Chat Lessons from TCWorld Stuttgart | Why Creating Our Own ChatBot is Essential for Business Success | Sam Altman back at OpenAI?

For those who don't know Ravi and Bharat, Ravi is a technical writer and Bharat is a developer from whom Ravi often seeks technical know how on matters that relate to technical documentation(REST, AI etc). Read older posts. This time, however, it was Bharat who found himself wiser after a conversation with Ravi.

Bharat called out to Ravi - hey, you are back from #Stuttgart. How was your Conference?

Ravi: It was good Bharat. I think 40% or more of the #TCWorld conference was about #ChatGPT and #GenerativeAI.

Bharat: Interesting. So, what did you learn?

Ravi: I would sum up the learning in 3 main points:

Chat Lessons from TCWorld Stuttgart

1. Content is the product

With the AI revolution sweeping across various industries, we're seeing a new appreciation for the value of content. Professionals in engineering and other technical fields are now recognizing that, although technology acts as a medium, the true product is the content itself. This shift highlights how AI is not just about advanced algorithms but also about delivering content more effectively and engagingly. The stature of content has risen.

2. It's Moving Too Fast

The pace of change in the generative AI space is staggering. Developments that once took months or years to become outdated are now becoming obsolete almost instantaneously. At TCWorld, some presenters had to skip over their slides about certain topics because they were already out of date. For instance, techniques or platforms discussed just a few weeks ago may have been replaced by newer, more advanced options, underscoring the dynamic nature of this field. Now, to create a custom chatbot, you can just chat with ChatGPT. While we were making the transition from writing for the users to writing for the machine, writing the machine itself became the new reality. And Sam Altman is now working for Microsoft....oh wait... tech crunch says he might be back at OpenAI.

3. Emerging Job Titles: Conversational Design Specialists and Prompt Engineers

A notable development is the emergence of specialized job roles such as Conversational Design Specialists and Prompt Designers. A few professionals with these titles attended TCWorld. A quick search on LinkedIn reveals numerous individuals and job postings with these titles. As we head into 2023-24, it's crucial for professionals to start honing their skills in these areas, preparing for a job market that increasingly values expertise in designing chat and generative AI experiences.

The lessons from TCWorld Stuttgart are clear: the field of AI and content is rapidly evolving, and those who can adapt and specialize in these new areas will be well-positioned for the future of technology and communication.

Bharat: That's great Ravi. But I have a dumb question to ask.

Ravi: Sure... shoot. Don't hold back.

Bharat: This is all great. But I am not sure why we need conversation design specialists and prompt engineers to build our own chatbot. Our customers have been using ChatGPT for information on our products, both for troubleshooting and for general learning, retrieving the information they want in the form they want - pointed answers, comparison tables, procedures, or detailed information.

I can't think of a reason why we need our own chatbot.

Ravi: I see. You want a reason for building our own custom chatbot, I will give you nine. Listen up:

Why Creating Our Own ChatBot is Essential for Business Success

In today's fast-paced digital world, businesses are increasingly turning to AI solutions to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency. While OpenAI's ChatGPT is a groundbreaking tool, there are compelling reasons for businesses to develop their own custom chatbots. Here's why:

1. Analytics: A Goldmine for Customer Insights

Our own chatbot offers rich analytics capabilities, something not available with ChatGPT. This feature is a game-changer. It allows us to deeply understand customer queries and preferences, enabling us to tailor our services and products more effectively. Knowing what customers are searching for can shape business strategies and improve customer satisfaction.

2. Performance: Tailored for Precision

Custom chatbots can outperform generic models like ChatGPT in specific contexts. They can be fine-tuned to provide precise, context-specific answers. This specialization ensures that the responses are more relevant and useful to our customers, enhancing their experience and trust in our brand.

3. Bias: Steering Towards Fairness

One concern with ChatGPT is its potential for bias. In contrast, a custom chatbot can be designed to minimize bias or even possess a certain bias in favor of our business objectives, ensuring that the information provided aligns with our brand values and goals.

4. Domain Expertise: Unmatched Depth

While ChatGPT is versatile, it lacks the depth that a custom chatbot can offer in a specific domain. A specialized chatbot can possess a deeper knowledge base, particularly in niche areas or industries, providing more accurate and expert information to users.

5. Availability: Dependable and Consistent

Building a chatbot independent of ChatGPT ensures continuous service availability. ChatGPT can be down sometimes - its availability is better now but still not 100% assured. A custom ChatBot won't be affected by potential downtimes of ChatGPT, thus offering uninterrupted support to our customers.

6. Reduced Hallucinations: Enhanced Reliability

ChatGPT, while sophisticated, can still produce hallucinations or inaccurate information. ChatGPT can give you a step-by-step procedure in an app we know for a feature that doesn't exist. A specialized chatbot, on the other hand, can be more reliable and accurate, particularly when it comes to technical or industry-specific queries.

7. Current Content: Always Up-to-Date

ChatGPT has a knowledge cutoff date, limiting its ability to provide the latest information. Hence, ChatGPT doesn't know about our latest release and the KB docs we rolled out about fixes and workarounds in last couple of months, at least. A custom chatbot can be updated daily with the latest product features and news, ensuring that our customers always have access to the most current and critical information.

8. Data Privacy: Keeping Our Secrets Safe

Using a custom chatbot allows us to safeguard our data. By not relying on ChatGPT, we prevent our sensitive information from being accessed or used by external AI models. This not only protects our intellectual property but also assures our customers that their interactions with us are private and secure.

9. The Future of Automation: Beyond Chat

The potential of a custom chatbot extends far beyond text-based interactions. With text to speech (and vice versa) APIs, our chatbot can take support calls. Integrating voice modules could pave the way for automated support calls, revolutionizing customer service and opening up new avenues for customer interaction and support.

Conclusion

Building our own chatbot isn't just about customer engagement; it's a strategic asset vital for our business goals. It offers deep insights and elevates the customer experience, becoming a necessity in our digitally-transformed, competitive landscape.

Bharat: Ravi, I must say this has been an enlightening bit of conversation for me and I have a renewed appreciation for content and the need for our own ChatBot.

Ravi: That is great. Because next I am going to pick your brain about the various options available for building chatbots and which one suits our requirements.

Bharat: Sure. Let's discuss this and hash it out next.