Chat Bots? What are they and how can they help my business?
March 23rd, 2022
A chat bot is a special type of software that performs tasks and responds to queries in an intelligent manner similar to a human being. They usually come with a specific set of instructions, known as "scripts" or "commands", designed to help the chat bot respond accurately and appropriately. In many cases, these scripts may be complex enough to provide a passable conversation between humans and chat bots.
In general, the term "chat bot" refers to computer programs that simulate human-like responses through voice commands or text chats, or both. Chat bots are often integrated into dialogue systems for various practical applications such as offline help, personalized communication, or information acquisition. The term "bot" is derived from the word robot. Chat bots are generally used in dialog systems for various practical purposes including customer service or information acquisition. They are also often included in other commercial uses such as entertainment or education. As technology advances, chat bots are more frequently provided as a feature on messaging platforms, where users can interact with them without installing dedicated software.
A common type of bot is one that simulates interaction with a human through some typed medium-often adapted from artificial intelligence research or adapted by programmers to create useful functionality like basic conversational ability, responding appropriately to specific types of text input. Some of the most popular apps in the world are chatterbots, with over 20k bots found on Facebook Messenger alone. Emerging research in this area has demonstrated that adding AI to chatbots can make them more efficient and easier for users to interact with.
Chat bots are often integrated into dialogue systems for various practical applications such as offline help, personalized communication, or information acquisition. They are also often included in other commercial uses such as entertainment or education. As technology advances, chat bots are more frequently provided as a feature on messaging platforms, where users can interact with them without installing dedicated software. A common type of bot is one that simulates interaction with a human through some typed medium-often from artificial intelligence research or adapted by programmers to create useful functionality like basic conversational ability, responding appropriately to specific types of text input. Some of the most popular apps in the world are chatterbots, with over 20k bots found on Facebook Messenger alone. Emerging research in this area has demonstrated that adding AI to chatbots can make them more efficient and easier for users to interact with. A chat bot would be helpful for a business because it could interact with customers in place of a human representative. Chat bots can be used in e-commerce customer service, ticket booking, and online learning platforms. There are many applications that would be highly beneficial for chat bots including news, weather, customer care, scheduling, and more.
Chatbots are good at identifying keywords within the input provided by the user which helps them decide on what action is to be taken next. Advanced chatbots can detect various intents (goals) from the user input and take actions accordingly. These type of advanced interactions needs several components like intent classification, deep understanding, context modeling, etc. Some of these components require high computation power which may not work properly with low-end devices like mobile phones or Raspberry Pi. That's why the Cloud platform comes in which makes using chatbots more accessible.
Chat bots are built out by integrating natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, and speech recognition. They use various techniques to understand the user input and respond based on the intent of the user. These knowledge-based bots work like humans, with understanding and cognitive reasoning for their functionalities. These bots can be viewed as a user interface for any application, and they provide the chat medium to let anyone interact with them. The responses from these bots can be in form of voice, text, or other modes like chat or GUI. The more sophisticated systems rely on artificial intelligence technologies such as machine learning and deep learning to give users a more personalized experience. There are several large companies that have Chatbots such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. For example, Siri by Apple is one of the most known tools which uses NLP technology to answer users' questions. Other examples include Cortana by Microsoft, Google Assistant, and Alexa by Amazon.
Ultimately, chatbots can be used to make life easier for the user. It can connect people to the content they might not otherwise have access to or would like to see. Chatbots provide a quick and easy way for your business to engage with customers on the go. Users are likely to get responses more quickly through chatbot than through email. User frustration is reduced with less wait time while waiting for human agent replies, whether requests are handled well or not. However, businesses need to keep an eye out for potential drawbacks of having chatbots undertake customer service tasks that may impact your business's image. Customer care departments could benefit most from chatbots since these tasks normally require tedious back-and-forth communication and resolution time. Chatbots can help by taking care of those issues that customers might not feel comfortable bringing up with an agent.
Chatbots are well known as a way to interact with customers, but now developers have come up with solutions for businesses to create their own chat bot for many other organizations, such as technical support or customer service representatives. These "enterprise chatbots" function differently from consumer-facing AI chatbots in that they're made specifically for a business and aim to decrease human employees' workload by handling simple questions and requests over the chat interface. The challenge is that developing an enterprise messaging platform is expensive, time-consuming, and requires coding skills; putting together a customized bot is even more difficult. Luckily there are some solutions on the market now to make this process easier.
Chatbots are built to serve customers, but they can also provide information for your company. The bot collects real-time data and shows it to the user. This way businesses can track customer behavior and receive feedback about their products or services. With this data in hand, companies can modify their product catalogs, gather important statistics, collect consumer feedback, handle support requests at scale, offer users targeted promotions based on preferences, detect security breaches, understand industry trends etc. The main advantage of chatbots is that they offer businesses a new way to engage customers and provide them with information.
