Chatbots

Chatbots

A chatbot (also known as a talkbot, chatterbot, Bot, IM bot, interactive agent, or Artificial Conversational Entity) is a computer program or an artificial intelligence which conducts a conversation via auditory or textual methods.Such programs are often designed to convincingly simulate how a human would behave as a conversational partner, thereby passing the Turing test. Chatbots are typically used in dialog systems for various practical purposes including customer service or information acquisition. Some chatterbots use sophisticated natural language processing systems,but many simpler systems scan for keywords within the input, then pull a reply with the most matching keywords, or the most similar wording pattern,from a database.

The term "ChatterBot" was originally coined by Michael Mauldin (creator of the first Verbot, Julia) in 1994 to describe these conversational programs.Today, most chatbots are either accessed via virtual assistants such as Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa,via messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger or WeChat,or via individual organizations apps and websites.Chatbots can be classified into usage categories such as conversational commerce(e-commerce via chat),analytics, communication, customer support, design,developer tools, education, entertainment, finance, food, games, health, HR, marketing,news,personal,productivity,shopping,social,sports,travel and utilities

Examples of chatbots:

Buying shoes isn’t the only thing chatbots can be used for.Here are a couple of other examples.

• Weather bot: Get the weather whenever you ask.
• Grocery bot: Help me pick out and order groceries for the week.
• News bot:Ask it to tell you when ever something interesting happens.
• Life advice bot: I’ll tell it my problems and it helps me think of solutions.
• Personal finance bot:It helps me manage my money better.
• Scheduling bot:Get me a meeting with someone on the Messenger team at Facebook.
• A bot that’s your friend: In China there is a bot called Xiaoice,built by Microsoft, that over 20 million people talk to.

How chatbots work?

There are two types of chatbots, one functions based on a set of rules, and the other more advanced version uses machine learning.

• Chatbot that functions based on rules: This bot is very very limited. It can only respond to very specific commands. If you say the wrong thing, it doesn’t know what you mean.This bot is only as smart as it is programmed to be.

• Chatbot that functions using machine learning: This bot has an artificial brain aka artificial intelligence. You don’t have to be ridiculously specific when you are talking to it. It understands language, not just commands.This bot continuously gets smarter as it learns from conversations it has with people.

Bots are created with a purpose. A store will likely want to create a bot that helps you purchase something, where someone like Comcast might create a bot that can answer customer support questions.

Advantages of Chatbots:

• Reduced Costs – chatbots eliminate the requirement of any manpower during online interaction and are hence seen as a big advantage by companies receiving multiple queries at once. This also presents companies with the opportunity to save on costs while aligning chatbots with their goals and hence presenting customers with a particular type of interaction leading to conversion.
• 24-7 availability – Unlike humans, chatbots once installed can attend queries at any time of the day. Thus, the customer doesn’t have to wait for the company executive to help them. This also lets companies keep an eye on the traffic during the non-working hours and reach out to them later. On the other hand, while hiring people, there would be no access to these potential customers and could lead to loss of business.
• Learning and Updating – AI-based chatbots are capable of learning from interactions and updating themselves on their own. This is a big benefit when it comes to investing time in educating the executives about the same. Due to machine learning and algorithms capable of updating themselves, the need for same is eliminated while using a Chatbot.
• Multiple Customer Handling – Humans have a limit to the number of clients they can handle at once. However, with chatbots, there is no such constraint and they can handle as many queries as required at once. This is a major benefit of using chatbots as no customer stays unattended and everyone’s problem is being resolved. Developers are trying to come up with new features which can work on voice assisted services and help in guided sales. However, this is still expected to take some time, but will be a major breakthrough in the Chatbot and AI industry.

Disadvantages of Chatbot:

• Complex Interface – Chatbots are often seen to be complicated and require a lot of time to understand user’s requirement. It is also the poor processing which is not able to filter results in time that can annoy people.
• Inability to Understand – Due to fixed programs, chatbots can be stuck if an unsaved query is presented in front of them. This can lead to customer dissatisfaction and result in loss. It is also the multiple messaging that can be taxing for users and deteriorate the overall experience on the website.
• Time-Consuming – Chatbots are installed with the motive to speed-up the response and improve customer interaction. However, due to limited data-availability and time required for self-updating, this process appears more time-taking and expensive. Therefore, in place of attending several customers at a time, chatbots appear confused about how to communicate with people.
• Increased Installation Cost – Chatbots are useful programs that help you save a lot of manpower by ensuring the all-time availability and serving to several clients at once. But unlike humans, every chatbot needs to be programmed differently for a new business which increases the initial installation cost. This also increases the time needed to prepare for the program and plan everything effectively. Considering the last-minute changes that can always happen, this is a risky investment as updating the program will invite added costs to it.
• Zero decision-making – Chatbots are known for being infamous because of their inability to make decisions. A similar situation has landed big companies like Microsoft etc. in trouble when their chatbot went on making a racist rant. Therefore, it is critical to ensure proper programing of your chatbot to prevent any such incident which can hamper your brand.
• Poor Memory – Chatbots are not able to memorize the past conversation which forces the user to type the same thing again & again. This can be cumbersome for the customer and annoy them because of the effort required. Thus, it is important to be careful while designing chatbots and make sure that the program is able to comprehend user queries and respond accordingly.