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Chatbots are often viewed as an experiment, marketing gimmick or, at best, a time and revenue saver for businesses. Yet, in the knowledge economy, and with growing convergence of communications systems, chatbots could soon be at the heart of everything.

Today, a chatbot might help you book an appointment. It may find something otherwise buried in your company’s onboarding FAQ or help you match a wine and food. But, as AI services evolve and chatbots link to a growing number of services, the digital skies are almost limitless.

With businesses wanting to keep their competitive advantage, few are talking about how well their bots are performing. But, the volume of time and costs saved from heavy users in Asia and other economies show the way forward. Even so, chatbots are only at the beginning of their journey and a few forks in the road could see their value rise massively.

Knowledge is Wealth

Take a look at the rise of Knowledge Capital in this fintech focused piece to see how data gleaned from chatbots has value, the article categorises them as:

Chatbots are emerging as a new class of intangible assets. Typically, each industrial strength chatbot by its very nature contains measurable knowledge, applied in practice through dialogue. Arguably, the largest category of intangibles as measured by volume is knowledge. It is also potentially the most valuable, which could supersede in terms of monetary value other forms of revenue generating intangibles such as patents.

As chatbots can build a better relationship with users compared to a plain form or other interface, the opportunity arises to probe deeper. The value from data will grow as people become more used to interacting with chatbots and answering more complex or personal questions.

That data (carefully managed and anonymised) can be linked to other sources to assist in the latest trends research, to help a business find out how users feel about products or services, and find what they want next.

Chatbots and Virtual Assistants Will Merge

On the technology front, we will likely see chatbots and virtual assistants (VA) become one and the same. Not everyone wants people bellowing across the home or office at a VA to boost the air conditioning, heating or turn down the TV volume. Also, talking to a VA in public places is something that many people will take some getting used to.

For those reverting to a chatbot interface linked to the same smart systems is one way that the two can combine. That way, users can set alarms and reminders in the chatbot and have them delivered by Siri or Alexa on their smart speaker. Linking the two for business also provides a range of office features through the chatbot.

The likes of Nuance, e-bot7 and Apple already provide chatbots as part of their intelligent assistant products for enterprises, mixing digital and human knowledge for the best results. That trend will follow into consumer and other technologies, so the voice service can take over when chatting is not useful, such as when driving and vice versa.

Eventually, chatbots, voice assistants, virtual assistants and our other digital allies will merge to form a service that is useful in the most appropriate way. From call centers to operations, from scheduling to diagnostics, more interactive chatbots will play a key part in many businesses, and in making consumers or users lives better.

Join the Chatbot Revolution

For any business looking to gain a competitive advantage, they need to start using these technologies now, so they understand and can evolve with the times. Creating a chatbot can be done effectively using a script for a discrete point solution, or integrated with other back-end services and AI solutions for more advanced features.

Success with chatbots is currently measured in time saved or cost reductions. But that will soon change to adding value and the data becoming worth more over time. Some businesses are already aware and on the ball, others are catching up fast thanks to quick-and-easy to deploy products like.

Establishing the use case for bots now, testing how they can link to other services will help any business prepare for a future where digital companions are the norm for workers or consumers and customers.