Gartner defines conversational AI platforms (CAIPs) as SaaS products that primarily enable the development of applications simulating human conversation across multiple channels and media. CAIPs leverage composite AI, including generative AI (GenAI) and natural language technologies. Conversations can use a mix of modalities such as text, voice and visual content. To support the building of conversational applications, platforms provide extensive coding options, from pro-code to no-code. Application areas include chatbots, virtual assistants (VAs) and conversational AI (CAI) agents. CAIPs are used to create, deploy and manage AI-driven conversational interfaces. These platforms enable businesses to develop VAs and conversational AI Agents that facilitate both customer-facing and internal interactions through pro-code/low-code/no-code tools. CAIPs empower businesses to centralize and democratize the development and management of multiple, diverse CAI initiatives, leading to more cohesive and efficient operations. The blend of capabilities provided by CAIPs is distinctive compared to those offered by other CAI solutions, such as targeted extensions for CAI found in other enterprise applications (e.g., CRM systems, contact center platforms) or stand-alone GenAI-native apps. In comparison, CAIPs are a better fit for strategic and scalable enterprise-grade CAI adoption.
Gartner defines a customer service knowledge management system as a collection of technologies that enable the timely provision of accurate, contextually relevant, personalized information to an organization’s customers and customer service and support employees. The purpose of a customer service knowledge management system (CS-KMS) is to serve as a single trustworthy source of information that ensures uniform and accurate knowledge is made available to users. Organizations use these systems to improve customer service, provide timely and accurate information to customers seeking self-service support, and support internal customer service agents. CS-KMS platforms or tools are used to replace traditional knowledge bases; manage content; and power conversational AI, chatbots and AI agents. They address business problems such as inconsistent service levels and information across channels, difficulty for users or agents to find needed information, and the manual burden of keeping knowledge content updated and complete. CS-KMS platforms or tools help organizations achieve several positive outcomes. They can enhance service consistency and improve client interactions, as well as improve operational efficiency. By providing easily accessible and consistent information, these systems aim to improve quality and consistency of search results, support the efficient onboarding of new employees, and generally lead to a better customer experience (CX). AI-powered CS-KMS features enable automation, like generating knowledge articles from call interactions, and allow for more advanced applications such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to deliver context-specific answers from proprietary data.