Versailles’ initiative isn’t just about improving visitor engagement; rather, it’s proof that conversational AI can make any knowledge base infinitely more valuable.

If conversational AI can provide this level of immersive educational value via centuries-old sculptures, think about what it can do for modern businesses—e.g., it could transform how companies train customers to use medical devices, or educate users about financial products, or guide employees through complex processes. Imagine a pharmaceutical sales rep being able to ask the large language model (LLM) a series of questions about drug interactions and dosing protocols, or a patient with a new medical device being able to get instant guidance on proper usage and when to contact their doctor, or a manufacturing technician being able to get real-time guidance on equipment calibration and troubleshooting procedures directly from the machinery itself.

The financial value is created by expediting how we learn and absorb information—for example, by crafting a customer experience that goes deeper than just basic self-service questions when promoting products or services—resulting in hours of contact labor costs saved. An example of this is Amazon’s conversational AI shopping companion, Rufus, the company’s go-to AI resource for answering product questions, providing product recommendations, comparing options and summarizing reviews.

The financial impact of Rufus is something that companies should take note of when evaluating AI educational tools and how they can both enhance the customer experience and serve as a revenue driver. According to a report by Business Insider after obtaining an internal document, Amazon anticipates that its AI-powered shopping assistant, Rufus, will indirectly add over $700 million to its operating profit this year, and is expected to contribute $1.2 billion in Days Sales in Inventory (DSI) profits by 2027.

As for the $80 billion in contact center labor costs that Gartner projects companies can save by utilizing conversational AI, capturing that value isn’t just about cutting costs; it’s also about creating entirely new ways for customers to engage and for employees to improve their expertise.

As ScheinerInc. discussed previously, “Conversational commerce refers to the use of messaging apps, chatbots and voice assistants to interact with customers and facilitate purchases. AI enhances this by enabling natural language processing, personalized recommendations and 24/7 availability, creating a more seamless shopping experience.”

Yet, while we continue to debate—and rightly so—how and where AI will replace human interactions, the real opportunity is using AI to stimulate our curiosity in ways we’ve never seen before. When we adopt a curiosity-driven mindset, it allows us to depart from traditional learning paths and empowers us to explore uncharted territory.

Think back for a second to the days when encyclopedias served as our go-to resource for learning. Then came the internet and the ability to search for and learn about anything. We’re now at a new inflection point that’s reimagining how we learn by challenging assumptions and opening new pathways to knowledge. Just as Google transformed how we search for information, conversational AI is transforming how we interact with it by turning every question into an opportunity for deeper engagement.

For businesses, customer queries can potentially turn learning into unrealized profit centers. This data proves that this approach works. “Deloitte research shows that companies embracing continuous learning are 46% more likely to be first to market, experience 37% higher productivity, and are 92% more likely to innovate.” Companies that embrace curiosity-driven learning will have more innovative, engaged employees who think so far outside the box, that they deliver unexpected results.

Meanwhile, your customers get a new way to engage with your brand. The question isn’t whether this technology will transform how we learn; rather, it’s whether your organization will capture the profit potential and customer loyalty before your competitors do.

The future of business learning won’t be built on PowerPoint presentations. As the next generation of employees and customers embrace AI the same way previous generations embraced the internet, conversational AI becomes essential for personalized, adaptive learning. These tools integrate gamification and simulations, allowing users to customize how they learn, such as asking for step-by-step instructions or explanations at a public school reading level.

Hyro, a leading healthcare conversational AI provider, helped a large non-profit health system achieve remarkable results:

With manufacturers losing up to $260,000 per hour of downtime while still relying on paper documentation, smarter information retrieval is critical. Makula’s AI Copilot gives technicians instant access to machine data, maintenance records and repair instructions in response to simple questions, turning tribal knowledge into accessible expertise. Outcomes include:

These examples demonstrate that when you make expertise conversational, you transform confusion into clarity, education becomes a competitive advantage and customers go from being frustrated to being loyal.

The answer lies in what Versailles got right from the get-go. In an interview from the same New York Times story, Versailles president Christophe Leribault said that he believed that the OpenAI feature was a reliable educational aid, stating that “The public has a curiosity that we need to respond to, and anticipate. What visitors get from the AI experience is not a gadget, but an informed tool co-designed with our specialist teams, which is artistically sound and doesn’t say things that are meaningless.”

Not only did he want a reliable educational aid, but the AI app needed to respond to visitors’ basic questions and anticipate unconventional ones, such as the authors pigeon toilet break question. More importantly, it doesn’t misrepresent the visitor’s experience and always provides some value.

This ties back to always starting with a strategy. I’m a strong believer in being as proactive as possible by asking the right strategic questions that will help improve your probability of success. For example, what business pain points are weighing on the organization and its employees? Or how can we close customer service gaps that will drive retention and customer lifetime value?

Simply put, what is the experience we are looking to deliver and solve for, and what are the desired outcomes? Not to oversimplify this by any means, but I’ve broken down several areas to consider as you begin to strategize your approach to conversational AI.

Here are the key questions every organization should ask: