Users of the Walmart app are able to access Sparky, a conversational A.I. platform that recommends products and answers questions. Walmart also recently partnered with OpenAI so people can buy Walmart products from within ChatGPT with its Instant Checkout feature. Business owners should familiarize themselves with Sparky, as it provides a high-profile example of conversational A.I. in e-commerce.
The Five Most-Key Takeaways from This Blog Post
- Chatbots for major retailers are becoming a regular thing.
- Something that is impressive about Sparky is that it is capable of answering general questions like “what is the difference between an overshirt and a jacket?” by providing detailed answers.
- The recommendations are also solidly detailed, showing more than just the product itself but even having text descriptions. This can be quite useful for selling to customers, as you feel like you are being adequately informed about the recommended products.
- However, the one thing that may frustrate consumers about retail chatbots is that these are usually reticent to rank products, instead being more evenhanded. By design, these A.I. shopping assistants seem to avoid steering you away from any particular product, instead making a range of available products all look like viable options.
- Business owners should check out Sparky for an example of a chatty chatbot that is engaging to use and can readily work through conversations you would expect customers to have with it.
The Significance for Business Owners
Sparky is a solid example for business owners looking to find inspiration for a chatbot of their own. However, it also has some issues that business owners should also take into consideration.
Formatting Responses Is a Big Deal, Actually
Part of what makes Sparky engaging is that the formatting in responses, which may seem subtle but can actually be incredibly important.
Bolded words and bullet-point lists are in many of the responses, which tend to run on the longer side.
These formatting quirks make the responses seem less like an info dump and more like a reasoned-through response. Business owners should consider the visual power of responses.
Too-Long Responses Bury the Products
Sparky’s detailed responses come with a downside: seeing the subtly sales-pitchy product descriptions before seeing the carousel of products with prices.
Were the carousel the first thing in the responses, with the text below if the price and picture of a particular product catches the user’s interest, then Sparky would be a lot more effective.
That’s because having a block of text first feels like an undue inversion of online shopping as we know it, where you get the price and picture and then read the product description.
Sparky’s “Personality” Feels Just-Fine
Sparky’s responses have an even-keeled tone that manage to not feel affectless nor overly affected. It sort of feels just right, at least for the writer of this blog post.
Even the messages with exclamation points do not feel overly imitation-chipper.
For some users, the chatbot may feel more “flat”, but others may appreciate the low-key feeling of it.
Sparky’s Smiley Icon Says a Lot
Many large companies tend to play it safe with chatbots by giving the chatbot an inhuman name along with either no associated “character” image, or a character image that is nonhuman and even unwordly.
The Target Gift Finder A.I. has a mouse with earmuffs as its representative image (mascot?).
One of those yellow cartoon smiley faces is the associated image or “face” of Sparky, a name that brings to mind a dog, which in turn brings to mind smiling servility.
Consider these visual personifcation of these chatbots in tandem with the somewhat flat affect of these chatbots and you will discern a clear effort to make the chatbots feel not too human.
A lesson for business owners is to not lean into personifying the chatbot too much. One possible reason to avoid this is that if the chatbot sounds awkward or hallucinates, then the nonhuman “personality” and icon will feel well-suited to the chatbotty responses.
In a way, the nonhuman design of these chatbots can be like a safeguard against customers feeling that the chatbot is off-putting or awkward. If you feel like no attempt is made to actually replicate human conversation, then that relieves pressure of trying to make chatbots seem humanlike.
In other words, embrace the chatbottiness of chatbots.
The Last (But Not Least) Key Takeaway from This Blog Post
Business owners, especially those in retail, need to consider the potential of chatbots that function like conversational search rather than mere fascimilies of customer service. Conversational search can be a better way to lead to conversions.
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”.
GO Deeper on Substack!
If you want to get a bigger-picture view on where A.I. is and is headed, then check out our Substack to learn about emerging and dominant themes in the A.I. industry that affect all kinds of businesses!
