What Are Chatbots? Basically, What Are Chatbots? Basically, a chatbot is a computer program that emulates either spoken or written human language for the purposes of simulated conversation or interaction. There are basically two main ways chatbots are available to users: via online applications and stand-alone applications. The former is used by common internet users, whereas the latter is used by businesses in an effort to enhance productivity and save time.
Why are chatbots becoming so popular? Well, chatbots provide the perfect solution for businesses who are looking to improve their productivity and increase their customer service. As opposed to more traditional business techniques like call centre management or live chat support, which can be both time-consuming and frustrating, chatbots offer more immediate results and a more streamlined customer experience. These chat-booth systems usually allow a business to enjoy faster response times, higher productivity, and better customer service thanks to properly implemented speech recognition technology and state-of-the-art messaging apps.
But how do chatbots work exactly? In short, chatbot technology uses artificial intelligence and the latest Web technologies, including webcam and text message automation, to deliver personalized services and responses from live agents. These chatbots are actually a chat assistant or virtual assistant, which is an application that runs on chat hosts and/or servers.
How do chatbots work? Chatbots work with voice recognition technology to detect keywords and inflection marks, as well as specific word frequencies and sentence structure. This enables chatbots to understand not only single words but also whole conversations. For instance, if your customer is asking for a product you offer, the chatbot will suggest several choices and prompt you to choose one from them. Once you pick out the best one, the bot continues to suggest similar products to your customer and so on.
What are the advantages of chatbots? We can foresee many new uses for chatbots in the coming years. Among the possible applications include general purpose voice interfaces, virtual customer support agents, automated sales representatives, automated webinars, human transcription services, in-person customer services, live customer care, as well as many others. Apart from these, chatbots will also likely impact education and training systems significantly.
The main weakness of chatbots is their artificial intelligence. Though chatbots can do many tasks like detecting spelling errors and grammar mistakes, these programs will never be able to beat a real live person in a personal conversation. However, there are methods to artificially train chatbots to appear and behave more like humans. This will improve chatbot performance considerably. For instance, artificial intelligence will be improved if the chatbot was programmed to respond to certain commands such as “call customer service” or “send a product order.”
Will we see chatbots in stores anytime soon? Unfortunately, it’s unlikely. The first self-driving autonomous cars were introduced to the public in 2010. It’s not too far away that the first chatbots will appear in stores. Chatbots won’t replace actual human employees, but they may make customer interaction with these artificially intelligent chatbots more convenient and enjoyable.
There have been some concerns regarding artificial intelligence, specifically when it comes to the safety of chatbots. Although it’s still early days, the concerns are purely philosophical. To prevent problems, chatbots need to be taught basic conversation etiquette. Right now, researchers are trying to teach chatbots to understand basic conversation etiquette such as proper grammar and sentence structure. Once artificial intelligence is built that will allow true conversational interaction, chatbots will no longer be limited to answering simple questions; however, this technology is far from full potential.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks