Almost every customer support tool out there has launched some form of AI-based tech in the past year.
Within this busy landscape, it can be difficult to pick out the support AI tools that will actually make a change for your workflows and team.
So we selected five of the best AI customer service software and dug into their core use cases and what you’ll need to watch out for.
AI features that truly matter for support teams
But what is an AI tool for customer service management supposed to do?
Here’s a couple of the functionalities to keep an eye on:
- AI-powered quality assurance: You’re looking for an AI support tool that will help you rate 100% of tickets in real time, instantly detect issues, spot low customer and agent sentiments, and tell you which tickets you should review first.
- Automated ticket analysis: The right tool will let you sort tickets by sentiment and empathy, filter tickets based on criteria you’ve set, transcribe calls automatically, and create instant call summaries.
- AI-driven workforce engagement: Look for ways in which the platform lets you use AI-generated goals to motivate your team, analyze performance and identify knowledge gaps, track performance, or celebrate and reward your agents.
- Chatbots and self-service: Dedicated self-service tools will help you provide personalized support in real-time and even solve simple or common tickets without human intervention.
- Auto-generated chat replies: Some AI tools for customer support will help your agents with actual reply suggestions by identifying what a customer’s query is and tying it to existing resources or past ticket solutions.
Best AI support tools and when to use them
1. Kaizo – for automated QA, performance coaching, and workforce engagement
With Kaizo’s Samurai AI, you’ll be able to maximize the use of automated quality assurance as the system helps you quickly rate all of your tickets and pinpoint the source of negative reviews.
It’ll also analyze sentiment and empathy cues so that tickets that require special attention can be assessed automatically. Filters can then be tailored based on the specific criteria you select. Kaizo also gives you fast access to summarized data from calls, transcriptions, and dialogues with GPT Summaries.
You can also use the tool to keep your team engaged and motivated with AI-generated Missions and custom goals that rely on Kaizo’s very own game engine technology
Best use cases:
- Quality assurance
- Scorecards
- Ticket analysis
- Performance coaching
- Workforce engagement
What to watch out for:
- Kaizo is currently only available for Zendesk and Salesforce users.
2. Knowmax – for improving knowledge management
Knowmax is a knowledge management software for customer support teams that enables agents to collaborate on inquiries and access a knowledge base of responses to commonly asked questions. With the help of AI chatbots and the tool’s picture guide and knowledge base system, Knowmax is also a great solution if you want to facilitate a better self-service customer experience.
Best use cases:
- Knowledge management
- Learning management
- Virtual assistance
- Visual guide creation
What to watch out for:
- There’s no free trial so you won’t be able to test the tool beforehand. Additionally, the pricing and extra costs are not publicly displayed on the website so you can’t be sure you’re receiving a fair cost estimate.
- The Knowmax platform strictly focuses on improving knowledge management for support teams so they lack AI-powered quality assurance and agent engagement capabilities.
3. Gleap – for chatbots
Gleap is one of the best customer support AI tools that allows you to build custom chatbots or opt for their GPT-powered Kai bot that can take over part of your team’s workload. Kai can provide human-like responses to customer requests based on your existing knowledge base, FAQ content, and feature requests.
Best use cases:
- Live chat
- Knowledge base
- Support bot
- Surveys
- In-app bug reporting
What to watch out for:
- The cheaper plans only allow for data to be stored in their system for 12 months while you should aim to retain it indefinitely.
- While this AI support tool’s strong on the customer interaction side, it has no QA functionalities so you’d still have to use an automated quality assurance solution alongside Gleap.
4. Stylo – for AI assistance in multiple languages
Stylo’s Assist product is a ChatGPT-driven generative AI tool that provides agents with auto-generated responses to tickets, customizes messages around their own input, and creates summaries of lengthy or complex tickets. Stylo can also translate tickets into any language and help with automated ticket research.
Best use cases:
- Response generation
- Message translation
- Ticket scoring and prioritization
What to watch out for:
- This support AI tool strictly works with Zendesk so you can’t use it with other CRMs at this point.
- The tool’s still in the early stages so the features are very limited.
5. CallMiner – for speech analysis
CallMiner comes with a couple of products that are meant to help you improve the quality of your customer service. Their RealTime module relies on AI to monitor conversations and automatically guide agents or escalate issues. CallMiner Eureka is a conversation analytics platform that allows you to capture, analyze, and gain insights into customers’ voices through text and speech analysis.
Best use cases:
- Agent experience management
- Speech analysis
- Fraud detection
- Risk and compliance monitoring
- Quality management
What to watch out for:
- There’s no free trial and pricing isn’t transparently displayed on their website. This makes it difficult to test the tool and get a realistic cost estimate.
- Both the product’s interface and common workflows might be difficult to use for first-time users. This means CallMiner users will need prior training and advanced technical help to properly use the platform.
But, do you need all of these AI support tools?
Short answer: No.
But each tool will help you with a very specific use case. For instance, if you want to quickly reduce support team errors or time to proficiency, Knowmax is a perfect choice for improving knowledge management. However, a simple AI customer support software like Knowmax won’t help with fundamental support needs like automating quality assurance, creating scorecards, analyzing tickets, or keeping your workforce engagement.
For that, you need a more complex AI support tool that uses the latest technology to help with diverse (and changing) requirements your managers, QA rates, and agents will have.
Kaizo’s Samurai can help you handle multiple use cases like:
- Maximizing Auto QA’s capabilities and quickly rating 100% of tickets
- Identifying the source of any negative reviews without the extra effort
- Tailoring ticket filters to your specific criteria
- Leveraging data from calls, call transcriptions, and dialogues with GPT Summaries
- Inspiring and motivating your team with AI-generated Missions and individualized goals
