Chatbots: What Are They All About?
Chatbots are booming in popularity. They improve customer service, reduce wait times for a response, and let help desks focus on the more difficult questions. Development kits are making them available to a growing market.
The ability to converse with a computer is a long-standing notion in science fiction. In 2001 and Star Trek, the commander of a spaceship uses ordinary English to tell the ship's computer what to do, and the computer responds in kind (even if the answer is "I can't do that, Dave").
In brief, a chatbot is software which can conduct a conversation. It may support voice, text, or both. It understands plain-language questions and takes the discussion's context into account. They aren't generalists; they can handle their subject matter but can't talk about the weather (unless they're weather chatbots).
Text bots are more common than voice-based ones. The user communicates with them by SMS or by a messaging app such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.
Chatbots from a kit
Natural language processing and artificial intelligence make them possible. Until recently creating one required a huge programming effort, but now kits are available for producing scripted bots. They're more limited than custom-developed ones, but they have many uses.
A developer using a kit creates a script to answer relevant questions. The quality of the conversation will reflect the work that goes into scripting it. If the user goes off topic, the bot should admit its limitations and steer the discussion back. "Sorry, I don't understand. Would you like to learn more about our product line?"
An attempt to over-humanize a bot just makes it annoying. A good script presents information without pretending to be a person.
Where are bots useful? Every new technology brings hype with it. Some people are saying that every business needs chatbots and they'll soon replace apps. But an app with a GUI is far better for letting people browse information and view it graphically. A bot works best when people are looking for a specific piece of information. Bots are good when people have intermittent, low-bandwidth connections; they've become popular in the African interior for this reason.
To decide if you need a chatbot, start by describing what you want it to accomplish. If answering predictable questions is one of your main goals, it could be the right tool. Talk to us if you're looking for a developer to create a chatbot that will meet your needs.
Thank you for reading! Have a great week. ~ Todd Towles