How To Leverage AI To Boost Customer Engagement In 2025

In this guide, we will discuss different techniques when using AI to understand and predict customer behavior, automate responses, and make experiences more personal. We will also explore AI-driven customer engagement solutions to ensure you engage with your visitors at the right moment to boost your engagement, enhance customer satisfaction, and build stronger loyalty.

1. Build AI Chatbots For 24/7 Support

62% of customers prefer using an AI chatbot rather than waiting for a human agent. The reason is simple: AI chatbots provide instant responses, while a human agent may take 15 minutes or more to reply.

Chatbots create more natural and context-aware conversations using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning. NLP is the branch of AI that allows chatbots to:

• Detect the emotion behind a user’s message
• Understand the user’s intent, even if the phrasing is incomplete or informal
• Understand and interpret the human language (synonyms, slang, context, and even typos)

Machine learning, on the other hand, focuses more on improving customer interactions. It helps chatbots to learn and remember the context of each conversation. This will help them provide more relevant answers and handle follow-up questions.

Chatbots can handle customer service operations, sales, and lead generation. So, your first step is to identify which purpose you want to train them. Once you do, you can define how AI chatbots can serve your business objectives and set goals. Here are the steps you should follow to deploy an AI chatbot:

👉 Step 1: Outline AI Chatbot’s Functions

To make sure your chatbot meets customer expectations and needs effectively, brainstorm with your team and find the answer to these questions:

• How will AI chatbots help our customers?
• What are our customers’ major issues that AI chatbots can help solve?

You can specify the functionalities you want your chatbot to perform from the answers. Here’s a quick breakdown of key chatbot functions to give you an idea:

👉 Step 2: Select An AI Platform

As standard, pick an AI platform that best suits your business needs and budget. You should also consider your team’s technical skills.

If your team isn’t very technical, pick a platform that doesn’t require coding. But if they have technical expertise, select a more advanced platform. It offers much deeper customization and better integration.

Here’s a comparison table of popular AI platforms, highlighting their unique strengths.

👉 Step 3: Develop The Conversational Flow

Understanding your user’s needs and intent is the best way to make your chatbot interactions feel natural, engaging, and useful. For instance, if your chatbot is for a headhunter agency, it should cover typical needs and goals of job seekers and employers, such as:

• Job search
• Job matching
• Interview preparation
• Application assistance

Once you understand their needs and intents, map customer journeys. Find out the common journeys your customers take while interacting with your chatbot. Are they asking questions, looking for recommendations, or needing general assistance? The answers will help you write responses that guide users to achieve their goals and pick the right content type to use.

To understand which content type to create, here are the popular types you may choose from. I’ve used the above-mentioned intents to give you a clear picture.

As for content creation, keep your content short, clear, and on-point. This helps the chatbot get better access to relevant information they can share with users to give them more helpful and actionable responses.

Remember to add clear calls to action (CTA) like ‘Click here’ or ‘Can I help you with anything else?’ This keeps the conversation engaging and prevents the customers from getting lost in the dialogue.

2. Combine AI & Human Agents

Hybrid chatbots are a growing trend, which means you can set it up so that more complex concerns are escalated to a human operator so users can get the help they really need.

Here’s how it works:

It starts with using AI to filter and handle general customer inquiries. But if the questions get too complex, AI can hand it over to a human agent.

You can program it with escalation triggers. These triggers serve as the rules that guide chatbots in deciding when a human intervention is needed. Here are a few common escalation triggers you can use:

• Customer request for a human agent
• Query requires a complex, detailed, or specialized response
• AI provides multiple solutions but still fails to resolve the issue
• Chatbot’s training doesn’t cover a specific language or functionality
• Customer brings a serious issue (ex. security concern or billing dispute)
• AI detects negative sentiments, such as anger, dissatisfaction, or frustration

Another crucial step in building a hybrid chatbot is making sure the AI platform integrates with your back-end systems (ex. CRM, databases, or ERPs). This lets your chatbot send customer data and previous conversation history to the human agent so the customer will never repeat themselves.

3. Use Predictive Analytics For Proactive Engagement

Data is the biggest asset of businesses today. The more data you collect and analyze, the better you create personalized and meaningful interactions with your customers. Analytics and machine learning can help you get the insights you need.

Analytics track down customer behaviors, trends, and website interactions. While machine learning algorithms analyze customer data to identify patterns and make accurate predictions. Predictive analytics (ex. H2O.ai and TIBCO Spotfire) is one tool that uses both of these technologies to forecast future trends and outcomes.

Let’s say you own a property rental company. Predictive analytics can help you send targeted ads or promotions based on their booking history. So if your past booking data shows that customers in a specific demographic often book a villa in Tuscany during summer, you should provide similar offerings a few months before peak season to keep them engaged.

Here are other ways predictive analytics shape your marketing approach:

3.1. Personalize Customer Experience

Predictive analytics help you anticipate customer needs and wants. It tracks and analyzes customers’ past behaviors, and uses these insights to tailor your content, products or services, and marketing campaigns.

Let’s say your target customers rented villas in Tuscany with a pool and scenic views in the past 2 years. Predictive analytics will use these data to recommend similar amenities and services. So, when they visit your site again or read their email, all they can see are your suggested villas in Tuscany with a private pool and breathtaking views. This will make your customers feel special and likely to engage more with your brand.

3.2 Churn Prediction To Improve Customer Retention

As the name implies, churn prediction detects if a customer might stop buying your product/service or not return at all. Here’s how machine learning often works to measure the number of customers at risk of leaving.

Rekindle their interest using re-engagement campaigns. It’s a series of marketing campaigns that contain a combination of incentives and fresh content. This will remind your customers of what they are missing.

Re-engagement campaigns take many forms, it can be:

• Email campaigns
• Targeted advertising
• Social media outreach

Core Factors To Consider When Creating A Re-Engagement Campaign

Making the process easy is always the top priority. When sending them re-engagement campaigns, make sure the links will lead straight to the dedicated landing page. Here are other practices you should follow when creating an effective re-engagement campaigns:

• Analyze customer data to improve your engagement and responses
• Group your customers based on their activity level, interests, or purchase history
• Create engaging, catchy subject lines (email), taglines (ads), and messages (social media)
• Provide a sense of urgency to encourage them to act sooner (ex. Only available for the next 36 hours)
• Pick the incentives that align with their previous transactions or interactions (ex. discount, free shipping, or exclusive access)
• Reach out on various channels (ex. send email series, SMS notifications for follow-ups, or display retargeting ads for website visitors)
• Send them a friendly reminder of their positive past experiences (ex. We remember your stay in Chianti luxury villa), then include upgrade options

4. Embrace Interactive Shopping Experiences For eCommerce

Consumers, particularly millennials, prefer online shopping. That’s why businesses use AI to make online shopping more convenient, fun, and personal. It develops functions and features to ensure it will make online shopping feel more like an in-store experience.

The most popular AI feature for eCommerce is Augmented Reality (AR) try-ons. It’s a virtual fitting room, which means you can see how clothes, makeup, and other products look on you before you buy them. One excellent example is the Neonail manicure app by Cosmo Group.

Neonail uses AR and machine learning to provide a natural and lifelike 3D effect of colored nails into your fingernail. Just place your one hand in front of your phone camera, and you can start exploring the nail polishes they offer. It’s also designed under proper lighting conditions with no reflections to ensure you’ll see quality results.

Here are other popular features that make shopping experiences exciting and interactive:

AI doesn’t just help shoppers find and explore what they want; it also streamlines the eCommerce process and reduces operational costs. One excellent example to cite is AI for managing returns. It analyzes return patterns so that it can predict which products are more likely to be returned. From this insight, you can strategize solutions to minimize returns.

5. Offer Useful & Relevant Content

Content plays a huge part in keeping your target audience engaged and encouraging them to return. That’s why 73% of marketers make content marketing a key part of their overall strategy.

As a rule of thumb, your content should always prioritize value and relevance. The more useful and relevant your content is, the more your audience will come back to see future updates.

When creating content, you should have a strong understanding of your prospects. Find out their demographics, interests, and current challenges they are facing. Then, use AI to track competitor content, and monitor industry trends, and social media discussions.

Here are other proven ways to create an engaging content:

5.1 Apply Storytelling Techniques

Storytelling creates emotional connections with your audience. Most businesses describe a relatable problem or situation in their content to easily pique their prospects’ interest. Since the problem they describe is the prospect’s reality, it will make them feel seen and understood.

Prime Time Window Cleaning provides a compelling example of using this approach. Their service page taps the common frustrations that resonate most with their prospects. Here’s what they write for their residential window washing service:

‘Are you tired of looking at dirty window panes, but don’t have the time or ability to properly clean your home’s windows?’

From the prospect’s perspective, Prime Time Window Cleaning is an empathetic business that truly understands its pain points. So, they will be more likely to trust the business and avail of the window cleaning service they offer, thinking that’s the solution they need.

5.2 Show Commitment To Secure Customer Trust

Building and maintaining customer trust is something you must work hard to earn. One excellent way to do that is to communicate your dedication to quality, professionalism, and trustworthiness on your About Us page.

Sharing the company’s humble beginning is how Fortune Restoration captivates its prospect’s heart. They start with an opening line “It was back in 1979, while Robert, Tom, and Peter were in college…” Many relate to this because, at one point in everyone’s life, we start our careers from the ground up. The brothers show they are no exception. They followed it with:

• Strong connection to their local community
• Founders’ entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic
• Company’s growth and success, which include building a strong credibility

5.3 Provide Educational Content For Long-Term Value

People search online to learn something new. So, it would be best to always mix your content with educational content.

How-to guides’ simplicity is what attracts the audience the most. Since it provides clear and actionable instructions, the reader will believe that they can solve their problem just by following it. This is exactly what the CEO of Real Estate Skills, Alex Martinez, delivers in his blog.

Through his how-to guides and advanced strategy tutorials, he helps beginners and advanced investors improve their skills. Want to start wholesaling real estate in Texas? You will get everything you need to have a successful start. Their how-to guides also include web training sign-up forms and videos to help you get started.

Wholesaling Real Estate in Texas: Michael’s Pro Wholesaler VIP Review!

Here are the popular content types you can create, including the best place to display them and a real-life example.

6. Be Consistent

After creating your content and marketing campaigns, identify the best times for engagement. Let’s say your target audience spends the most time at TikTok. AI can track your audience’s activities and determine the specific time they are most active. You can also check the latest statistics to determine the best time to post.

These time slots are not a one-size-fits-all strategy. So, feel free to experiment to determine which one works best for you. When you finalize your schedule, stick to it. If your audience knows when to expect your new content, they are more likely to look forward to it.

Conclusion

Some still wonder if AI customer engagement is an excellent opportunity or a threat. Everything has its pros and cons, but when you use it thoughtfully, AI is a powerful ally to build stronger customer relationships and meet their evolving expectations.

Embracing AI also doesn’t mean you are replacing the human element of your operation. You are just using the technology to create a more responsive, fulfilling experience for your customers.

Are you ready to start enhancing customer engagement? Explore Smartsupp AI solutions and see what they can do to help you create memorable experiences.