Future of Chatbots

Chatbots are here to stay. While a year ago, many in tech industry saw this as yet another Silicon Valley fad that was more hype than substance, that debate has largely been put to rest now. Bots have been deployed by major companies in almost every sector.

Chatbots are the following stride in the advancement of the web. In the first place there were websites, and then there were web applications. Presently, there are bots

What are Chatbots?

Chatbots are computer programs that mimic conversation with people using artificial intelligence.

We can also understand it as a service i.e. powered by artificial intelligence with which you interact through a chat interface. Such services address to different walks of life ranging from functional to fun, and it is easily accessible through all major chat products like Facebook Messenger, Slack, etc. Conversational Bot Development is transforming the way you interact with the internet from a series of self-initiated tasks to a quasi-conversation.

The most accessible platform to get Chatbot experience is Facebook Messenger. Many top brands are already there with their Bots to help you in all possible ways, including CNN, HubSpot, The Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Domino's Pizza, and more.

Why Chatbots are such a big opportunity?

Bots are everywhere! Conversation is the new frontier for user interfaces, flawlessly associating individuals to brands, their products, and services. No downloading, no new interface to learn or complex menus to navigate, instead an enhanced experience that seem natural and simply flowing, like any conversation should. That's the thing AI powered Bots are capable to render to a landed user. 

So, do Chatbots have a future in the larger scheme of things? A look at the benefits and limitations based on current adoptions gives a better idea about the potential of Chatbots.

So what does this mean for businesses?

Simply put, they offer a better user experience as well as service quality that will be much higher than an application. AI powered Chatbots will be like your personal AI Assistant. It will help you with things exactly as you wish. Mind it, exactly as you would wish. Nonetheless, such technologies are in their early stage, but these are learning and growing rapidly.

How do Chatbots work?

It is Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) that presents this smart version of Chatbots. Being powered from the world’s most advanced technologies, Chatbots now better understand the intent of the human and provide a more natural, near human-level communication. AI and machine learning let Chatbots get a deeper understanding of their customers’ behavior, habits, and context. NLP software uses knowledge of sentence structure, idioms, and machine-learned pattern recognition to try to match what you say to an “intent” which has been “classified”. Bot has been programmed to identify certain things people want from it, and act upon them.  

Usually, we get in touch with two types of Chatbots. One that functions based on predefined set of rules and the other one that is continuously learning and evolving with the help of machine learning.

What can Chatbots do?

Right now, Chatbots are essentially replacing individual Internet applications. As opposed to shutting Facebook Messenger and switching to Uber, you can request a ride directly with a message on Uber Chatbot on messenger. Mobile Application Development ease has been adding fuel to this continuously.

San Francisco-based startup Assist is a talk bot that overlays a large group of administrative activities that need to be performed when a user do activities within an application like booking ride, set schedule for haircut, sending flowers, online shopping, and much more..

No longer will you require downloading an individual app to avail any sort of services from any organization. You can basically send a chat to Assist from inside your preferred chat platform (Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram, or Kik) and bot will assist you as you want. 

Virtual assistants like Chatbots have shown potential in improving customer services. Business owners are seeing the benefits of using platforms, like Messenger, to create their own Chatbots for providing a better experience to their customers. With Chatbots built right inside messaging interfaces, customers don’t have to interrupt their messaging activities to handle something. While Chatbots can make for more gratifying customer experiences, they currently lack the intelligent necessary to replace human expertise for any diverse assistance needs.

Financial institutions have turned to the predictive capabilities of AI driven Chatbots to streamline some of their key processes. Insurance companies are using AI capabilities and Chatbots to provide instant insurance quotes and claims process. An example is Lemonade Insurance app.

The virtual assistants have made it easier for some banking institutions to provide financial advice without requiring customers to visit in person. Their functionality is limited by the complex situations they can handle.

Wrapping up

In the near future, assistants like Siri, Amazon Echo, Facebook M, or Google’s Master Bot will have access to all of the bot services you use and be able to process orders on the back end seamlessly. In other words, you will tell Siri what you want, Siri will find it and give you a few great options, and you will be able to order and pay seamlessly. Siri will command other bots.

The bot revolution is still in the early phase, but the interest is clearly growing among consumers and businesses alike. Are you prepared to venture into the world of Chatbots?