THEN , NOW, FOREVER
Chatbots are a hot topic and everyone in tech industry is excited on it. Everyone talks about it and wants to use one in their business.
As we are living in a world that filled with lots of intelligent automation like Apple’s “SIRI”, “GOOGLE ASSISTANT” .. but they are few limits what a chatbot can offer us today.
chatbots looks to be “intelligent” due to their informative skills. However, chatbot are only as intelligent as the underlying database.
WHAT IS CHATBOT ?
Chatbot is a software application which helps in having one to one chat conversation or interactions automatically based on some set of conditions.
The first chatbot was developed in 1966 at MIT which they called it ELIZA .
ELIZA, the mother of all chatbot , answered some very simple decision tree questions. This first chatbot iteration has since evolved and developed, naturally.
“Bots and chat make it easier for people to buy the way they want to, when they want to–and that should be the goal of any business.” — David Cancel, CEO of Drift
BEST EXAMPLES FOR CHATBOT
A) E COMMERCE CHATBOT EXAMPLES
- Tidio
2. Sephora Assistant
B) CUSTOMER SERVICE CHATBOT EXAMPLES
1.Handle Returns Query Bot
2.Order a Phone Call Chatbot
3.Domino’s Chatbot
C) CONVERSATIONAL AI CHATBOT EXAMPLES
1.Mitsuku (aka Kuki)
2.AI Responder
3.Visual Chatbot
D) FACEBOOK MESSENGER BOT EXAMPLES
1.CNN Chatbot
2.ABBI the Medical Marijuana Chatbot
WHAT DO LATEST SURVEYS SAY ABOUT CHATBOT
According to a Facebook survey , more than 50% of customers say they’re more likely to shop with a business that they can connect with via chat.
And according to the survey 59% of millennials and 60% of Gen Xers in united states have interacted with chatbots.
According to Gartner,
“By 2020, 85% of our engagement with businesses will be done without interacting with another human. Instead, we’ll be using self-service options and chatbots.”
According to Oracle survey,
“80% of businesses said they currently use or are planning to use chatbots by 2020.”
WHAT DO CUSTOMERS THINK ABOUT CHATBOT ?
1.58% of customers say emerging technologies such as chatbots and voice assistance have changed their expectations of companies.
2. 54% of customers say companies need to transform how they engage with them.
3. 77% of customers say chatbots will transform their expectations of companies in the next five years
WHAT’S NEXT FOR CHATBOT
The biggest fear consumers have with bots is that they will make a mistake and sometimes they will, just like humans. This will always be a concern, yet it will become less as more consumers engage with bots.
While many of us think that chatbots are primarily as answer machines now, it’s not far off that the domain will expand.
The chart below shows how consumers say they would use chatbots. There’s some reservation around using chatbots for tasks like paying bills and purchasing items but when money is involved, people are often more hesitant with new technology. It’s a natural part of the adoption of new technology, and if we look back to the dawn of ecommerce, the same trend unfolded.
HOW DOES A CHATBOT WORK ?
There are 3 methods used to run a chatbot.
METHOD 1
Creating a pattern-matching bot. Pattern-matching bots classify text and produce a response based on the keywords they see. A standard structure for these patterns is Artificial Intelligence markup Language (AIML ) . In pattern matching, the chatbot can only answer the questions that exist in their models. The bot cannot go beyond the patterns already implemented into its system.
METHOD 2
Use of algorithms, for every question, a unique pattern needs to be available in a database for the bot to provide the right response. With various combinations of trends, it’s possible to create a hierarchical structure. Algorithms are how developers reduce the classifiers and make the structure more manageable.
The classic algorithm for NLP and text classification is Multinational Naïve Bayes.
METHOD 3
Use of artificial neural networks. These are solutions that give the bots a way to calculate the response to a question using weighted connections and context in data. With artificial neural networks, each sentence provided to a bot is broken down into different words, and each word is used as an input for the neural network. Over time, the neural network becomes stronger and more advanced, helping the bot to create a more accurate set of responses to common queries.
There are many different types of variations in neural networks. Often, businesses that use these tools will need to train their bots over time to become more efficient and effective. Fortunately, training for a chatbot happens at a much larger and faster scale than teaching for a human. A customer support chatbot, for instance, can be fed thousands of conversation logs, and use the information from those logs to support its neural network.
when a chatbot is prepared to interact with live customers, businesses can implement in smart feedback loops. This means that during a conversation, when customers ask a question, a chatbot can deliver a couple of intelligent answers with options like “Did you mean a, b, or c”. The way the customer respond will help to reinforce the bot’s understanding and train the machine learning model.
STAGES INVOLVED IN CHATBOT APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
1.Managing incoming stream of messages with backend development
2. Creating modules to integrate with each channel
3. Integrating Natural Language Processing (NLP) with readymade APIs
4. Creating natural humanly replies with Conversational Intelligence
5. Aligning chatbot conversations with the commercial and core purpose of development
TIME REQUIRED TO MAKE A CHATBOT
Generally, to make a chatbot the time frame or time required can range from a few hours to a maximum of 2–3 weeks, depending on the complexity of the project or function that you wish to automate and the option you choose to build a bot .
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD A CHATBOT ?
Generally, the cost of a chatbot varies and is calculated for each case in particular. Most often software companies used to charge from $15,000 to $30,000 for a custom bot.
The price for an AI-chatbot for customer support ranges from $40,000 to $100,000 . Such bots are powered by Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning technologies, and are endowed with more powerful capabilities of learning and absorbing information. They target customers through marketing campaigns and media, handles personalized news and content distribution, and lots more. when comes to payment services, such chatbots become full fledged business solutions.
The companies located in Silicon Valley set a minimum price of $30,000 for a pretty simple bot that is able to reply to various users’ questions.
Finally one can conclude that for a chatbot development the price may vary from $5,000 up to $150,000 due to many factors.
MARKETING PLAN
- A simple promotion which we can do to promote a chatbot is mentioning it in a list of our customer support channels.
2.Giving a name to the chatbot for example “MADDY”…like .. “HI THIS IS MADDY ..HOW CAN I HELP U”
3. Doing complete research on frequently asked questions by the customers with help of social media support team,marketing teams and sales team.
4. Making my bot to speak or welcome message /tone which makes customers feel as if they were speaking to real person.
5. Tracking my bot with special UTMs and discount code.
6. Facebook ads.etc.
7. Asking customers like how is the performance of chatbot ,whether they could meet their expectations and any suggestions to improve it.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CHATBOT THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
ADVANTAGES ARE AS FOLLOWS :
- Deliver’s 24x7 automated customer support
- Cuts down operational cost
- Easy scalability of support
- Better lead generation, Qualification and Nurturing
- Monitors customer data and gives better insights
- Automates repetitive tasks
DISADVANTAGES ARE AS FOLLOWS :
- Huge amount of money needs to be invested to make it.
- Same answers will be given for different questions(Made to handle first level questions)
- Heavy maintenance is required
- These have zero research skills
- Can be manipulated through social engineering attacks
- Lacks in emotions
RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH CHATBOTS
When coming to security of chatbots there shouldn’t be any compromise in it . As chatbots become better at imitating humans, the technology will be used by hackers in phishing schemes and other social engineering hacks. For example, a chatbot designed to imitate a customer or a vendor could strike up a conversation with an employee through a messaging app. After rapport has been established, the chatbot could convinces the employee to click on a malicious link or hand over sensitive information.
A good example for this is
Recently, men using the Tinder dating app were swindled by a bot that pretended to be a female user. After a few back-and-forth messages, the chatbot made the men to click a link to become “Tinder verified.” The link required that they input their credit card information, at which time they were unwittingly signed up for a recurring online porn subscription.
As technology of chatbot is very new, specific security protocols are still being developed, particularly regarding chatbots deployed on public platforms such as Facebook, and the rapid pace of development in chatbot means that new features and threats are continuously emerging. They can be quite destructive and end up causing cybersecurity nightmares.
TO SUM UP
There would be only few who don’t recognize the chatbots’ great capabilities in identifying and satisfying the users’ needs.
Gone are the days where customers use to call during their office hours.
But if we see today many businesses appreciates the ease of a self-serving tool which helps in informing the customers about their products and services 24/7/365.
