7 Best AI Tools for Actionable Customer Insights

63% of organizations say they’re already using generative AI to improve their current customer service, and that number is only increasing*.

The reason? Businesses are drowning in customer data, from social media interactions to purchase histories. This makes it increasingly difficult to extract meaningful customer insights. 

That’s where AI comes in. AI tools process customer data at unprecedented speeds, delivering real-time, actionable insights. This technology uncovers trends and customer behaviors that would be nearly impossible to detect manually, helping you better understand your customers and give them exactly what they want. 

In this article, we’ll examine how AI technology transforms the way companies leverage customer insights. For instance, to personalize experiences, refine strategies, and maintain a competitive advantage in an increasingly customer-centric market.

Key Takeaways

• AI-driven call routing boosts efficiency: AI-powered call routing ensures calls are directed to the right agent based on factors like region or product interest, reducing wait times and enhancing customer satisfaction.
  
• Data-driven customization through integration: Customizable dashboards and reports track key customer trends and KPIs, making it easier to drive strategic decisions and optimize service delivery based on actionable insights.
  
• AI trending topics for proactive insights: CloudTalk’s AI Trending Topics feature analyzes call data to identify common concerns before they become widespread. This means you can adjust customer service strategies in real time.

Our Criteria for AI Customer Insights Tools

Imagine a world where your call center agents are available around the clock and can recall every detail about every customer who’s ever interacted with your business. AI is helping to transform this dream into a reality.

Kieran Flanagan, HubSpot’s SVP of Marketing says, “In an AI world, support is live 24/7. And it probably has, over time, a better experience because an AI bot can have all of the information at once, where it’s really hard for an individual support agent to be able to have all of that information.”

To select the top AI-driven customer insights tools, we focused on several key criteria:

• Analytics and reporting: Tools that offer in-depth analysis and sophisticated reporting to uncover actionable insights.
  
• Real-time data processing: Real-time data analysis lets agents respond quickly to customer needs and market shifts.
  
• Customizability: The best tools adapt to your business, not the other way around. Customization options let you tailor features to your unique needs, allowing you to focus on metrics that directly impact your business. For instance, whether that’s sales conversion rates or customer support response times.
  
• Integration with other business tools: Seamless integration with CRMs, marketing platforms, and other tools provides a unified view of customer interactions.
  
• User-friendly interface: Intuitive tools that are easy for all team members to use, regardless of technical expertise.
  
• Task automation: AI tools that streamline workflows, reduce manual tasks, and allow your team to focus on high-priority goals. 

With this in mind, let’s get into our top picks for actionable consumer insights.

7 Best AI-Driven Customer Insights Software

With so many tools on the market competing for your business, making a decision can be overwhelming. 

We’ve laid out our top picks for the best call center tech to help you glean valuable customer insights for better business outcomes.

1. CloudTalk – Best for Customer Support and Sales Insights 

CloudTalk is an integrated AI business calling software designed to provide actionable insights for customer support and sales teams. 

Through CloudTalk’s customizable Call Flow Designer feature, you can design your unique inbound calling journey with more than 20 different routing options. This reduces wait times and improves the relevance of customer interactions. Plus, it leads to faster resolutions and more personalized service. 

Whether you’re managing inbound support calls or outbound sales campaigns, CloudTalk ensures you stay ahead in delivering personalized and efficient customer experiences. 

Key features

• Call Flow Designer: Visually map and customize call flows to ensure customers are routed to the right team or agent every time.

• Power Dialer: Assign call campaigns with custom scripts and surveys, automate manual dialing, and spend the time you save selling.

• Real-Time Dashboard: Monitor calls, agent performance, and metrics in real time, empowering teams to make on-the-spot adjustments.

• CRM Integrations: Seamlessly connect with popular CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot to access complete customer profiles during calls.

• Advanced Analytics: Dive into data-driven insights to identify trends, optimize call handling, and enhance customer satisfaction.

• Automated Call Routing: Use AI-driven automation to prioritize and route calls efficiently, minimizing wait times and frustration.

• AI Trending Topics: Analyze calls to uncover emerging trends and recurring themes before they become widespread issues.

How To Make the Most of This Tool

CloudTalk’s Caller-Based Routing lets you map how calls are routed, ensuring leads are instantly connected to the right sales rep based on criteria like region or product interest. With Real-Time Dashboards, you can monitor call performance and identify opportunities for coaching or process improvements, helping your team close deals faster.

For example, a lead from Europe would automatically connect to a regional sales rep specializing in European markets. By using Skills-Based Routing, you can shorten response times and ensure prospects receive tailored support, improving conversion rates.

Why We Like It

CloudTalk combines seamless communication with actionable insights. It doesn’t just help you handle more calls, it transforms them into opportunities for optimization and growth. CloudTalk integrates with your CRM to provide agents with a 360-degree view of customer history, ensuring personalized and meaningful interactions during calls. AI-driven automation reduces inefficiencies, while the integration capabilities provide a complete view of customer interactions. This lets you proactively address issues and improve performance.

Pricing

• Starter: $25 per user/month
• Essential: $30 per user/month
• Expert: $50 per user/month
• Custom: Contact CloudTalk to discuss a plan tailored for your business

2. Adobe Experience Cloud – Best for Optimizing Customer Touchpoints

Adobe Experience Cloud is a suite of tools designed to deliver personalized and data-driven customer experiences across every touchpoint. Built for enterprises and large organizations, it combines AI-driven analytics and marketing automation to optimize the customer experience.

Key Features

• Customer journey analytics: Gain a comprehensive view of the customer journey with data unified across channels for deeper insights.
  
• Personalization at scale: Tailor content and campaigns for individual customers using AI to create relevant and timely interactions.
  
• Real-time customer profiles: Access dynamic customer profiles that combine behavioral, demographic, and transactional data.

How to Make the Most of This Tool

Adobe Experience Cloud lets you personalize interactions throughout the customer journey. For instance, with real-time customer profiles, you can create tailored upsell campaigns for free-trial users, increasing the likelihood of converting them to paid subscribers. The AI-driven insights help identify which messaging resonates most, allowing you to refine your strategy for maximum impact.

Why We Like It 

Adobe Experience Cloud excels at bringing together datasets from various sources and turning them into actionable insights. With AI-driven features, it helps you refine every customer interaction, from the first touchpoint to post-sale engagement. It’s especially valuable for managing complex customer journeys, offering tools that analyze behavior and automate real-time actions.

Pricing

Adobe Experience Cloud offers customized pricing based on business needs and selected tools within the suite. Contact Adobe directly for a quote.

3. Google Analytics – Best for Web Traffic Insights

Google Analytics is the go-to tool for understanding website performance and visitor behavior. Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, this free, AI-powered platform reveals valuable insights, from traffic sources to user behavior, helping you make smarter decisions.

Key Features

• Traffic source tracking: See exactly how people find your site—whether it’s through search engines, social media, or direct visits.
  
• Behavior flow reports: Visualize how visitors navigate your site and pinpoint where they drop off.

How to Make the Most of This Tool

Understanding how potential customers interact with your website is critical for driving conversions. Google Analytics helps you track where visitors come from—whether through ads, organic search, or email campaigns—and identify which pages or features keep them engaged. 

For instance, if the data shows a high bounce rate on your pricing page, you can adjust the content or layout to better meet customer expectations and boost conversions.

Why We Like It 

Google Analytics is a powerful tool for understanding your website’s performance and improving engagement. By checking the traffic sources report, you can identify which marketing channels drive  the most visitors, allowing you to focus on what’s working. 

AI insights also uncover hidden trends, such as when a specific keyword starts driving more traffic, so you can capitalize on opportunities. Setting up conversion tracking allows you to measure whether visitors are completing key actions, like signing up for your newsletter or making a purchase, ensuring you’re meeting your business goals.

Pricing

Here’s the best part: Google Analytics is free! For businesses with more advanced needs, the paid Google Analytics 360 version offers additional features and support.

4. Qualtrics – Best for Customer Experience Feedback

Whether it’s surveys, product reviews, or post-purchase feedback, Qualtrics helps you decipher customer insights and use them to improve your business. It’s a great option if you want to elevate your user experience and keep a pulse on what your audience truly thinks.

Key Features

• Customizable surveys: Design engaging surveys tailored to your audience and gather feedback at scale.
  
• AI-Driven sentiment analysis: Automatically identify trends and emotions in customer responses to pinpoint areas for improvement.
  
• Omnichannel feedback collection: Capture insights from websites, emails, mobile apps, and in-store interactions.

How to Make the Most of This Tool

Qualtrics makes customer feedback actionable by helping you understand what matters most to your audience. For example, a university IT team can deploy surveys post-login to measure satisfaction with a new learning management system. Insights from Qualtrics can help identify technical pain points, leading to targeted fixes that improve the e-learning experience for all users.

Why We Like It

Instead of just collecting opinions, Qualtrics helps you understand the “why” behind them and prioritize changes that will make the biggest impact. Its omnichannel capabilities mean you’re hearing from your customers wherever they are.

Pricing

Qualtrics offers tiered pricing based on your business size and needs. 

5. Zoho Analytics – Best for Tracking Customer Trends 

Zoho Analytics empowers businesses to stay ahead by tracking customer trends and uncovering actionable insights. For example, it can analyze purchasing patterns to identify high-value customers and predict future buying behaviors. With these insights, you can refine marketing strategies, streamline inventory management, and craft personalized offers that drive engagement and maximize revenue. 

Key Features

• Advanced data visualizations: Create intuitive dashboards and reports that highlight key customer trends and metrics.
  
• Customizable dashboards: Tailor analytics dashboards to track the KPIs most relevant to your business goals.
  
• Collaborative reporting: Share insights across teams to ensure alignment on customer-focused strategies.

How to Make the Most of This Tool

Zoho Analytics helps with operational efficiency by analyzing project costs, resource allocation, and client billing data. Sales Ops managers can track KPIs like billable hours, project timelines, and customer satisfaction to optimize service delivery. The ability to drill into granular details allows for better decision-making regarding client acquisition and retention.

Why We Like It

Zoho Analytics shines in its ability to make sophisticated analytics accessible and actionable for businesses of all sizes. Its AI-driven capabilities mean you’re not just looking at data—you’re uncovering what it means for your business. The tool’s extensive integration options allow you to build a comprehensive view of your customers across multiple platforms, helping you stay on top of emerging trends and act decisively.

Pricing

Plans start at $24 per user per month for small teams. Larger teams and businesses with advanced needs can explore customized pricing for enterprise-level features. A free plan is also available for users needing basic analytics capabilities.

6. IBM Watson – Best for AI Customer Analytics

IBM Watson harnesses machine learning and natural language processing to analyze customer data, uncover patterns, and generate actionable insights. By evaluating customer sentiment in support interactions and analyzing transaction history, Watson can proactively identify potential churn risks, allowing teams to address issues before they escalate.

With Watson, you can go beyond surface-level analytics to understand consumer behavior, predict trends, and personalize experiences, making it a powerful tool for data-driven customer engagement.

Key Features

• Predictive analytics: Use machine learning to forecast customer behavior and trends, helping you stay proactive.
  
• Natural Language Processing (NLP): Analyze text-based data, such as customer feedback, to gain sentiment and intent insights.
  
• AI-powered recommendations: Personalize offers, messages, or products based on customer preferences.

How to Make the Most of This Tool

With its natural language processing (NLP) capabilities, Watson can analyze customer feedback, support tickets, and reviews, helping you better understand customer needs. 

Why We Like It

Watson’s predictive analytics and NLP set it apart by providing a deeper understanding of customer needs and preferences, enabling you to craft personalized experiences that resonate. 

Pricing

IBM Watson offers customized pricing based on your business’s needs.

7. Microsoft Power BI – Best for Customer Forecasting Insights

Microsoft Power BI is an excellent choice for businesses looking to gain actionable customer forecasting insights. For example, a retail company might turn to Power BI to anticipate seasonal demand based on historical sales data and external factors like weather patterns. Power BI’s AI capabilities, combined with a user-friendly interface and extensive data integration options, empower teams to predict trends and make proactive, data-driven decisions.

Key features

• AI-powered forecasting: Leverage machine learning to predict future customer trends, demand, and behavior.
  
• Data connectivity: Easily integrate with a wide range of data sources, including CRM, ERP, and marketing platforms, for a unified customer view.
  
• Collaboration tools: Share insights and reports across teams to ensure alignment and data-driven decision-making.

How to Make the Most of This Tool

Use AI-powered forecasting to predict customer demand, helping you optimize inventory, staffing, and resources in advance. Analyze customer trends and behaviors to forecast opportunities for cross-selling and upselling, increasing revenue. By examining customer churn patterns, Power BI allows you to forecast retention rates and proactively implement strategies to improve loyalty.

Why We Like It

Power BI stands out for its combination of AI-driven forecasting and intuitive data visualizations. With its easy-to-use interface, businesses of all sizes can harness the power of data analytics without needing deep technical expertise. 

Pricing

Microsoft Power BI offers a free version with limited features, while the Pro version starts at $9.99 per user per month. For larger organizations, the Premium version starts at $20 per user per month.

68% of Support Teams Believe AI Has Directly Influenced Customer Expectations

There’s no doubt about it—the pressure is on when it comes to delivering high-quality customer care. According to a recent Intercom survey, 68% of support teams believe AI has directly influenced customer expectations. This is especially true when it comes to key metrics like response times. Today’s consumers demand excellence, and if you’re not delivering top-tier AI-driven customer support, your competitors likely are.

Whether it’s optimizing touchpoints with Adobe Experience Cloud, forecasting trends with Microsoft Power BI, or tracking behaviors with Zoho Analytics, these tools help you make smarter, data-driven decisions. They also help you better satisfy customer expectations.

Leveraging AI gives you a glimpse inside the minds of your customers so you can better anticipate their needs and curate customer experiences you know they’ll love. With CloudTalk, you get the perfect balance of cutting-edge AI and user-friendly design, ensuring every interaction is efficient, personalized, and impactful.

Sources

• Imagining a New Era of Customer Experience With Generative AI. Capgemini, 2023.