Automated conversational systems have now progressed, and large companies such as Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Renault and Citroën are already using them instead of call centers to provide a first point of contact. Chatbots can also be implemented via Twitter, or Windows Live Messenger. For example, the Robocoke chatbot for Coca Cola Hungary. This chatbot provides users with information about the brand Coca Cola, but he can also give users party and concert recommendations all over Hungary. These kind of chatbots are often used for marketing purposes.
Popular online portals like eBay and PayPal are also using multi lingual virtual agents to offer online support to their customers. For example, PayPal uses chatterbot Louise to handle queries in English and chatterbot Léa to handle queries in French. Developed by VirtuOz, both agents handle 400,000 conversations in a month.These agents have been functional since September 2008 on PayPal websites.
Malicious chatterbots are frequently used to fill chat rooms with spam and advertising, or to entice people into revealing personal information, such as bank account numbers. They are commonly found on Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and other instant messaging protocols. There has also been a published report of a chatterbot used in a fake personal ad on a dating service's website.
Competitions for Chatbots focus on the Turing test or more specific goals. Two such annual contests are the Loebner Prize and The Chatterbox Challenge.
Based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatbots licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
Chat Bots Use in Business
Chat bots are becoming an inevitable part of our life. People are finding more uses for them. The main purpose for them is not just entertainment anymore. They can and are being used in business, education, the gaming industry, etc.
People have always wanted to make a machine think and respond to a human as an equal, using a human language. Early results of the consistent work in this area have been promising, yet characterized by restricted vocabulary and ignorance of the real world’s complexities. However, things are changing now. Constant development of technology has resulted in the creation of several chat bots that are able to imitate human communication, in ways that was not thought to be possible earlier.
Since then, ELIZA’s time chat bots have changed a lot. Jabberwacky, A.L.I.C.E., D.U.D.E. are the names that rule the world of chat bots nowadays. While they may not engage in an entirely “human” conversation, they are good enough to delude their communication partners and pass for as human.
This ability of chat bots to conduct a limited dialogue with humans has found its ever-widening application in many areas, including today’s business.
It is not a secret that billions of calls are made yearly to customer care services of different companies. The average duration of these calls is around half a minute. Since technology is evolving the products become more complicated. Digital cameras, laptops, and cell phones are only some of the items that produce a constant flow of calls to customer care. As the products become more complex, so do the questions. This leads to an increase in the call duration.
One such call costs $4-5 to a company. Naturally, the company wants to reduce expenses. And this is where chat bots come into the picture. “Hiring” chat bots is much cheaper than hiring people to do the same job. That’s why more and more large companies decide to make use of chat bots as virtual assistants.
One of the most well-known chat bots that perform these functions is Anna (http://193.108.42.79/ikea-us/cgi-bin/ikea-us.cgi), a virtual “face” of the Swedish company IKEA. Presented with a bright positive avatar, Anna is able to answer customers’ questions, and help them choose a product in at least 18 languages. She will give you the closest IKEA shop for your location. In case your question is too complicated for her she will suggest connecting you to a human consultant.
This technology found an interesting use in the U.S. Army. Next IT designed Sergeant Star (http://sgtstar.goarmy.com/ActiveAgentUI/welcome.aspx), who can answer questions about Army life. The audience of the website is mostly young men in the age from 17 to 24 years who spend a lot of time surfing the Internet. Sergeant Star has answered over 4 million questions till date. The results of the new technology are impressive:
- average time duration spent on the website increased from 4 to 10 minutes,
- the number of questions asked doubled,
- monthly Sergeant Star responds to over 100,000 queries.
To summarize, chat bots’ employment can be beneficial in many ways. First, it reduces the costs of customer care department. Secondly, the time for dealing with one request has decreased. This means that more requests can be processed in the same time period, resulting in increased productivity. Lastly, as technology improves, the variety of tasks that chat bots can perform increases with every passing day.
Chat bots not only respond to clients’ questions but also help them make better decisions about the company’s products and services. They provide clients with information about the website’s content, guide them through relevant links, and even help them choose suitable candidates from the company’s database, in case it is a recruiting agency.
Naturally, chat bots are not perfect, and for the moment at least, they cannot completely replace humans in the field of customer care or other areas. For now they can assist humans, and they do it well. But as they evolve, the quality of their performance will be closer to that of a human worker. And considering how many people are unhappy with their ‘human’ customer care experiences, that time moment not be too distant.
People have always wanted to make a machine think and respond to a human as an equal, using a human language. Early results of the consistent work in this area have been promising, yet characterized by restricted vocabulary and ignorance of the real world’s complexities. However, things are changing now. Constant development of technology has resulted in the creation of several chat bots that are able to imitate human communication, in ways that was not thought to be possible earlier.
Since then, ELIZA’s time chat bots have changed a lot. Jabberwacky, A.L.I.C.E., D.U.D.E. are the names that rule the world of chat bots nowadays. While they may not engage in an entirely “human” conversation, they are good enough to delude their communication partners and pass for as human.
This ability of chat bots to conduct a limited dialogue with humans has found its ever-widening application in many areas, including today’s business.
It is not a secret that billions of calls are made yearly to customer care services of different companies. The average duration of these calls is around half a minute. Since technology is evolving the products become more complicated. Digital cameras, laptops, and cell phones are only some of the items that produce a constant flow of calls to customer care. As the products become more complex, so do the questions. This leads to an increase in the call duration.
One such call costs $4-5 to a company. Naturally, the company wants to reduce expenses. And this is where chat bots come into the picture. “Hiring” chat bots is much cheaper than hiring people to do the same job. That’s why more and more large companies decide to make use of chat bots as virtual assistants.
One of the most well-known chat bots that perform these functions is Anna (http://193.108.42.79/ikea-us/cgi-bin/ikea-us.cgi), a virtual “face” of the Swedish company IKEA. Presented with a bright positive avatar, Anna is able to answer customers’ questions, and help them choose a product in at least 18 languages. She will give you the closest IKEA shop for your location. In case your question is too complicated for her she will suggest connecting you to a human consultant.
This technology found an interesting use in the U.S. Army. Next IT designed Sergeant Star (http://sgtstar.goarmy.com/ActiveAgentUI/welcome.aspx), who can answer questions about Army life. The audience of the website is mostly young men in the age from 17 to 24 years who spend a lot of time surfing the Internet. Sergeant Star has answered over 4 million questions till date. The results of the new technology are impressive:
- average time duration spent on the website increased from 4 to 10 minutes,
- the number of questions asked doubled,
- monthly Sergeant Star responds to over 100,000 queries.
To summarize, chat bots’ employment can be beneficial in many ways. First, it reduces the costs of customer care department. Secondly, the time for dealing with one request has decreased. This means that more requests can be processed in the same time period, resulting in increased productivity. Lastly, as technology improves, the variety of tasks that chat bots can perform increases with every passing day.
Chat bots not only respond to clients’ questions but also help them make better decisions about the company’s products and services. They provide clients with information about the website’s content, guide them through relevant links, and even help them choose suitable candidates from the company’s database, in case it is a recruiting agency.
Naturally, chat bots are not perfect, and for the moment at least, they cannot completely replace humans in the field of customer care or other areas. For now they can assist humans, and they do it well. But as they evolve, the quality of their performance will be closer to that of a human worker. And considering how many people are unhappy with their ‘human’ customer care experiences, that time moment not be too distant.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Chatbot review 1
A chat bot, also known as a chatter bot, is a computer program that stimulates real-time conversation with one or more adults. It uses hearing as well as text to communicate with human beings. The word 'chatterbot' was coined by the creator of the first talking robot, Michael Mauldin. The basis of these programs come from a paper written by Alan Turing and titled 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence.' In this paper, he talks about computer systems that can take the place of humans in a real-time conversation with other human beings. Based on this idea, many individuals and companies started to write programs and these came to be known as chat bots.
Chat bots are used for many practical purposes today. It is used to provide online help to users, act as a virtual assistant, extend personalized service to customers and be a talking companion to anyone who is looking for some company. They have become popular in many fields and have replaced human beings as customer service representatives in many online sites.
Numerous chat bots are existing today to perform different functions in many countries. We will review some of them in this article.
ELIZA
ELIZA is one of the best-known chat bots. It was developed in 1960s and is one of the first examples of artificial intelligence programs. In those days, many people even mistook her to be a human being. This program was developed by Joseph Weizenbaum of MIT University and was used to simulate a Rogerian Psychotherapist. The program used text as the only means of conversation and she could give intelligent answers to questions that were related to the personal life and family of an individual, including the problems and concerns that was faced by an individual.
This program matched string patterns to ask questions and provide comforting answers to the individuals. A typical converstaion can be:
User : I am feeling sick
ELIZA: How long have you been feeling sick
User: For a week now.
ELIZA : Tell me more...
When the above conversation is analyzed, one can see that the string was matched with another question and for anything that ELIZA did not understand, there were generic replies like ”Tell me more..” or ”I do not understand you fully” or ”Elaborate on that.”
Though it was an elementary idea of artificial intelligence, the beauty lies in its simplicity. There are no complicated algorithms involved and it used a simple idea of pattern matching. ELIZA took the world of Internet and AI by storm. She was the first step in showing the world a glimpse of the potential of AI. This led many individuals to work on similar programs and this led to more and more advanced AI programs that could mimic human beings in every way.
ANN
Ann is a virtual assistant who represents Aetna, the US Health-care company. She can help users to find the information they are looking for on the website and can also help them with logging in. She can even help users with the registration process and retrieve lost or forgotten passwords. Users get the service that is similar to talking to a customer service representative over the phone. This program is available round the clock and is interactive.
ISIDORA
Isidora is a chat bot and virtual assistant used by Kraft Foods. She can answer questions regarding the different products and help users find the information they want on the website. She also asks questions and makes users feel that they are talking to a real person and not a chat bot. She also helps the HR team to make product presentations and to convey important messages using the different multimedia options like audio and video. The unique aspect about this program is that it is a video-generated AI program that can interact intelligently with all customers.
The above-mentioned examples give an idea of how AI has been used to provide a better customer experience. From the companies' point of view, it is a lot of savings. They can save on the salary and benefits paid to humdreds of customer service agents to provide round the clock assistance to customers. These programs have replaced many interaction-based jobs around the world.
In short, chat bots are a perfect example of AI and its uses in the real-world. It provides great customer service at little or no maintanence cost to the companies. It is also the first step in the world of AI and its huge potential that can benefit mankind in a profound way in the future.
Chat bots are used for many practical purposes today. It is used to provide online help to users, act as a virtual assistant, extend personalized service to customers and be a talking companion to anyone who is looking for some company. They have become popular in many fields and have replaced human beings as customer service representatives in many online sites.
Numerous chat bots are existing today to perform different functions in many countries. We will review some of them in this article.
ELIZA
ELIZA is one of the best-known chat bots. It was developed in 1960s and is one of the first examples of artificial intelligence programs. In those days, many people even mistook her to be a human being. This program was developed by Joseph Weizenbaum of MIT University and was used to simulate a Rogerian Psychotherapist. The program used text as the only means of conversation and she could give intelligent answers to questions that were related to the personal life and family of an individual, including the problems and concerns that was faced by an individual.
This program matched string patterns to ask questions and provide comforting answers to the individuals. A typical converstaion can be:
User : I am feeling sick
ELIZA: How long have you been feeling sick
User: For a week now.
ELIZA : Tell me more...
When the above conversation is analyzed, one can see that the string was matched with another question and for anything that ELIZA did not understand, there were generic replies like ”Tell me more..” or ”I do not understand you fully” or ”Elaborate on that.”
Though it was an elementary idea of artificial intelligence, the beauty lies in its simplicity. There are no complicated algorithms involved and it used a simple idea of pattern matching. ELIZA took the world of Internet and AI by storm. She was the first step in showing the world a glimpse of the potential of AI. This led many individuals to work on similar programs and this led to more and more advanced AI programs that could mimic human beings in every way.
ANN
Ann is a virtual assistant who represents Aetna, the US Health-care company. She can help users to find the information they are looking for on the website and can also help them with logging in. She can even help users with the registration process and retrieve lost or forgotten passwords. Users get the service that is similar to talking to a customer service representative over the phone. This program is available round the clock and is interactive.
ISIDORA
Isidora is a chat bot and virtual assistant used by Kraft Foods. She can answer questions regarding the different products and help users find the information they want on the website. She also asks questions and makes users feel that they are talking to a real person and not a chat bot. She also helps the HR team to make product presentations and to convey important messages using the different multimedia options like audio and video. The unique aspect about this program is that it is a video-generated AI program that can interact intelligently with all customers.
The above-mentioned examples give an idea of how AI has been used to provide a better customer experience. From the companies' point of view, it is a lot of savings. They can save on the salary and benefits paid to humdreds of customer service agents to provide round the clock assistance to customers. These programs have replaced many interaction-based jobs around the world.
In short, chat bots are a perfect example of AI and its uses in the real-world. It provides great customer service at little or no maintanence cost to the companies. It is also the first step in the world of AI and its huge potential that can benefit mankind in a profound way in the future.
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