Artificial intelligence may still seem distant, a technology of the future, but in truth it is already among us !

Chatbots, increasingly present on websites, are driven by AI (at least in part). They are integrated and gradually become a full member of the customer relationship team. They are changing the way we look at the workplace today.

Accenture predicts that by 2035, artificial intelligence will “double economic growth rates in 12 developed countries and increase labour productivity by 40%”. All around us, technologies such as Siri, Alexa and Google Home integrate conversations in natural language.

So why can’t this happen in your workplace? A company chatbot can improve search and provide a whole new way for employees to interact with company data. Brands, for the most part, experiment and refine their first robots. If you don’t have a concrete plan, the idea of setting up a chatbot can be daunting and uncertain.

Let’s take stock and try to understand the use cases, benefits and challenges of bots.

Chatbots as coworkers

Today, chatbots are able to perform relatively simple and high-volume tasks. By having the bot manage the tasks rather than an employee, companies can improve the bot’s productivity and customer experience processes.

Examples of tasks that digital assistants could manage include:

  • Order execution (status, cancellations, return instructions, tracking numbers),
  • Basic tasks such as booking conference rooms,
  • Automated customer support/ responses.

When the ChatBot does not work

Remember that chatbots generally cannot handle a large amount of intentions (hundreds or thousands), and they are more effective when used for simple requests. Therefore, while chatbots can be deployed for many use cases, you should always determine if a business chatbot is convenient for what you intend to do.

Here are a few cases where the chatbot is not the right tool:

  • Situations where the language is free or varies widely,
  • User requests that can cover a wide range of possibilities,
  • Applications and queries such as home search sites,
  • Online dating platforms or the next book to read.

Building a chatbot

In general, an enterprise chatbot architecture must support seamless integration between your business data in different systems, search engines, TAL algorithms. And, in some cases, voice recognition, to provide answers or perform tasks.

Among the chatbot technologies available today, Amazon Lambda is a solid platform with which to start a project. There are many more, including ChatterBot and IBM Watson (our partner). These chatbot services can be securely connected to your enterprise systems via APIs.

With AI transforming all aspects of life and business, it’s important to keep track of how chatbots can add value to your business operations. The future will probably bring exciting advances in technology that will translate into better capabilities and functionality.

 

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