UAE consumers tap AI for best deals

UAE consumers want the best deals at their fingertips even before they hunt for one. The consumer wants to be informed and served instantly paving a way for a segment called 'SuperServe'. Latest research by Avaya Holdings and Davies Hickman Partners suggests that four-in-five UAE consumers expect an immediate response from the organisations and vendors they contact - part of a growing demand for 'SuperServe' customer engagement.
The two companies polled 8,000 consumers across Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, the UAE and UK, on their views on interacting with large organisations. The findings revealed a demand among consumers for 'SuperServe' organisations that go above and beyond typical levels of service to anticipate and act upon customer requests.
"SuperService is becoming a key demand among UAE consumers. We have conducted this research biennially since 2010, and this year's results show that customers will remain loyal to organisations that provide outstanding customer service, across every channel, and make communication easy," said Fadi Hani, vice-president - Middle East, Africa and Turkey, Avaya.
According to the report, 82 per cent of UAE consumers believe that large organisations should make customer contact easier, compared to a global average of 79 per cent. The report also found that UAE consumers are more demanding of SuperServe organisations, with 86 per cent wanting an immediate response from the organisations they contact. That figure is compared to the global average of 79 per cent. What's more, UAE consumers are prepared to support organisations that make interacting with them easier. 81per cent of those surveyed said that convenience is more important than price, compared to 63 per cent of consumers globally, who said the same thing.
The UAE is all set to welcome 2019 with some super consumer-centric trends, Shuja H Jashanmal, director, Jashanmal Retail & Distribution, said: "Stores will certainly move towards integrating e-commerce within traditional store formats. Customers will have access to not just the merchandise stocked by particular retailers, but to the entire e-catalog that can be viewed online within a store premises, and ordered on the spot. Stores will once again become destination places not to shop, but to hang out, compare products, check prices and deliveries options from worldwide sources, and re-post experiences onto social media sites. Retail trends will be towards experiential shopping environments where product knowledge, pricing, speed of delivery, and casual conversations with influencers will be achieved simultaneously to allow the consumer the most stimulating and holistic shopping experience ever imaginable."
The research also found that consumers in the UAE would be happy to deal with organisations that use AI and predictive analytics to improve the customer experience. Over four in five say they like it when organisations notice if they're having difficulty with a process, and 59 per cent want AI to notify them if there's a problem with a product or service. Additionally, UAE consumers expressed trust in the algorithm; 63 per cent want AI to make better recommendations about new products and services.
Ravimani Rajendran, sales consultant at Imperium Software Technologies. said: "Consumers are already beginning to see the benefits of AI. For example, contact centers today are able to use AI to recognise when, for example, a customer is facing website difficulties or have a problem with a product - this way a customer service agent can proactively assist them. AI is also being used to inform consumers on the purchases they might be most interested in - by analysing the data behind previous purchases, AI tools are proactively recommending other products that are specifically targeted at that customer."
Similarly echoing positive sentiment, Charbel Khneisser, regional presales director, METNA at Riverbed, said: "While AI hasn't yet reached an appreciable maturity, the market is undergoing a rapid transformation. We are seeing AI and machine learning being applied in many verticals and sectors, with the prominent ones among these being eCommerce and the banking sector. Organisations are trying to leverage the technology to identify customers, their preferences and even their sentiment in real-time. All this enables more efficient and intuitive authentication and an enhanced experience. So, for example in retail, companies can now track consumers' favourite items to automatically generate product suggestions, whereas in the banking sector, the same can help banks position the service that's most relevant to the consumer. Ultimately this can help boost sales and also foster brand loyalty."- sandhya@khaleejtimes.com