Vol.:(0123456789) Discover Artificial Intelligence (2023) 3:20 | https://doi.org/10.1007/s44163-023-00065-5 1 3 Discover Artifcial Intelligence Review NLP techniques for automating responses to customer queries: a systematic review Peter Adebowale Olujimi 1  · Abejide Ade‑Ibijola 2 Received: 21 October 2022 / Accepted: 27 April 2023 © The Author(s) 2023 OPEN Abstract The demand for automated customer support approaches in customer-centric environments has increased signifcantly in the past few years. Natural Language Processing (NLP) advancement has enabled conversational AI to comprehend human language and respond to enquiries from customers automatically independent of the intervention of humans. Customers can now access prompt responses from NLP chatbots without interacting with human agents. This application has been implemented in numerous business sectors, including banking, manufacturing, education, law, and health- care, among others. This study reviewed earlier studies on automating customer queries using NLP approaches. Using a systematic review methodology, 73 articles were analysed from reputable digital resources. The evaluated result ofers an in-depth review of prior studies investigating the use of NLP techniques for automated customer service responses, including details on existing studies, benefts, and potential future study topics on the use of NLP techniques for business applications. The implications of the results were discussed and, recommendations made. Keywords NLP · Automated responses · Systematic review · Business applications · Customer queries 1 Introduction Applications of NLP have been identifed as a possible alternative to manipulate and represent complex inquiries in customer-centric industries. As technology and the human–computer interface progress, NLP usage and applications are attracting increasing attention, prompting widespread recognition and implementation in a variety of industries. NLP has found its use in the banking sector [1–3] in supply chains [4, 5] to education [6–10] within the legal space [11–13] and among medical practitioners [14, 15]. The combination of artifcial intelligence (AI) and automation is causing signifcant changes in the business world. In order to reach previously unachievable levels of efciency and quality, businesses are presently focusing their attention on developing new applications of AI and automating their work processes [16]. Several studies have shown that NLP can be used to comprehend and interpret speech or text in natural language to accomplish the desired goals [17–21]. NLP has become increasingly integrated into our daily lives over the past 10 years. For example, text classifcation prevents junk in our email inboxes, semantically, search engines have evolved beyond pattern matching and networking, integrated conversational tools ofer a standard and efcient means of gathering and exchanging information and, social networks and the Internet frequently use automatic machine translation [22]. * Peter Adebowale Olujimi, debolujimi@gmail.com; Abejide Ade-Ibijola, abejideai@uj.ac.za | 1 Department of Applied Information Systems, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, Johannesburg, Gauteng 2006, South Africa. 2 Research Group on Data, Artifcial Intelligence, and Innovations for Digital Transformation, Johannesburg Business School, University of Johannesburg, Aukland Park, Johannesburg, Gauteng 2092, South Africa.