An A.I. companion goes beyond the usual ChatGPT–style assistive functions and instead is meant to function as something like an imaginary friend made manifest. See Replika for an example of this.
The Five Most-Key Takeaways from This Blog Post
- A.I. companions could represent for business owners an opportunity to capitalize on the personalization and customizability of companions and import it into customer-service and branding contexts.
- As augmented reality and virtual reality is bringing us away from staring at external screens, and instead putting on tech-ified lenses to put a digital-world filter on reality, these companions will be even more valuable to business owners.
- Imagine, for instance, that you are sitting at home scrolling through a fashion brand’s latest seasonal selections. Perhaps the fashion brand offers users the opportunity to custom-make their own A.I. companion who serves as a digital shopping partner attuned to their tastes. This could certainly help lead to more online purchases.
- A.I. companions are effective partly because many of them are visualized, even if just with a profile picture. Some, however, are whole-bodied digital companions, though the ones at Replika are cartoonish, probably deliberately, kind of in the style of The Sims, if you are familiar with that.
- Looking forward, as the world becomes gradually accustomed to the presence of A.I. in daily lives, we will likely see quantum leaps in the quality and effectiveness of A.I. companions, perhaps with deepfake-level realism where it looks like a real human being rather than an animation.
The Significance for Business Owners
If you have been using commercial A.I. products on a regular basis, then you know how user-directed so much of the A.I. is.
The A.I. is, in many senses, selfless.
That, of course, makes it a dream for customer-service interactions, as it can tirelessly offer customers information about this or that product.
But what makes A.I. companions special is that these are not the disembodied ChatGPT–style chatbots where you just get text or other media on a screen, or a voice if you are using the voice-chat option.
Visually embodying a chatbot is, as stated, already a phenomenon, but for business owners there are opportunities here beyond even customer service.
For instance, using an A.I. companion as like a personal assistant for brainstorming business ideas and getting personal feedback and insights.
A.I. Companions and Business Applications
Right now, it seems like most customer-facing conversational A.I. for business owners is of the IBM Watson variety.
These are the kind where customers have a constrained conversation about products and services with one of the disembodied kinds of A.I. Sometimes these might be one of those obviously fake posing-as-a-human customer-service chatbots that pop up in a corner of a company’s website.
The next frontier could be the A.I. companions that present options for real-time voice and even video chat. Looking further ahead, VR and AR chat are other things that could make online shopping and business-searching more immersive than ever.
From virtual tours of stores and event spaces, to detailed rundown of a restaurant’s du-jour specials, there is truly a lot that an A.I. companion could come in handy for.
The overarching appeal to business owners, of course, is to use A.I. companions to make digital interactions with the business feel more personal and immersive. This can help make stronger branding impressions overall than simply looking at a web page’s list of, say, soup specials.
The Last (But Not Least) Key Takeaway from This Blog Post
A.I. companions are an emerging technology, but point the way toward a possible future where personalized visually embodied chatbots are a regular sight across businesses’ websites.
For all of us, this means that shopping online will only get more immersive, and possibly much more effective at leading us to purchases, as A.I. companions could serve as excellent tireless servile sales reps.
Other Great GO AI Blog Posts
GO AI the blog offers a combination of information about, analysis of, and editorializing on A.I. technologies of interest to business owners, with especial focus on the impact this tech will have on commerce as a whole.
On a usual week, there are multiple GO AI blog posts going out. Here are some notable recent articles:
- For Businesses and Other Organizations, What Makes a Successful Chatbot?
- IBM Watson vs. ChatGPT vs. Gemini: How Will Each Affect Search Engines?
- Using A.I. to Find Resources for Business Owners
- How Would Restricting Open-Source A.I. Affect Business Owners?
- The EU’s A.I. Act Has Become Law: The Implications for Business Owners (Especially American)
In addition to our GO AI blog, we also have a blog that offers important updates in the world of search engine optimization (SEO), with blog posts like “Google Ends Its Plan to End Third-Party Cookies”.
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