On this episode of Conversations That Matter, we’re joined by someone who loves building at the intersection of content and AI. As a previous consultant at Drift, he built, launched, and optimized enterprise conversational experiences for companies like HPE and Adobe. Welcome to the show, Senior Conversational AI Specialist at Discover Financial Services, Nathan Bishop! Nathan joins host Randy Ksar to break down a misconception around conversational AI, share some of the challenges a conversational designer faces, and talk about the future of the industry.

Takeaways:

• One of the biggest misconceptions about AI is that there are no humans involved, and it will take our jobs. All AI, especially conversational AI, requires heavy hand holding from humans to train and maintain them.
• Conversational AI allows you to have thousands of conversations with customers a day. Each conversation provides you with valuable data insights that should not be ignored.
• Even after a conversational AI has been implemented, it is important to continuously review conversations it has with customers, and make improvements.
• When implementing conversational AI at a large financial company like Discover there are important constraints to consider. The language you use must first and foremost be legally compliant, but also align with brand standards.
• Conversational AI is still a very new field. If you are considering entering the field, you will need to teach yourself a lot. It’s likely you may be the first and only conversational AI designer at your company.
• There are a couple challenges conversational designers need to overcome. Best practices are still undefined, but need to quickly become established. Advocating for a seat at the table is key as you don’t want to be receiving content after it is finalized.
• One of the most valuable perspectives to have when designing conversational AI is to have it provide a concierge/white glove experience for your customers. If it can’t, it ultimately is just an obstacle customers need to overcome to speak to a human.

Quote of the Show:

• “You never just want to augment search with the conversational experience.” - Nathan Bishop

Shoutouts:

• Sherry Comes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherrycomes/
• Cobus Greyling: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cobusgreyling/
• Age of Invisible Machines: https://www.amazon.com/Age-Invisible-Machines-Hyperautomated-Intelligent/dp/1119899923

Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanabishop
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanabishop/
• Website: https://www.discover.com/
• Personal Site: https://www.toodle.ai/

Ways to Tune In:

• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conversations-that-matter-podcast-for-contact-center/id1525650658
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6Xx9G8w6bntQayIpbkgxc5?si=cNeVuJicSHagsftlpL8-tg
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9jb252ZXJzYXRpb25zdGhhdG1hdHRlcnBvZGNhc3QubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M