Have you ever contacted customer support at least once and spent a considerable amount of time waiting for an operator to take your call? When you finally reach someone, you receive the instructions you need in just a few seconds, leaving you with feelings of frustration and hopelessness. Your customers may be encountering the same issues right now.
This common problem can be effectively addressed by setting up a chatbot for your website. But what is an AI chatbot? It is a virtual assistant designed to answer cliché questions from website visitors. In essence, an AI bot assists business owners with cutting costs and eliminating undesired chaos in the workplace. This article will explore some common kinds of AI bots and how they function within current enterprises.
The Power of Chatbots Today
A chatbot is essentially a virtual interlocutor, or a program that can handle routine tasks, such as asking and answering questions, searching for requested information, and embarking on an exciting business journey.
Chatbots can serve as trustworthy virtual assistants across an extensive variety of areas. Currently, they are capable of performing a bulk of tasks, encompassing the following examples:
- Recognize and interpret requests;
- make money transfers to accounts in banking applications;
- create logistics apps;
- book tables in restaurants;
- Schedule appointments at beauty salons;
- purchase movie tickets;
- consult on banking issues and promotions;
- build meaningful conversations and give pieces of advice.
Chatbot Common Types with Examples
AI chatbots can be classified by their implementation platform, development technology, communication methods with users, and functionality. They can be straightforward, like chatbots in Telegram that perform a single function, or more advanced with artificial intelligence, like Siri.
Chatbots can be integrated into messengers and social networks, including popular platforms like Viber, Facebook, and WhatsApp, as well as on websites, mobile applications, control systems (such as Siri), and voice assistants (like Alice).
Pizza Hut has developed a chatbot in Facebook Messenger, which allows customers to place orders and learn about special offers and promotions without any delay.
The Aviasales service has developed an Enormously Cheap Fares bot for social platforms like Facebook, Telegram, and Slack. This virtual helper monitors ticket prices for specified destinations. As soon as the price of a flight drops, the chatbot notifies the user about it.
Based on their operating principles, chatbots can be categorized as trainable and non-trainable. Non-trainable chatbots work according to a pre-set scenario and provide ready-made response options. On the contrary, trainable chatbots are developed using artificial intelligence technology. They can ask clarifying questions to find out the search purpose and offer tailored product recommendations based on the buyer’s answers. Trainable chatbots store unique search queries from diverse search queries and improve their accuracy over time.
The car manufacturer Škoda has developed a trainable chatbot named Lucy. Clients can discuss their needs, the purposes for which they need a car, and their budget with Lucy. The trainable chatbot analyzes all answers and recommends the most suitable car from eight Škoda models. Lucy can also discuss the details of the purchase and schedule a test drive. Since Lucy was launched a few months ago, the number of conversions on the Škoda website has increased by a staggering 400%.
By the communication method, one can distinguish a couple of virtual chatbots, including voice- and text-based. Text bots recognize keywords, while voice chatbots interact with the user through oral communication and reproduce human speech. Voice bots can be used when it is necessary to make or receive thousands of banal calls per day. They can inform, conduct surveys, clarify order details, process incoming calls, and perform tasks described in their databases.
Apple Siri is a popular voice chatbot that makes life much easier for busy people. One of Siri’s key features is voice control. Users can ask questions or give commands using their voice, without having to type on a keyboard. Siri recognizes and interprets voice commands, allowing you to control the device with simple phrases. This is especially helpful in situations where it is inconvenient or impossible to use your hands to type, such as while driving or when you are busy with other activities.
Pretty often, AI chatbots are utilized in sales, support, and marketing industries. They handle routine business operations that follow specific algorithms, search for and aggregate data, and distribute information. All this increases the productivity of various teams and enhances customer service.
Multinational telecommunications company Vodafone has implemented an artificial intelligence chatbot, Julia, into its website. It can perform simple operations, saving call center employees time. For example, the most widespread concerns are invoices and address changes.
Conclusions
To sum it up, with the right implementation of an AI bot, it is possible to deliver instant, consistent responses to your customer base, along with alleviating a huge workload from your frontline teams. Although some queries may still require a human, an effective chatbot can handle many other assignments beneficially.