The Rise of The Chatbots

Guides 8 minutes reading 25.01.2021

For the past few decades, technology has been hooked onto the idea of automating all activities with minimal human interference. From a business point of view, these automation systems have drastically minimized the need for call center assistants,

Allowing you to focus more on your core business activities. The adoption of this technology has enhanced efficiency, reliability, and speed in various tasks, which were previously performed by humans.

A Chatbot, when not managed entirely by a human agent, uses configured rules to respond to queries, in a faster, straightforward, and inexpensive manner. They interpret client queries using keywords and are generally a good option when you wish to use it as an FAQ platform. Additionally, rule- based-Chatbots are also better equipped to integrate with legacy systems or older software and hardware. So now, with more than $5 billion invested in Chatbots, it’s no doubt that they are a great feature for optimization and prompt functioning of your platforms. In the sphere of digital marketing and web development, Chatbots or live chat features have become an essential part of a website. Adding a live chat feature gives your visitors the ability to contact, enquire and discuss product or service details efficiently and in real-time. Besides customer support, live chats can also be a useful tool to generate leads, and potentially, increase sales for your brand. If they haven’t made a purchase yet, you can always use their contact details to reach out and remarket to them in the future.

Without the need for constant monitoring by humans. With the development of Natural Language Processing (NLP), Computers and machines are now able to understand and produce human language. The concept of NLP can be most easily understood through voice assistants like Google’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri. You could say, “Hey Siri, what’s the weather like today?”, and Siri would tell you exactly that. This means your device heard you when you spoke, understood your words, and interpreted it, giving you the exact information, you needed. Quite amazing when you think about it!

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Taking it one step further, we have now incorporated
artificial intelligence into Chatbot systems making it a
100% automated system.

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Now NLP doesn’t just make it possible for computers to hear and respond, but also read text and respond aptly. This exact technology is what we use in AI Chatbots. It allows your website visitor to type in a question or a query, after which your Chatbot would interpret and respond to it aptly. The response could be text, an action that links to one of your brand’s online pages, an entry field, or a redirection to a human agent. Instead of having a team of employees manually responding to client queries, the Bot automatically resolves queries using machine learning and its knowledge from trainings. By not having a designated team to work your Live chat, and instead just a few crucial members who oversee the training and operation of your system, you cut costs that would have otherwise been incurred on recruiting, training, and compensating these additional staff members. You would now be able to focus your tasks more on your business’s core services.

So, which one should you get? The more technologically advanced one or the simpler rule-based one? The answer to that comes down to what you might be using it for, and how much conversation you would anticipate. Undeniably, AI Chatbots, otherwise known as conversational Chatbots, would cost more than the traditional ones, due to the highly complex and technical nature; However, they give you the benefit of being able to carry out natural-sounding conversations, understand input even if it is spelled incorrectly, continuously learning and improving over time.

Essentially, AI Chatbots are more flexible and understand contextual cues better. Rule-based-Chatbots on the other hand, are more suited for smaller businesses with modest budgets, who want to use the feature for limited basic scenarios. Along with being trained for only a certain number of scenarios, you also have to put in the exact keyword or phrase it was trained with, for it to identify and respond accurately and relevantly. Regardless, they are still much easier and more inexpensive to train and work with. Ultimately, whether your business would require a conversational AI Chatbot or a traditional rule-based-Chatbot, depends on you.