ChatGPT is a thing. And from the moment it became a reality, we could say that the ‘AI genie’ left the bottle. It is not the first AI tool and not even the first AI-driven chat - Eliza was arguably the first - but it is the first globally - massively, we could say - accessible AI service/tool.
And this is a game-changer. Because it allowed people from all over the world to use an AI chat for the first time and to do whatever they wanted with it.
From asking ChatGPT to write an entire homework assignment for a middle-schooler to creating translations and localizations with context - which is the most valuable thing - of content for business worldwide, ChatGPT has proven to be an incredible tool.
Being - at least for the time being - its only weak spots, its incapacity to self-update, and its constant ‘at capacity’ blockages. Two weaknesses that have prevented ChatGPT from becoming even more impactful.
But out of those two initial problems, one can be easily fixed - the capacity issue - and OpenAI, the parent company behind ChatGPT, is already addressing it. Precisely increasing the capacity is the first step behind the OpenAI monetization of ChatGPT. But that’s for another story.
Now the second issue, the capacity to self-update - to learn by itself - is the real issue here, and it could break or make the potential of ChatGPT for B2B e-commerce.
Potentials of ChatGPT for B2B e-commerce
Is ChatGPT an AI or an AI tool?
ChatGPT has been branded as an AI by the mass media. But that’s not entirely true. Technically it is a language model, a machine learning exercise.
Currently, ChatGPT can’t truly learn or think by itself. And this alone rules out the possibility of it being an AI.
This is something that has been dismissed by the mass media due to the technical complexity of explaining it, and, obviously, due to the flamboyant and eye-candy component of using titles like ‘AI Chat takes the world by storm!’ I mean… what media editor wouldn’t want to title it's newspaper header or live TV news broadcast with this kind of sci-fi content?
But far from the media-infused spectacle, the reality is that ChatGPT - currently - is more an AI-driven tool than an AI. This means that it is a machine learning exercise. And not a full processing artificial neural network - keep this concept in your brain for in the near future, you will see it come to life - and it can't decide, think or learn by itself. And currently, this is a good thing.
We need a progressive integration between self-sufficient AI’s and the human users, or we might risk releasing a genie we can’t control or comprehend.
So, what can ChatGPT do? And furthermore, what can it do for B2B e-commerce? The answer is, in its current state as an AI-driven tool, a lot!
What can ChatGPT offer to B2B e-commerce?
The B2B e-commerce world can indeed benefit a lot from ChatGPT's current capabilities. Either it is used as a separate tool - accessing the OpenAI API or chat service - or as a concept to be replicated and integrated into B2B e-commerce platforms. In both cases, we can narrow down the first practical applications of ChatGPT to five main areas:
1. AI-driven searches
2. Customer care and AI content guidance
3. Training and capacitation support
4. AI-powered translations
5. FastCoding solutions for non-savvy tech support
Let’s take a look at each one, and find out what it offers B2B e-commerce!
1. AI-driven searches: The present and future of B2B
The first application of ChatGPT would be its use as an AI-driven search tool. Meaning with the power of machine learning, ChatGPT can be easily transformed into a powerful search engine that is capable of reaching a massive level of customization to better match the search criteria of each user.
In B2B e-commerce, this is a considerable competitive advantage for any company. To be able to provide your customers or will-be customers with access to a search engine that is capable of taking into consideration the context of their search intention is just amazing.
Imagine for a moment that you are a B2B crane wholesaler that’s an industry leader like Huisman Equipment and that you have a vast catalog of products, spare parts, and services that are compatible or not, among thousands of variables.
Your buyers need to know which product is compatible with which spare part, and which products benefit from which training service or maintenance service you provide.
So far, this has been done by training your sales personnel and, to an extent, by educating and training your customers. And both things take time and are prone to errors. A customer, even when knowledgeable about your catalog and its specific needs, might make a mistake while perusing hundreds of options searching for a compatible product or service.
And to top it all, keep in mind that current search engines normally provide multiple potential results for the user to pick one precisely because current search engines can’t accurately decide which is the correct answer. But ChatGPT machine learning can do it.
ChatGPT, as an AI search-driven engine, can fix this by carrying itself with the burden of reviewing each potential compatibility issue, selecting the product that better matches the request of the customer, and offering a single clean, correct response.
This saves time for customers and business and will be incredibly useful in B2B e-commerce in the near future. In fact, currently, B2B e-commerce trends aim at precisely creating AI-search-driven solutions.
2. Customer care and AI content guidance
Another critical application in B2B e-commerce for the ChatGPT concept will be its use for customer care and AI content guidance. Let’s start by the most complex of these two first, the AI content guidance.
B2B businesses usually have a high amount of technical content regarding the correct or efficient use of their products and services. This content should, ideally, be present all the time in their B2B e-commerce platforms so customers and staff alike could review it and digest it.
Still, to present this content in an easy-to-consume fashion is not a simple feat. Many companies fail to achieve this and end up creating e-books, blogs, and other materials that are non-relevant or have a minimum impact in their customer base.
ChatGPT can create, synthesize, and present in surmise forms, these massive amounts of content in a way no content creator can compete - speed wise - which means that, even companies with zero content creators - with no content marketing capabilities - can access ChatGPT tool to request it to take an entire users manual of any product and make a 10 point basic use article for a blog.
The same goes for customer care. With the power of an AI-driven chat, you can offer a 24h 7 days a week, 365 days per year, customer care service that also happens to have access to all the surmise information regarding your products and services.
And what is better than a chat service that can actually search among the potential answers to better fit a customer that is trying to navigate and comprehend how to use any given product.
3. Training and capacitation support
Derived from the previous capabilities but elevated to a whole new potential level, ChatGPT could also become a training, onboarding, and, generally speaking, capacitation tool for any B2B e-commerce service.
Now, this is something that, to be honest, still remains unreachable to ChatGPT current capacity. But, it is not a farfetched idea.
In fact, once ChatGPT has access to the internet - and has proven that it is capable of handling the collective opinions of mankind ethically, which will be short of a miracle - B2B e-commerce businesses could integrate ChatGPT as a permanent training solution both for staff or clients.
The tool could learn the content that the B2B e-commerce company want’s it to learn, and then create a training program according to the company guidelines. These programs could evolve by themselves, with ChatGPT adding constant information and feedback on the customers using the B2B company products.
It suffices to mention that this is incredibly powerful. Any B2B e-commerce using this combination of ChatGPT training capabilities alongside its machine learning from the users, could potentially develop products alongside its customers faster, more efficiently, and more accurately to the needs of their customers than ever before.
4. AI-powered translations
Localization and accurate translation - the ones that consider the context - are prime needs for B2B global brands.
If you can’t communicate natively with a market, you have a considerable disadvantage. But B2B e-commerce companies struggle, with reason, to develop full localization capabilities. The translation is not a simple task, much less when you want to convey the ideas, concepts, mission, and values of any brand to a specific market.
It is not just a matter of creating a text or video that can be comprehended by your potential customers, but rather a battle for creating content that will be immediately understood in its core context, as native information, for each market.
If you can create content that will be assimilated natively, you will also fail at positioning your brand in their minds. That’s one of the reasons why localization - more than simple translation - happens to be so vital.
Now, ChatGPT has proven capable of handling the nuisance of translation. This is amazing. And opens up a lot of potential in the near future. Having ChatGPT - or any other similar tool - as a support tool for B2B e-commerce brands to do their localization processes, reduces the cost and complexity of hiring native translators or using native translation services.
Then again, this is not a final solution - yet - as ChatGPT has no online capabilities, and henceforth it can’t update itself. This poses a major issue when dealing with cultural and language necessities: for languages are living, breathing things that are in constant evolution.
But once this is fixed and ChatGPT develops the capability to be online, well… we will see a lot of localization processes being done with this kind of tool. That 's for sure.
5. FastCoding solutions for non-savvy tech support
Finally, the fifth practical application of ChatGPT for B2B e-commerce is FastCoding. A concept that - in its current iteration - is relatively new. And it means that someone with basic or no coding knowledge will get the code for a given app, process, or routine from a tool that automatically creates a code based on the user request.
This is a powerful - yet so far imperfect - solution for B2B e-commerce, for it would allow companies to reduce the time needed to create specific apps, or to tweak a particular part of their e-commerce platform code.
Now, before you run to dismiss your entire programming division, keep in mind that ChatGPT - or any other similar tool currently in use - is not the final answer to your coding needs. Mainly because it can provide solutions for problems already solved but can’t entirely create code from scratch to fix an unknown issue… at least not so well.
Tests done with ChatGPT by programmers worldwide have proven that the tool always searches for a similar code solution when presented with a problem. And if the AI tool can’t find it, it will try to force the most similar one to make it work. A bit like any desperate programmer will do in real life.
Even so, the reality is that ChatGPT can streamline and allow anyone to access multiple potential coding solutions far faster than what is possible by manually reviewing things like Stack Overflow and other similar global repositories of programming knowledge.
Furthermore, ChatGPT solutions can be asked to be presented in code directly. This FastCoding capability, when enhanced, will be of paramount importance for B2B e-commerce and e-commerce in general.
ChatGPT: A magnificent tool for B2B e-commerce
All in all, if we understand ChatGPT as what it is - an AI-driven tool, not a full-fledged AI - it is a magnificent addition to any B2B business.
It will indeed require a human counterpart to balance it and make the most out of ChatGPT potential, but it is without question a time saver, and certainly, it could cut costs in many areas.
Yet, to be fully functional, OpenAI needs to fix the capability issue in a reliable way as well as allow ChatGPT to be online. And B2B businesses will need to train their staff to learn to use the tool for specific tasks and functions.
Finally, I want to give the floor to the subject of our article: to ChatGPT itself. Let's close this quick review on what language models and machine learning AI-driven capabilities can offer to B2B e-commerce by allowing ChatGPT to fend for itself and tell us what it can offer to the B2B world:
USER: What can you offer to B2B e-commerce?
CHATGPT: As a language model, I can offer a range of support and assistance to B2B e-commerce businesses in the following ways:
- Product recommendations: Based on a customer's purchase history, I can suggest related products that they may be interested in, thereby increasing their overall purchase value.
- Customer service support: I can provide 24/7 customer service support to help customers with any queries they may have, improving their overall experience with the business.
- Order tracking: I can provide updates on the status of orders, including estimated delivery times, shipping details, and any potential delays.
- Data analysis: I can help businesses analyze customer data and identify trends, enabling them to make informed decisions about product offerings, pricing, and marketing strategies.
- Content creation: I can help businesses create compelling product descriptions, blog posts, and other content that can engage potential customers and improve their overall experience with the business.
- Translation services: I can provide accurate and efficient translation services for businesses looking to expand their operations to other countries and markets.
Overall, as an AI language model, I can help B2B e-commerce businesses improve their operations, streamline processes, and enhance the overall customer experience, all while minimizing costs and maximizing revenue.
