64% of 18-24 year olds say they're more comfortable using AI to
engage with businesses compared to last year, but only 36% of
people aged 65+ agree.
- When asked if their loyalty to a company increases if they can
communicate with AI for faster service, 80% of Gen Z said yes — as
opposed to only 34% of seniors.
- 84% of Gen Z prefer to buy from companies whose AI limits bias,
compared to just 57% of seniors. They are also much more interested
in AI that predicts what they want (64% vs. 40%) and recommends
gifts for others (68% vs. 36%).
- Every age group thinks AI will help improve how they engage
with businesses over time, but Gen Z sees it coming quicker (72%
say this will happen within the next year, while seniors think it
will take 5 years or longer).
"With consumer expectations running longer than those of
business leaders, brands that put together engaging, helpful
AI-powered experiences 'ahead of schedule' will have a leg up over
their competitors," said Nirali
Amin, SVP, Global Solutions and Success at LivePerson. "They
can do this by using AI to better understand what their customers
are saying, empower their agents, save everyone time by speeding up
resolutions on the channels customers prefer, and analyze data from
all of the above to continuously improve."
According to the survey data, the general consumer population is
more likely to purchase from a company if its AI experiences have
the following traits:
- 73%: supervised and managed by human agents that they can
transfer to as needed
- 68%: limits bias to create more equal experiences for
everyone
- 62%: takes direction to complete purchases
- 53%: predicts what kinds of products and services they
want
To learn more about LivePerson's solutions for enterprise
conversations, visit liveperson.com. To access the full State of
Customer Conversations 2024 report, click here.
About the State of Customer Conversations 2024
report
In November 2023,
LivePerson commissioned a PureSpectrum online survey of 1,505
consumers ages 18 and up, as well as 504 executives at companies
with more than 500 employees.
The consumer audience was based across the US, UK, and
Australia. The executive audience
was composed of US business leaders who recommend, purchase,
implement, or sign off on customer service and marketing
technologies. Approximately 50% of this audience was at the C-suite
level (including CEOs, CIOs, COOs, CMOs), with the remainder
including vice president, director, and manager-level roles.
The goal of this research was to understand the attitudes of
consumers toward customer engagement, digital experiences,
chatbots, and AI, as well as the attitudes and plans of customer
experience leaders across the enterprise. The results are
summarized in the report.
About LivePerson, Inc.
LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN)
is the global leader in enterprise conversations. Hundreds of the
world's leading brands — including HSBC, Chipotle, and Virgin Media
— use our award-winning Conversational Cloud platform to connect
with millions of consumers. We power nearly a billion
conversational interactions every month, providing a uniquely rich
data set and safety tools to unlock the power of Conversational AI
for better business outcomes. Fast Company named us the #1 Most
Innovative AI Company in the world. To talk with us or our AI,
please visit liveperson.com.
Media Contact:
Mike Tague
mtague@liveperson.com
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SOURCE LivePerson