Background: A chatbot is a computer programme that simulates and processes human conversation (either written or spoken), allowing humans to interact with digital devices as if they were communicating with a real person. In his previous article, Sandeep Raut explored the difference between traditional and digital marketing. In this article he explores how chatbot is a game changing technology.

Our lives have changed for the better due to the digital tsunami—it started with the internet in 1995, then in 2004 social media stormed the world with Facebook, then came iPhone in 2007 and the whole world changed. Every mobile company started making smartphones for easy user interaction.

Today’s game changer is chatbot.

Chatbots, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, can learn our habits, understands our tastes and preferences and can be much more pleasant than a sequence of scroll, taps, and clicks to complete an action.

A bot is nothing more than a computer programme that automates certain tasks, typically by chatting with a user through a conversational interface with the help of natural language processing (NLP). You don’t have to scroll through thousands of products on the website, just order to a bot and it will take care of delivering it.

Also read: Say it with bots

Informational and Response bots

There are two types of bots making inroads—informational bots and response bots. Information bots are like subscribing to a breaking news or weather alerts based on your reading habits while response bots respond to a user requested problems. These bots should know everything about the customer they are communicating with to resolve issues.

Chatbots, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, can learn our habits, understands our tastes and preferences and can be much more pleasant than a sequence of scroll, taps, and clicks to get to where the customer wants to go to complete an action. Imagine how easy it is by chatbot to order pizza, book a ticket, complain about a defect of the product you just purchased than calling a customer service, waiting for IVR choices and spend more time just listening to music or waiting for a customer representative.

Voice interface for chatbots

Many companies are considering voice interface to ease out interaction and save the effort of typing texts. Users converse with chatbots just like they do with family and friends. Instead of asking your customers to visit the website and ask to find what they want or call the customer service, it is much quicker and easier to get direct answers via chatbot. With digital assistants like Apple Siri, Google Home, Amazon Alexa voice has become an integral part of the interaction.

Use of chatbots in different industries 

The travel industry has plenty of areas where chatbots can help to take the burden off the staff, and also enhance the experience for customers. Everything from booking hotel rooms and flights to renting a car or providing assistance during a trip could be successfully handled by a chatbot.

Chatbots in healthcare are helping patients with common treatments by asking simple question and answers about symptoms. Customer service is the most common area where chatbots are used today.

Advantages of chatbots

• They can be multilingual far more easily than humans
• Can be available 24/7 without any extra money to be paid
• Anyone can interact regardless of device or channel or browser
• Faster adaption by users
• Ability to access data instantly as compared to humans

As natural language processing (NLP) is constantly undergoing breakthroughs, chatbots will be able to interact with humans more seamlessly.

Also read: How can SMEs adopt digital transformation?

Image source: shutterstock.com

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