In my previous blog, I talked about the different types of Chatbots. In this blog, we will cover some of the applications of Chatbots.
Chatbots are computer programs designed to interact with people using textual context via the chat interface. However, over the past few years, chatbots have well improved to surpass simple textual format and are now equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities. Many companies are already using chatbots e.g. for customer service
Applications of Chatbots:
To say that there are some applications of chatbots would be wrong because there are more than 50 known applications of chatbots. They could be categorized in some major categories. Let us have a look at some of them.
Customer service/support Chatbots:
Chatbots are applicable in a variety of ways e.g. games, information, infotainment etc. but a big use case for chatbots is customer service and support. This typically starts with a question that a customer asks but before that a warm welcome:
- Where is my order?
- How much do you charge for shipping?
- Status of claims?
These chatbots allow the customer to take the question „in” and then put it in a message. Then receive a response. But AI and NLP techniques can allow chatbot to interpret the question and answer it automatically. If the answer to a question requires more information then more questions are asked. If the chatbot is not able to find an appropriate answer then the dialog is transferred to a customer service agent who is not a chatbot. Customer service chatbots are growing very fast. There are even customer service robots around us with voice capability.
Healthcare Chatbots:
Healthcare has become an attractive market for companies developing chatbot applications for patients and clinicians. A major use case in Healthcare is like checking patient’s symptoms. There are some Healthcare chatbots on the market such as Your.MD or Dr.AI. It uses AI and machine learning to provide personalized information and relevant products and services. A user enters their symptoms via chat and can view a list of related conditions and virtual assistant can identify a patient’s condition.
Enterprise Chatbots:
It simply means that a company uses chatbots to automate some of the processes. A machine can do that work quickly. The employees can just skip some tasks and take those tasks which have higher priorities. For instance, an enterprise chatbot combining AI, NLP and voice recognition can dialog with the user to acquire necessary information (dates, times, order details) or integrate with business systems to complete common office tasks quickly (reservations, orders).
Chatbots will definitely continue to improve and evolve, and businesses that utilize them will surely have great benefits in the near future. In my next blog, we would investigate the infrastructure of chatbots.