We know artificial intelligence can come up with beer recipes, as evidenced in a story that ran last week about Findlay Brewing Company, which used ChatGPT to make a beer as an experiment.
READ MORE: Can AI Formulate Your Beer Better? Findlay Brewing Gave It a Shot
But what about using it for more banal purposes, such as having it interact with customers who are looking for simple information? Such technology is fairly prevalent as anyone who has interacted with the “chat FAQ” feature on websites belonging to large retailers has observed.
Haley Jean Marie, who manages marketing for Von Ebert Brewing, said she thought it was “interesting” to see the increasing popularity of AI across the digital marketing landscape.
While such technology has its place, she said businesses choosing to utilize it needed to walk a fine line.
“While it’s impressive and time-saving, we believe there is an important balance to strike with automated responses or AI chatbots,” Marie said. “We want everyone’s experience with our brand to feel authentic and personal.”
READ MORE: How Direct Texting Could Push Consumer Interaction
Sara Gottleib, Marketing Manager for Bale Breaker Brewing Company, said the Yakima, Washington Company was simply not receiving messages at a level that it made sense for the company to try using a chatbot.
Even if it did, they’re still not sure they’d want to dispense with the human touch that an actual person can provide, she noted.
“We value the personal touch of our social media coordinator responding much more than the ease of use for us of having a chatbot,” Gottleib said. “We do utilize an auto-response on Facebook messages, since so many of those messages are just questions about our hours, but try to always respond with a personal message after the Facebook auto-response goes out.”
Charmayne Malloy said Honolulu Beerworks said the brewery wasn’t using the technology, but could see using it for generic questions.
“Like, what are your hours, or are you open on Easter … those kinds of questions,” she said.
That’s basically how Von Ebert Brewing is using the technology, Marie noted.
“We do utilize some automated responses to let customers who send a message know we see their message, and will get back to them soon,” she said. “As of now, that is the extent of our AI communication, because our team prioritizes responding to our customers personally. We will see how AI evolves in the future.”
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