Smarter customer services arrive in Asia

On 24th January 2018, China-headquartered Sharing Economy revealed that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Inspirit Studio, has entered into a cooperation agreement with Asiabots, to partner in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and O2O delivery services.

Intelligent customer service​

Asiabots is creating AI and machine learning business solutions for Asia-based businesses as retailers and consumer products companies, private companies and government organisations are now turning to chatbots to connect with their target consumer base and existing customers.

The Asia region is responding to the marketing and customer service trend that sees chatbot engines enable businesses to provide live, personal customer service support through a chat robot.

Chatbots are able to identify interaction and “intelligently respond to customer inquiries by mimicking human conversation”​, Sharing Economy announced in a recent press release.

E-commerce in China​

The use of chatbots to revolutionise the e-commerce environment for beauty brands​ was highlighted at in-cosmetics Asia 2017.

Following the event, CDA reported how Prantik Mazumdar from Happy Marketing revealed that chatbots are best used through social media messaging apps such as Facebook messenger, WeChat, WhatsApp and Line. By investing in AI and machine learning, it enables beauty brands “to be part of the conversation”​, Mazumdar highlighted.

In CDA's series of articles on e-commerce in China,​ we identified how global intelligence agency, Mintel, reported that China’s online retail market space is expected to grow to 1.3 tn Chinese yuan (€133.7 bn) by 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15%. 

With consumers having access to “limitless choices and flexibility”,​ demand is particularly high in China, especially as “the expectation among consumers for constant technological change”.​

Mirroring human behaviour​

An innovation in technology and marketing methods, chatbots use natural language processing (NLP) to identify the user’s interest and purpose for visiting the site. As AI and machine learning evolves and becomes more sophisticated, it is also able to learn more about its users and consequently, provide personalisation.

This presents a significant opportunity for beauty brands as it creates credibility through encouraging trust and loyalty. As a result, brands can grow market share and differentiate themselves from the competition.

The future: teamwork fuels rapid technology​

"By working with Asiabots, we plan to implement smart delivery, a revolutionary model that perfectly integrates AI and O2O delivery services, and pioneer the Asia market,"​ explained Kurt Tam, CEO of Inspirit Studio.

Asiabots plans to help bring brands into the age of the intelligent app by simplifying the ordering and service experience. To fuel the advancement of machine learning and AI, the duo is focusing on achieving advanced integration and building smart, secure, trusted and convenient solutions that epitomise what customer service should look like.

Using the SEII platform, "the SEII group continues to seek advanced technology partners to develop sharing economy solutions that make the experience of sharing and renting more convenient to our users,"​ expressed Parkson Yip, COO of SEII.

"In addition to the effort we have put into our blockchain core transaction engine, the Sharing Blocks, we have also been exploring different methods to apply artificial intelligence technology to make our sharing apps more helpful.”​

Commenting on the benefits of partnering up with Asiabots, Yip continued: “Joining together with experienced A.I. developers like Asiabots will strengthen our technical development in A.I. and machine learning.”  ​

Talking about the next stage of development, Yip concluded: “We plan to further expand the use of A.I. in other platforms of the group, such as our workspace sharing businesses."​