Business Productivity Archives - BotCore

Top 5 Myths About AI You should stop believing

Abhishek Shanbhag — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 19:46:00 +0000

Top 5 Myths About AI You Should Stop Believing

As much as AI and its abilities are being spoken about and speculated today, there are quite a few myths that are doing the rounds as well. While some believe that it to be a deus ex machina, a tool that can resolve seemingly unsolvable problems, there are others who see it as just hype that will eventually die down. The reality about AI however, lies somewhere in between.

With the growing need for technology to make processes more efficient and provide companies with a competitive advantage, it is crucial to understand how AI can create value in your business and what its limitations are.

Alexander Linden, a Vice President Analyst at Gartner says “Business leaders are often confused about what AI can do for their enterprise. This is understandable, as there are many definitions and variants of AI that are present in the general discourse”. Misconceptions and a lack of understanding about AI is an impediment for IT leaders who are trying to incorporate AI in their organizations.

In this article, we bust the 5 myths that are often associated with AI and make a case for why you should stop believing them NOW.

The top 5 AI MYTHS

1. There Is No Need For AI Strategy

As the abilities of AI are evolving, organizations should consider tapping into its capabilities and understand the potential impact this technology may have in addressing the organization’s business needs.

Deliberately refraining from using AI is akin to forgoing the next phase of automation and could put your organization at a competitive disadvantage.

Even if you choose to abstain from adopting an AI strategy for your company, this decision should be made on pragmatic grounds supported by research and robust data. The need for AI in your organization should also be regularly evaluated and modified to fit the organization’s evolving needs.

2. AI Is All About Automation

While it is true that AI can automate several manual tasks, its range of capabilities are not always synonymous with automation itself. Automation is a subset of AI.

According to an extensive survey by Deloitte Research of AI applications in various industries, AI applications fall into three categories: product, process, and insight.

Product applications use AI to provide a better experience for the end user, either by enabling “intelligent” behavior or by automating tasks that a human user often performs.
AI is used in Process applications to enhance, scale up, or automate business processes.
Insight applications on the other hand use AI, machine learning and computer vision to analyze data and glean insights in order to drive better business decisions.

In only some of the cases is AI really used to automate human work. More often, AI is used to perform tasks that are unattainable by human cognitive abilities. While automation refers to the completion of a task without human interference, AI is used to power machines, making them capable of thinking or at least making intelligent decisions based on a series of predefined models and algorithms.

3. AI, Machine Learning And Deep Learning Are The Same

AI, Machine Learning and Deep learning are often interchangeably used or misunderstood to be the same, despite being fundamentally different.

Artificial Intelligence is the human-like intelligence exhibited by machines that encompasses various human cognitive abilities.
Machine Learning is a set of algorithms that allows a program to generate results accurately without the results being fed into the program explicitly. ML is in fact one of the tasks that AI performs by continually learning from the data fed into it and can be referred to as a sub-discipline of Artificial Intelligence.
Deep Learning, however, refers to the algorithms used to solve problems based on neural networks designed to mimic the neurons in the human brain. DL is one of the specialisations of ML and in turn, one of the aspects of AI.

4. AI Will Replace Humans

A common AI myth is that it can outsmart and replace humans at some point. This misconception is also one of the major barriers to AI adoption.

While it is true that AI makes machines extremely intelligent, we need to understand that machines cannot acquire such a potential all by themselves. The capabilities of a machine is limited to the data that is fed to it by a human being and the actions that they have programmed the machine to carry out.

It is important to identify the obvious benefits AI and ML add when it comes to automatically identifying patterns from an expansive amount of data with little to no human intervention. However, the algorithms and models that make this feat possible, have to be built by humans. So essentially, AI only can get as smart as a human mind can make it.

Another crucial feature that sets human intelligence well above AI is that humans are capable of recognizing when there is a problem or redundancy with a certain approach they are taking. AI models on the other hand, tend to pursue the best possible answer out of nearly infinite possibilities, even if it leads to them never exiting the process.

5. AI Is A Cost-intensive Undertaking

AI is looked at with apprehensive often, based on the assumption that it is going to be a costly investment for the company. However, high cost is not the case for AI in general. There are many AI tools that are available for businesses that do not demand an exorbitant investment to implement AI solutions. Some important AI solutions which are cost effective and also yield a huge ROI and several business benefits include chatbots, RPA, modern intranets with AI capabilities and advanced analytics.

On the other hand however, AI development does require expertise in programming languages and development practices. While hiring data scientists for this job may rack up costs, organisations can consider training the existing resources to effectively implement the algorithms themselves.

conclusion

It is necessary that companies take concerted initiatives to develop comprehensive strategies that accommodate AI and prepare themselves for futuristic environments that are compatible with AI powered technologies. It is imperative for companies to act on these initiatives before any new market disruptors jeopardise the competitive edge the organization may hold in the industry.

This demands the leadership of organisations to have a pragmatic and precise understanding about AI’s capabilities and its trajectory into the future. Having a strong academic foundation and practical experience in AI among the leadership allows organisations to avoid misinterpretations and misleading myths about AI.

Adopting AI just for just a few functional areas will be ineffective in making a great impact on the organization as a whole. Hence, companies must try to incorporate an effective blend of embedded, edge and centralized intelligence systems across all functions and teams.

Adopting AI and related technologies in building an intelligent business environment will strengthen the alliance of humans and intelligent machines and produce a powerful workforce for the future. Companies must acknowledge that humans and machines will continue to be the indispensable building blocks of the new workforce and plan to utilise their combined strengths effectively.

Acuvate believes that organizations need AI to accelerate their digital transformation journey. Our range of solutions and services around conversational AI, digital workplace, business intelligence and RPA are built with a strong AI foundation. If you’d like to learn more about AI and its capabilities, please feel free to get in touch with one of our AI experts for a personalized consultation.

The post Top 5 Myths About AI You should stop believing appeared first on BotCore.

Envisioning The Work-Life Of An Employee In A Chatbot-Driven Enterprise

Jagan Jami — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 10:09:00 +0000

Envisioning The Work-Life Of An Employee In A Chatbot-Driven Enterprise

Meet Nathan. He has recently joined ABC Corp. as a Marketing Manager. The new job means a new city and the tension associated with relocation. But one thing that Nathan is thankful for is that the hiring and on-boarding process was seamless and did not require him to visit their office again and again. But how was this achieved? Well, luckily for Nathan, ABC Corp. happens to be one of the forward-thinking organizations that uses chatbots for all their HR, ITSM, and Business Intelligence related tasks.

what is a chatbot?

A chatbot is a computer program or an artificial intelligence which conducts a conversation via auditory or textual methods. Chatbots are often designed to convincingly simulate how a human would behave as a conversational partner and are used for various practical enterprise use cases including customer service, IT helpdesk, HR or information acquisition (Business Intelligence).

ABC Corp uses BotCore’s AI chatbot which enables organizations to build and deploy customized AI chatbots. So, let us see how Nathan’s life at ABC Corp. has been impacted by chatbots.

chatbots – making nathan’s life easier

Nathan has joined as a Marketing Manager. A typical day in the life of someone in this role entails multiple team meetings, client interactions and brainstorming sessions that require them to access records and data insights on the go. Also, since marketing managers almost always have days that are jam-packed, having someone take care of handling internal processes such as applying for leave, giving appraisals, searching for reports and information and keeping them abreast of upcoming meetings etc. would be a boon. Someone like a personal assistant; BUT, not everyone can have an assistant tracking these details. It is just not a feasible option. However, everyone can seek help from a virtual assistant. In order to see how chatbots are helping Nathan handle daily life at ABC Corp., let us look at some scenarios.

Recruitment

When Nathan applied for the position at ABC Corp., he was immediately sent a text message by Allie, ABC’s recruitment bot.

Allie: Hello Nathan. I am Allie from ABC Corp. I am reaching out to you in response to your application for the position of Marketing Manager.

Allie: We see that your skill set matches that which is required for the role. Could I go ahead and set up an interview for you with our GM-Marketing?

Nathan: Thanks, Allie Sure!

Allie: Thank you Nathan. Would the 1st July 2019, 12 PM work for you?

Nathan: Umm…will I be required to come to your HQ location?

Allie: That will not be necessary. I see that you are based in a different city, hence we could have the interview via Skype. Is that okay?

Nathan: That would be perfect. Thank you!

Allie: You are welcome. Please add ABCCorp as a contact on Skype. I have sent you a calendar invite for the interview. Kindly acknowledge the same.

Nathan: Sure.

Allie: Thank you Nathan. Have a great day ahead. And good luck for the interview!

Nathan was extremely pleased with how efficient Allie was in reaching out to him quickly, understanding his location criteria and setting up an interview accordingly. In a recent survey by Allegis it was noted that 58% of candidates were comfortable interacting with AI and recruitment chatbots in the early stages of the application process. In fact, about 66% of candidates were comfortable with AI and chatbots taking care of interview scheduling and peripheral activity.

Essentially, a recruitment chatbot can collect information from candidates such as their resume and contact information, help set up an interview with a human stakeholder based on his/her calendar, collect screening details such as experience and skills and answer the candidate’s basic questions about the job.

Learn more: How Chatbots Can Simplify the Recruitment Process

HR Onboarding

Once Nathan cleared the interview and was offered the job, he was reached out by Allie once again.

Allie: Hello Nathan. This is Allie. Congratulations on the offer, Welcome to ABC Corp!

Nathan: Hi Allie. Thank you very much.

Allie: Before we start the onboarding formalities, do you have any questions I can help you with?

Nathan: As a matter of fact, yes. Could you please send me any company related information I should be well-versed in before getting started?

Allie: Absolutely! Below is a company overview video to get you started with!

Allie: You can also refer this intranet page for more information [Read Now]

Nathan: Great! Thanks Allie. Could you also send across the leave policy and the list of holidays for this year?

Allie: Sure. Here are the leave policy and the holiday calendar. [Check Now]

Now, please note that as part of the onboarding process, you are required to send across copies of the following documents to hr@abccorp.com:

Personal Identification Details – any authority attested identification card would do

Last 3 payslips from your previous employer

Bank account details

Nathan: Sure, I will send them across.

Allie: Okay. Also sending across the NDA. Please sign the same and send it across.

Nathan: Okay.

Allie: Great! Thank you Nathan..

Nathan: I’d like to raise an IT request for requesting a new laptop

Allie: Sure, your request is recorded. An IT agent will get in touch with you soon!

Nathan: That’s great, Thanks Allie!

Learn More: How Chatbots are Revolutionizing The HR Department

IT Helpdesk

Nathan has started his first day at ABC Corp. and has met his team. He has been given access to the company’s marketing dashboard but is unable to sign in. He remembers that ABC Corp. uses an IT helpdesk bot that can be accessed using the internal messaging tool. He decides to seek help.

Nathan: Hi.

IT Bot: Hello Nathan. Welcome to ABC Corp. How can I help you?

Nathan: Well, I am unable to sign in to the marketing dashboard.

IT Bot: Have you been granted access?

Nathan: Yes. I was sent an email earlier that I can now access the dashboard to see project-specific details. But my sign-in credentials do not work.

IT Bot: Sorry about that. Let me check.

Nathan: Sure.

IT Bot: Looks like there was a technical problem with credential generation. I have sent across a password reset link to your email ID. Kindly use it to sign in with the new password.

Nathan: Okay. Thank you.

IT Bot: My pleasure. Is there anything else I may assist you with?

Nathan: No.

IT Bot: Okay! Have a nice day Nathan.

Nathan uses the password reset link to quickly sign-in to the dashboard. He is happy that instead of having to waste time locating and asking the right people for the fix, he was able to reach out to the IT helpdesk bot in no time.

business intelligence

It has now been a couple of weeks since Nathan joined ABC Corp. Today he is scheduled to meet with the head of Alpha Foods, a long-standing customer of the company. One of the issues that Alpha Foods is facing is a steep decline in sales. Nathan has been asked by his manager to focus on the issue in order to come up with a fix. Before he walks into the meeting, Nathan wants to be abreast of the company’s revenue and sales data. He decides to use Mylo, ABC Corp.’s Business Intelligence bot.

Nathan: Hi Mylo.

Mylo: Hello Nathan. How can I help you today?

Nathan: I have a meeting with Alpha Foods. Can I see their annual revenue details for last year?

Mylo: Sure. Alpha Foods’ annual revenue for 2017-2018 is 90 Billion.

Nathan: Okay, can you break that down by region?

Mylo: USA – 32B, Asia Pacific region – 35.7B, Europe – 22.3B.

Nathan: Okay, can I see a graphical representation of their sales in the Asia Pacific region?

Mylo: Yes.

Nathan: Well, that doesn’t look good. What about their sales in Europe and USA?

Mylo: They seem to be doing pretty well there. Sales in Europe have seen an improvement of 6% on average annually. Sales in the USA are on the uprise too – at an average annual rate of 2%.

Nathan: Map sales numbers for Asia Pacific with their trade promotional campaigns from the last 5 years.

Mylo: There are no trade promotions from Alpha in Asia Pacific between the years 2013 – 2018.

Nathan: That explains it. This is enough insight for now. Can you mail these figures to me as well?

Mylo: Sure. The details have been sent to your email.

Nathan has understood that Alpha Foods is facing an issue specifically in the Asia Pacific region as they are facing a hard time attracting customers to their products. Nathan uses the data insights provided by Mylo to suggest a new trade promotional campaign to boost sales for Alpha in the Asia Pacific region.

Learn More: Why Business Intelligence Needs Chatbots to Boost User Adoption & ROI

Intranet/Employee Assistant

Nathan routinely reaches out to Mia, the company’s intranet & employee assistant bot to check on internal company updates and to set up meetings.

Nathan: Hi Mia. Please schedule a meeting with Alex from the Sales team for tomorrow at noon.

Mia: Confirming, meeting tomorrow with Alex Knoxville at 12 PM?

Nathan: Confirm.

Mia: Meeting scheduled. Calendar invite sent to Alex.

Nathan: Any other updates?

Mia: Yes. The leave policy for the year 2019 has been updated. Tap to see the latest policy.

Nathan: Well, send it to my email instead.

Mia: Updated leave policy sent to your email.

Mia has made simple, daily tasks a breeze for Nathan.

Learn More: The Role of Chatbots in the Intranet

explore how chatbots can help

While these are only a few popular work-life scenarios in which chatbots can help Nathan, the fact is that several other ways bots can simplify work for him or any normal employee. The conversational interface of chatbots simplify everyday workflows for employees and eliminates the hassle of switching multiple apps. Chatbots act as a single point of contact to get tasks done and access information. The use cases of chatbots are diverse and emerging across functions and industries. Enterprise leaders should have a powerful bot strategy to make the most of this technology.

If you’re interested in learning more about chatbots and how they help your organization, feel free to get in touch with one of our chatbot consultants. Acuvate leverages its enterprise chatbot builder platform, BotCore to build, deploy, train and manage AI chatbots for large and medium sized enterprises.

FREE EBOOK

exploring the use cases of an enterprise chatbot

The post Envisioning The Work-Life Of An Employee In A Chatbot-Driven Enterprise appeared first on BotCore.

How Chatbots Can Help The Hospitality Industry Transform The Guest Experience

Rakesh Reddy — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 18:53:00 +0000

How Chatbots Can Help The Hospitality Industry Transform The Guest Experience

The hospitality industry is one of those industries in which warmth, personalization and customer satisfaction remain critical components to capture, retain and foster brand loyalty and ensuring bottom-line profitability. In this blog, we’ll discuss how chatbots are proving to be an effective solution for bridging the emotive personalization gap between hospitality businesses and the guest experience.

Chatbots have become a significant technological trend for many important reasons. Before discussing how chatbots can transform the guest experience let’s understand the different benefits of bots from both guest-facing and business-facing perspectives.

KEY GUEST-FACING BENEFITS OF CHATBOTS

Nothing is more frustrating to a guest than having to wait for a response whether it is on the phone, on email or while queuing up to meet a customer services agent in person. Chatbots are available instantaneously, and customers appreciate, first and foremost, the ability to have simple questions answered quickly.
Chatbots are also available 24/7 and accessible anywhere, anytime, on multiple online platforms, which makes access to the business easy and effortless.
Instantaneous access means that problems can be resolved quickly.

KEY BUSINESS-FACING BENEFITS OF CHATBOTS

Chatbots enable you to scale up your operations quickly in a cost-effective manner because of their ability to handle unlimited conversations simultaneously. This also means that chatbots are able to bring in exponentially more business via leads.
Chatbots enable you to tap into a younger or more tech-savvy market that is increasingly mobile and prefers chat conversations to live ones.
Chatbots also drive the benefits of engagement, feedback, insight into consumer behavior trends, as well as mass marketing, on a significantly larger scale.
Chatbots help in understanding the likes and dislikes of guests and tailoring the services accordingly

TRANSFORMING THE GUEST EXPERIENCE WITH CHATBOTS

The hospitality industry covers a large berth of businesses including hotels, restaurants, cafeterias, nightclubs, resorts, travel agencies and tour operators. Chatbots have a number of different applications that can be tailor-made to suit the requirements of each business and its corresponding customer or guest profiles. Consider a few examples of such applications:

1. VIRTUAL ASSISTANCE FOR BOOKING ROOMS/FLIGHTS OR SPECIFIC SERVICES

Traditionally guests have always had to call in or use online platforms to book rooms/flights or packages. Chatbots are available instantaneously which means that guests no longer need to wait for a response. Chatbots are also available 24/7 and can even send multilingual responses, which adds more convenience to the guests. from check-in

A chatbot can also personalize the guest experience by offering options, recommendations, and custom solutions as well as answering any specific questions the guest may have. Here is an example of a live chatbot conversation that simulates this interaction on a basic level:

[Chatbot: I am the XYZ Hotel bot! How may we be of assistance today?

Guest: Hi! I’d like to know what your lowest room rate is?

Chatbot: How many guests will be staying?

Guest: 2

Chatbot: Thank you. Our lowest room category rate starts at $29 per night for a standard double room. Please see a detailed list of our options along with their prices below.]

Chatbots can even handle ad-hoc requests, concierge requirements or more complicated requests such as:

[Guest: I’m running late because of my delayed flight. Can you check me in early?

Chatbot: Sure I can help you with that! At what time are you likely to reach the hotel. Our standard check-in is at 3 PM

Guest: 7.30 PM

Chatbot: okay, done I have checked you in! Please contact the reception desk for your room keys on arrival.]

2. INSIGHT DRIVEN SERVICES

Chatbots are a rich source of data on consumer behaviour, trends, and preferences achieved in many different ways. Feedback and survey options given during a conversation collect data on the guest experience, what they liked and what they didn’t like which is valuable fodder when it comes to improving services or marketing your business’ most attractive features.

Consistent collection of data over the long term can pinpoint trends in the types of questions that customers ask the most. For instance, if “How can I contact the Spa to book a massage?’’ is your most frequently asked question’, it’s time to ensure that the answer to this is more clearly articulated or presented to the consumer in your website or overall communications strategy. Pre-emption and over-delivering on expectations are essential to creating the perfect guest experience. Chatbots also can be used to create attractive schemes or manage the workforce more optimally. Chatbots help in creating a very personalized experience by understanding the likes and dislikes of guests in general and loyal guests in particular.

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS THAT WOW THE GUEST

Given their potential and reach, chatbots are an effective way to channelize marketing communications that can generate genuine returns. It is important to mention here that spamming offers only serves to turn off customers and may actually stop them from wanting to come back.

On the other hand, specific marketing messages that look like they’ve been customized for the guest are mostly welcome and/or appreciated by guests. Here are some examples:

[Chatbot: We saw your inquiry about the Lakeview Suite from before. We are offering a 25% discount on the room rates if you book between 1st to 15th July. Would you like to know more? ]

[Chatbot: You’ve accumulated enough loyal points for a free nights’ stay at our hugely popular Club Oriental Suite. Book your stay now before your points expire! ]

GOING THE EXTRA MILE

Last but not the least, chatbots can also direct complex requests that are beyond its scope (inquiries, complaints, troubleshooting etc.) to human administrators who can ensure that the guest receives a call or personal attention to have the matter addressed satisfactorily.

FINAL WORDS

Looking at the upward trajectory that chatbots have been experiencing in recent times, there is no doubt that chatbots are here to stay. In an environment where more and more businesses are seeking to outvie each other to capture and retain customer loyalty, the adoption of chatbot technology, especially in the hospitality industry is a fundamental no-brainer.

If you’re looking to implement chatbots for your business, you might be interested in checking out our enterprise chatbot builder platform – BotCore. Deployable both on cloud and on-premise environments, BotCore is used by several Fortune 500 and large enterprises to build custom chatbots for their customers and employees.

If you’d like to learn more about this topic, please feel free to get in touch with one of our experts for a personalized consultation.

FREE EBOOK

a guide to choosing an enterprise bot builder platform

The post How Chatbots Can Help The Hospitality Industry Transform The Guest Experience appeared first on BotCore.

Chatbots vs Apps: What does your business need?

Rakesh Reddy — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 10:04:00 +0000

Chatbots Vs Apps: What Does Your Business Need?

Just as with any new technology that enters the market, there is always the lingering question of whether the new technology will replace the old. This question has led to an ongoing debate about whether chatbots would or should completely replace apps in today’s ever-evolving technological environment. While some experts seem to think chatbots will, in fact, soon replace apps, others predict that they will continue to co-exist, and even complement each other for a few years to come.

As a company with extensive experience building chatbots, we may be biased towards bots. Nevertheless, for the purpose of this blog, we will logically and fairly address the pros and cons of both bots and apps, so you can decide which strategy makes the most sense for your specific business objectives.

In order to elucidate our points better, we’ll be discussing the benefits and disadvantages of both technologies, based on two different business scenario where they are used.

But first, let’s quickly establish the definitions of chatbots and apps for better understanding.

CHATBOTS

A chatbot is a software that is when powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence can engage in human-like conversations. Conversations between the user and a bot happen via a chat interface using textual or auditory methods.

Bots are usually built using a chatbot platform or frameworks and deployed on messaging apps like Skype, Skype for Business, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Facebook Messenger etc. or virtual assistants like Alexa & Cortana to converse with end-users.

Advancements in Artificial Intelligence and its components related to it like Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) leading to the building of highly intelligent bots with extremely relevant responses in a natural language tone. Also making the conversation 2 sided, very close to the human-like experience.

APPS

An application or apps is a software program that’s designed to perform a specific function directly for the user or, in some cases, for another application program.

Now let’s explore two different scenarios to understand what both these technologies can mean for business growth:

EMPLOYEE-FACING SCENARIO

Gartner reports that by 2021, more than 50% of enterprises will spend more per annum on bots and chatbot creation than traditional mobile app development.

Today’s organizations are inundated with a variety of apps, all of which serve individual goals. With the proliferation of SaaS apps due to their cost-effectiveness and ease of use, the number of apps in enterprises has grown radically. However, the downside of this is – having to handle so many apps can be overwhelming and confusing for both end users and support staff. Employees are forced to access multiple apps to get various tasks done and the IT department has to spend a considerable length of time helping employees manage these apps effectively. This is the single biggest disadvantage of apps, that the bots can overcome.

When you think about scale in terms of geographies, this number can grow exponential rather quickly. Needless to say, the IT teams do struggle extensively to ensure that the right access is being provided to the right people. This feat is not unachievable, but it comes at a very heavy cost – From building, testing, maintaining and updating individual apps.

Moreover, chatbots can reduce the number of enterprise apps, by integrating into multiple apps and acting as a single point of contact for accessing information through a cognitive experience. Bots also automatically take care of security and authentication of users. Last but not least, apps provide more of a pull mechanism of disbursing information. Whereas bots offer both pull and push modes – acting both as a manager and assistant. This enables a better and effective way for information dissipation.

By leveraging enterprise chatbot platforms like Acuvate’s BotCore, you can deploy a single chatbot which can integrate into multiple apps and acts as a single point of contact for employees to get all the relevant tasks done and queries answered. Employees don’t have to switch and navigate through different apps.

Case-study

A global consumer goods company had a huge workforce of above 160000 employees across several locations. Users were using multiple applications and software to complete routine HR and IT tasks resulting in decreased employee productivity and high operational costs.

We leveraged our enterprise chatbot building platform, BotCore to build an AI bot which is integrated into the company’s most used HR and IT apps. The bot resides as a contact in Skype for Business – the company’s actively used messaging app. It answers the repetitive IT and HR related questions of employees and helps them complete simple tasks like leave application, raising an IT ticket etc.

This drastically decreased the dependency on the IT and HR support staff.

UPON DEPLOYMENT OF THE BOT, THE COMPANY’S COST-PER-CONTACT AND COST-PER-TICKET DECREASED BY OVER 20%.

CONSUMER-FACING SCENARIO

Apps have obviously seen their share of the limelight. With Apple’s App store claiming to have over 100 billion application downloads, it’s not hard to see why apps, with the convenience they offer, are a vital part of a variety of devices we use on a daily basis. Whether one is using smartphones or tablets, laptops or TVs, we are heavily dependent on apps for a variety of functions. Infact, apps form the basis – a singular interface- of how we interact with our smart devices.

App fatigue is a real challenge for consumers and brands, alike.

Based on a report by App Annie, the average user uses only 9 or 10 apps on a daily basis, even though they have upwards of 35 or 40 downloaded.

Further, app downloads have also plateaued, even though the number of devices continues to increase. This is primarily because most people are randomly downloading all the apps they can anymore and instead sticking to apps that are already known and established.

Then there’s also the challenge a lot of smartphone users experienced with the usage of their time, leading them to limit their app downloads. Having too many apps on the phone also slows the device down and causes memory issues.

Apps are still very popular and sought after, however, new apps simply can’t expect to continue at a massive growth rate. According to a report from Nielsen, despite the increase in app usage and app choices, the number of apps used per user is staying the same.

It is expected that only a few apps will continue to reside on people’s devices and stay relevant, as they continue to become a primary channel through a lot of tasks centred around work, play and communication, can get accomplished. But organizations across the board will have to identify new ways of reaching customers.

What is particularly interesting is that messaging apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, etc. have seen significant growth. A Business Insider research study reports that the combined total monthly active user (MAU) count of the top 4 messaging apps has grown to 4.1 billion in 2018, with the top three messaging apps claiming user bases of 1 billion or more.

Companies have realized that their customers are on a variety of platforms and that in order to stay on their minds, they have to be present on these platforms as well. And as consumers increasingly move towards messaging, businesses are making it a priority to facilitate channels that can make it happen effectively. Several companies are using chatbots such as H&M, Pizza Hut, Sephora, and others and they’ve experienced success with it.

BUILDING A CHATBOT V/S MOBILE APP

This is likely the most important factor when making your decision between building a chatbot vs a mobile app. For an organization to generate any ROI from its development efforts, it is important to consider that building mobile apps is an expensive affair requiring large teams, in-depth strategizing, long development cycles, possible outsourcing, ongoing support, which can end up costing organizations a huge chunk of investment to build and support.

It can also be conveniently managed by an enterprise chatbot platform that facilitates the easy rollout of updates. The only expenses enterprises incur with building a bot is limited to their developer’s time. If the bot is being built at scale, then associated costs do increase based on the platform chosen – however, it is still rather minimal compared to what enterprises would spend building an app at that scale.

WILL CHATBOTS REPLACE APPS?

We don’t imagine chatbots would replace apps, as they may not be comprehensive, exhaustive solution for your company. When built and deployed efficiently, they can be a great way to change the way your business operates, as they add context, consistency, efficiency and human-like conversation to your daily business operations. Most importantly, they’re extremely cost-effective.

If you are a company that is just starting to consider the chatbot route for your organization, consider integrating chatbots with your existing apps and websites to maximize customer engagement and increase employee productivity.

If you’d like to know more about chatbots and watch our enterprise chatbot builder platform – BotCore in action, feel free to schedule a demo with our experts.

FREE EBOOK

a guide to choosing an enterprise bot builder platform

The post Chatbots vs Apps: What does your business need? appeared first on BotCore.

4 Amazing Things Enterprise Chatbots Can Do For Users

Abhishek Shanbhag — Tue, 12 Jun 2018 14:24:22 +0000

Amazing Things Enterprise Chatbots Can Do For Users

A report by Markets and Markets reveals that the chatbots market is set to be worth 3,172.0 Million USD by 2021. It isn’t too far fetched, at this point, to claim that bots just may be one of the most popular AI technologies today.

However, despite their popularity and increasing awareness around the incredible benefits that chatbots can bring to businesses, there hasn’t been nearly as much discussion around what chatbots can actually do for users. So while chatbots are touted as the next big thing across a variety of industries, businesses still do not know them for much beyond their ability to answer their customer’s most basic FAQs.

Before we delve into incredible new benefits that chatbots can bring to your users, let’s first take a step back to understand chatbots and their functionality.

A chatbot is essentially a computer program that enables conversation with an end user via auditory and textual methods. There are currently two types of chatbots- rule-based and AI-powered chatbots, and unsurprisingly, the former is rapidly becoming less and less relevant.

As we experience brand new advancements in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing, we are starting to see chatbots that are smarter than ever and provide intelligent, highly relevant answers. Typically, chatbots reside as a contact in messaging apps used by the organization, such as Slack, Skype, Skype for Business and so on.

Enterprise chatbots today are built by leveraging powerful enterprise chatbot building platforms that can both enable organizations to build and deploy chatbots. It would be interesting to note that before chatbot platforms were introduced into the market, building a bot was complicated, time-consuming, and required a specific set of sophisticated skills. As robust chatbot building platforms enter the market, it’s become easier than ever for businesses to get started with minimum deployment time and zero coding skills.

Enterprise chatbots are a trending technology and are in fact, easy to build. Therefore it is imperative that business leaders take the time to understand ways in which chatbots can impact their organizations and its operations.

Before making the decision to build bots, it is critical to evaluate specific challenges that the business may be facing and identify ways in which a chatbot can address and resolve them. Therefore, the chatbot development process begins by first strategizing and assigning specific tasks you want your bot to do.

In this blog, we’re going to explore five top tasks your chatbots can perform. Read on to see which one of these use cases would be most relevant to your business and its functions:

4 AMAZING THINGS ENTERPRISE CHATBOTS CAN DO FOR USERS

THEY CAN PUSH PERSONALIZED ALERTS

Just like a mobile app, chatbots have the capability to deliver personalized notifications and alerts to customers and employees directly from your enterprise systems. This serves to ensure that your business users are kept updated about various changes and news in the organization.

Users also have the option to decide the frequency, timing and type of alerts they’d prefer to receive – chatbots can deliver alerts in multimedia formats- and schedule accordingly.

Chatbot administrators can also schedule specific type of alerts that are meant to be delivered to a desired set of users.

Alerts can be both simple text-based notifications or ones which require users to perform an action.

Here are examples of how notifications and alerts can help across a variety of organizations and departments:

An intranet chatbot can send notifications to relevant employees when there is a new document added to the intranet knowledge base.
A sales chatbot can keep users notified about changes in important metrics, included but not limited to MSL, leads, OTIF, payment terms and so on. These alerts can also be customized based on the location of the sales personnel and the specific customer they are about to meet, so they have access to the most relevant information required to make a sale. Chatbots can notify users about a dip in revenue from specific regions or brands etc. As a result, the sales personnel will be able to immediately dive into why it’s happening and take appropriate measures to fix.
A banking chatbot can send alerts to customers reminding them to make payments or to advise them that they have exceeded the credit limit, so they do not attract unforeseen fees.
An e-commerce chatbot can send alerts on incomplete orders. If a customer has items that have been left in the cart, he is reminded to complete the transaction to secure the items he wanted to purchase.
Chatbots can alert users about upcoming ERP downtimes.

THEY CAN COMPLETE TASKS

There are a variety of repetitive tasks that have to be performed across organizations for a variety of reasons. These routine tasks can be time-consuming and hamper productivity.

A chatbot can easily be introduced to address these tasks and complete them without glitches. These tasks can involve collecting, modifying, posting information in systems of record or making form-based data entries that employees and customers need to perform commonly. Using a chatbot not only saves time but also eliminates repetitions, that may be caused by human error.

Chatbots also eliminate the need to switch across multiple applications, go through various mundane procedures or depend on personnel to get tasks done. By automating the process, you are saving time for both customers and employees. Users can get all their simple, yet repetitive tasks are done, simply by “conversing” with the chatbot via their actively used organization wide messaging app.

Examples:

Employees can request an IT helpdesk chatbot to generate an IT ticket for any issues they may be encountering
Using an HR chatbot, employees can apply for leaves or generate payslips
Employees can request a Business Intelligence chatbot to update or make changes to a report.
Customers can place a product order
With Healthcare chatbots, patients can schedule appointments with doctors

FETCH INFORMATION

Chatbots provide users with an easy way to look data up or generate reports and facilitate better decision making for both your customers and employees.

Users can specify parameters and filters they require for the information they need and chatbots can share required information with users in a way that’s easy for users to scan, understand and send along for further processing.

Enabling users with chatbots allows them to easily request for information they require through voice commands and basic keystrokes.

Chatbots can easily answer questions via text or any multimedia format, including but not limited to images, graphs, pie charts and so on.

Decision makers can easily obtain granular business insights and key metrics right within the actively used messaging app. This eliminates the need for them to log into applications or scan through multiple dashboards or filter data to access the information they require. Instead, relevant information is made available to them right at their fingertips, saving time and greatly increasing efficiency.

Examples:

Employee to a BI chatbot: What is the marketing ROI for 2016 and 2017?
Employee to a BI chatbot: Get me the sales report for Antwerp from Jan to April
Customer to a banking chatbot: Generate a report of my FICO score

THEY CAN ANSWER QUESTIONS

This is a functionality that most people who’ve ever heard of a chatbot are already familiar with.

Most websites are equipped with chatbots that proactively ask visitors questions that enable them to provide a personalized experience and help the user reach exactly the information or page they are looking for.

This same functionality also applies within businesses – from the most simple FAQs to more complex questions, chatbots can be designed to address a wide range of queries from employees across the organization. Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) enable bots to understand the query and the intent and therefore, provide highly accurate answers. Well-designed chatbots can also quickly adapt to the office jargon, offering users the most relevant and informed answers to their queries.

Using an enterprise chatbot platform, administrators can detect the most commonly asked questions by users to the bot. Thereby you can constantly update the FAQ database of the bot and consistently enhance user experience and adoption

Developers

For more complex questions, chatbots can search for answers from pre-defined websites or databases, which can be in a variety of formats – word, PDF and others.

Examples:

Employee to HR bot: How many leaves do I have left?
Employee to IT helpdesk bot: How do I reset my password
Customer to tech support: Can you tell me more about a product or service

CONCLUSION

Enterprise chatbot technology is evolving at an incredibly rapid rate and chatbots are quickly replacing traditional apps, whose functionalities are not adept at answering customers queries effectively.

Chatbots that drive enterprise productivity perform a variety of functions – much more than simply answering basic FAQs – they have the power to quickly become the backbone of enterprise search.

We recommend that business leaders work closely to define a robust enterprise bot strategy before embarking on the journey of building one. This strategy should address specific organizational challenges and how they plan to leverage chatbots to address these.

A workplace chatbot should be built to handle a variety of requests rather than having individual chatbots for each department or type of function. The idea is to have a go-to bot that employees and customers can rely on to find the information they require.

If you’re interested to learn more about chatbots or how you can integrate them into your business, get in touch with one of our experts who will help you explore the right use case of a chatbot for your organization.

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Different Ways Manufacturing Companies Can Use Chatbots

Jagan Jami — Fri, 18 May 2018 23:32:00 +0000

Different Ways Manufacturing Companies Can Use Chatbots

The global chatbot market is expected to reach $1.23 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 24.3 percent – Grand View Research

Organizations across the world are looking for ways they too can deploy chatbots in their organization and drive rapid efficiencies. There are a variety of benefits that chatbots can offer – simplified internal workflows, improved customer experience and increased employee productivity. The manufacturing industry is keen to adopt chatbots as well.

While the use cases we’ve mentioned are quite generic, chatbots do have specific niche applications for the manufacturing industry, that can be quite the game changers for this sector as a whole. Let’s take a quick look at a few plausible scenarios:

SUPPLIES AND INVENTORY

Often, the manufacturing industry suffers losses because supplies are collected even before a need for them is registered. Leveraging a chatbot-based query system allows managers to check the status of parts and materials simply by using a messaging app on their smartphones. They can obtain specific information they’d require in order to process orders successfully.

Chatbots that are integrated with messaging apps allow managers and buyers to order additional supplies when required via the same interface. The bot takes their requests and converts them into a formal order and facilitates successful fulfilment.

ORDER FULFILMENT AND DELIVERY

If products meet desired expectations, delivery is typically the last step of the supply chain management lifecycle. Chatbots facilitate the efficient functioning of this step – managers and buyers can simply ask queries in human language to obtain information about pending orders and current inventory. Further, they can also obtain information about expected delivery dates and status of the shipment.

ALLOW MAINTENANCE CREWS TO CHECK ENVIRONMENT OR WORKPLACE CONDITIONS

We expect that chatbots will soon play an instrumental role in controlling the environmental conditions in manufacturing units. This ensures smooth functioning of operations. A chatbot can align with existing platforms and provide reports on various equipment metrics. Employees, too, can simply ask the chatbot questions on the metrics, and make necessary alterations to the temperature, pressure, etc. to ensure that the equipment is performing at maximum efficiency.

Another advantage of using chatbots over making employees login to separate devices to access these metrics, is that a chatbot can be accessed easily from any mobile device, making timely changes possible.

SUPPLY CHAIN

The manufacturing industry is heavily reliant on a supply chain management system to glean important information about inventory, shipping and optimizing labor and resources. Building supply chain bots will simplify interactions between employees, so they have access to all the data they require, thereby increasing overall productivity and engagement.

These bots can provide real-time status updates on the manufacturing process – including products that have been produced, distributed and returned. Bots also enable you to keep effortless track of purchase orders, in-stock and out-of-stock inventory, produce reports for shipping notifications and more.

DEVELOP A BOT STRATEGY

We’ve only mentioned a few use cases to limit the scope of this blog – however, manufacturers have a plethora of ways they can leverage chatbots to drive business efficiencies. We recommend working with a strategic partner to develop a bot roadmap to discover high-impact use cases within your organization.

Feel free to get in touch with one of our Manufacturing chatbot experts for a free consultation and get a free demo of our AI-Powered Chatbot building platform – BotCore.

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How Chatbots will help in HR onboarding

Rakesh Reddy — Fri, 11 May 2018 12:12:00 +0000

How Chatbots Will Help In HR Onboarding

Organizations are incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) as central components of their digital transformation strategy.

According to Gartner, more than 50% of CIOs will have artificial intelligence as one of their top five investment priorities by 2020.

AI-powered chatbots are set to transform different aspects of HR process, especially recruiting, hiring, and onboarding new employees. HR teams can progressively leverage these chatbots to streamline and personalize the HR onboarding process.

HR administrators are starting to pilot AI to achieve outstanding value to the organization by leveraging chatbots for recruiting, onboarding, employee development and training. Especially in high attrition industries such as retail, finance, healthcare. etc

A recent survey of 350 HR leaders conducted by ServiceNow finds 92% of HR leaders agree that the future of providing an enhanced level of employee service will include chatbots.

Learn More: How Chatbots Help HR Managers Improve Employee Experience And Reduce Cost Per Contact

7 WAYS HR CHATBOTS CAN HELP IN HR ONBOARDING

INITIAL SCREENING

In 2016, 56% of recruiters said they can’t make good hires because of lengthy hiring procedures
– MRI Network Survey 2016

Reduce the hiring cycle by automating your initial screening using the power of conversational user interface.

Chatbots can initiate the interview process by fielding screening questions and capturing the answers. This helps in automatically screening and shortlisting the right candidates by assessing their potential.

Automating screening has an additional benefit of eliminating human bias and identifying the candidates based on merit.

WALKING RECRUITS THROUGH INITIAL ONBOARDING REQUIREMENT

HR personnel need to collect basic information like KYC, tax forms and signed non-disclosure agreements or other legal documents from the new employees during onboarding. It would be a rather time-consuming activity for the HR personnel to collect information from every employee.

In such scenarios, HR chatbots can be best utilized to assist potential hires. During the onboarding process, chatbots can answer queries from new hires through the conversational interface. They can speed up the onboarding process by collecting employee information, completing forms, and assisting in online registration by removing the need for paperwork.

GUIDING NEW HIRES THROUGH COMPANY POLICIES

New hires require a lot of attention initially to get answers to some of the most repetitive or basic questions regarding the policies or standard operating procedures etc. of an organization.

New hires and HRs can save a lot of time by redirecting interactions involving basic queries to an HR chatbot. These could be anything from HR policies about a vacation to standard operating procedures for new employees.

HR chatbots can help businesses improve the employee experience and help reduce HR workload by answering employees questions about latest company policies instantly and accurately.

INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIZATIONS TEAM

In industries like retail etc. in which workforce is spread across multiple locations, onboarding can be a major challenge. Finding out about team updates, company achievements, scheduled projects and objectives is a basic need for a new entrant in a department.

New hires don’t know whom to contact for completing tasks or ask for information – in order to get the required information, they start contacting the HR team for even the most minor things.

AI chatbots can reduce dependency on HR and prioritize issues. Using chatbots, new employees can directly interact with the bot regarding their team’s whereabouts and updates within the organization. Additionally, chatbots help new joinees extract details about their assigned role, team hierarchy and their position in the organization landscape.

SHIFT MANAGEMENT

While employees are in the process of gaining insights and getting a hang of the systems, chatbots are programmed to set up monitoring of login logout timings of the new joinee.

Generally, employees maintain and manage their time sheets using specifically intended portals provided by the organization. Employees need to login into the portal and update them physically during login and logout times. This process would take time, impact productivity and may lead to human errors too.

AI-powered chatbots assist employees in check-in and check-out before and after the work-hour directly using the conversational interface. These details can then further get into your time management applications leaving no room for human error.

EMPLOYEE SURVEYS OR REFRESHER QUIZZES

HR can use chatbots to the fullest of potential by conducting surveys that are employee-specific. This helps them identify the patterns in employee experience in the onboarding process. This process helps HR in identifying their areas of improvement in the entire onboarding process.

Organizations can initiate refresher quizzes on any operational or HR practices to identify the pitfalls of each department leveraging chatbots. This helps in gaining extra mileage in the employee engagement space apart from process improvements.

EXPERIENCE IMPASSIVE YET HELPFUL INTERACTIONS

Some HR questions are awkward to ask a human. Employees might be fearful/ feel quite embarrassed to ask certain personal HR questions.

HR Chatbots are significantly more helpful than humans when it comes to asking highly sensitive personal inquiries.

Using HR bots employees could talk about a few personal concerns like:

If and when an employee needs to disclose a pregnancy, and what the maternal leave policies are.

What qualifies as sexual harassment and how to report it.

If employees are intending to leave the organization, they can ask about how much vacation time they have remaining and the compensation they get for remaining vacation time.

If the employee is not really satisfied with the answers provided by the chatbots, then he/she can interact about the issue directly with a human agent.

HR CHATBOTS ARE THE FUTURE

By 2021, 30% of high-volume recruiting activities (sourcing, screening, shortlisting and candidate interaction) will be done without human intervention, using innovative applications based on AI and data as a service (DaaS) – Gartner

If the onboarding process is carried out by chatbots, HR teams will have more time in managing critical and high priority issues resulting in an improved ESAT and lower cost per contact.

Organizations will have an edge over peer companies by ensuring enhanced employee engagement, improving employee retention and driving an increase in overall productivity.

On the other hand, employees feel more engaged and have a 24×7 accessible assistant who can come to their rescue at critical times and resolve issues.

Both organizations and employees will have a win-win situation by employing chatbots – by boosting employee productivity and maximizing efficiency.

Ready to deploy chatbots to assist you in your onboarding process and conducting employee surveys? If yes, check out our HR chatbot built on BotCore – An enterprise bot builder platform.

If you’d like to learn more about this topic, please feel free to get in touch with one of our experts for a personalized consultation.

A Return To Workplace Checklist For HR Leaders

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Every ERP System Needs An AI Chatbot. Here’s Why

Jagan Jami — Fri, 04 May 2018 21:35:00 +0000

Every ERP System Needs An AI Chatbot. Here’s Why

55% to 75% of all ERP projects fail to meet their objectives – Gartner

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has long conjured up images of confusion and a falling apart of even the best-laid strategies for business users. ERP systems which typically feature complex user interfaces have done little to improve the productivity of even the most enthusiastic users. Users are forced to spend way too much navigating the system, switching from one window to the next, and across multiple dashboards to access important data and get tasks done.

As organizations have increasingly started to see the drawbacks with an ERP system, they’ve begun to actively seek strategies in which to facilitate the usage of ERP to generate real business outcomes.

Over the years, several organizations have implemented external facing chatbots to interact with customers. You enter an e-commerce website and you’re immediately greeted with a chatbot checking in with you to help you around the online store. And this has proven to be rather successful at engaging customers.

Is there a way to integrate this same, proven technology into employee-facing applications, to facilitate the vast number of internal business applications? It would absolutely revolutionize ERP, Line of Business (LOB), Employee Self Service (ESS) and various other systems.

WHAT IS A CHATBOT?

A chatbot is essentially a software that is powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence, and can carry human-like conversations. Conversations between the user and a bot happen via a chat interface using textual or auditory methods.

Bots are usually built using a chatbot platform or frameworks, and deployed on messaging apps like Skype, Skype for Business, Slack, Google Teams etc. or virtual assistants like Alexa, to converse with end-users, via natural language.

WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER INTEGRATING CHATBOTS INTO YOUR ERP SYSTEM

MAKE BETTER DECISIONS AND QUICKER

In a cut-throat environment, what sets one organization apart from the rest, is the ability to implement fast decision making that is driven by meaningful insights. By implementing chatbots, you will be able to give decision makers the power to access ERP and business data, without having to switch across multiple screens and dashboards. Data they require can be made available to them incredibly easily, by only having to ask natural-language questions to the ERP bot. Leveraging the power of a bot will mean the drastic simplification of data consumption for decision-makers.

Additionally, if data is too complex to be sent or shared on a chat window, bots can even be designed to provide links to the relevant ERP screen. Bots enable improve decision making across the board, including marketing, sales and finance departments.

All of these teams rely heavily on intelligent decision-making – the role of bots providing them with just the right data they seek, will not only cut time spent on navigation, but will also help them power through the process of deriving relevant insights from the data consumed. Bots can also be used to generate exhaustive reports or specific data-points from any given report.

Bots can also provide information in a format of your choice of consumption – whether that is plain text or rich-media formats, including but not limited to graphs, pie-charts, and others.

ENABLE EFFICIENT MOBILE ACCESS TO ERP DATA

Employees who work remotely will require access to ERP data in an easy-to-consume format. Furthermore, field personnel will require mobile access to ERP data, as well.

Mobile ERP client apps provide remote workforces, typically salespeople and warehouse managers, who are at client sites or freight deports, on-demand insights into resource planning. However, because the screen sizes are so small, it can be rather challenging to access data.

It is especially important that they are able to access the required data, within seconds and with ease. While on the ‘field’, so to speak, they will not have the time to navigate through endless reports. They require data and insights in as little time as possible. Integrating a chatbot interface enables your ERP users to access your ERP data through a single field.

Chatbots address this time and location challenge for businesses, by generating quick answers via natural language questions.

PERSONALIZED ALERTS

By introducing chatbots to ERP, you can receive personalized alerts, and act on the alert from a device of your choosing – whether that is a computer or mobile device. These alerts enable users to immediately spring into action and request for more information or potential solutions on addressing the alert. Needless to say, this use case will have a plethora of applications across various departments of an organization.

AUTOMATING ERP DATA INPUT

A major expense of any organization still revolves around data inputs. Several members of the workforce are dedicated their time to an exhausting process of manually inputting data. This often results in data redundancy and entering incorrect data. Leveraging the power of bots which are driven by AI will greatly reduce the time it takes to input and change data.

Bots will do all of the groundwork in data mining, modification and submitting relevant data into the records, after eliminating repeated entries. Your employees can save time spent on mind-numbing activities of eliminating repeated/incorrect entries, and focus on activities that facilitate organization growth instead!

IMPROVED USER EXPERIENCE AND ADOPTION

Because of the complexities of using an ERP system and the dismal user experience, they fail to garner high adoption rates. This is typically why most ERP systems fail. However, your ERP investment can deliver the results you are looking for, by introducing bots.

Bots behave as a nearly human-like representative of the ERP system by being available on demand, 24/7, at the tip of the user’s fingers, and across various devices. They also act as a single platform for accessing ERP data, updating data, generating reports and receiving personalized alerts. All of these factors work together to improve end-user experience tremendously, which subsequently results in increased adoption rates.

In addition to the ERP, chatbots have various applications across other business systems as well, including but not limited to, LOB, Business Intelligence, CRM and so on. The bottomline is this: chatbots get you the information and insights you require to make intelligent, everyday business decisions and craft organizational strategies that have the potential to revolutionize the growth trajectory for your business.

If you’d like to learn more about this topic, please feel free to get in touch with one of our experts for a personalized consultation.

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Important Use Cases and Examples of Chatbots For The Retail Industry

Hemanth Kumar — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 11:32:00 +0000

Important Use Cases And Examples Of Chatbots For The Retail Industry

There is no denying the fact that technology and automation have rapidly transformed the way business is done. The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), in particular, has given rise to interesting speculations about how rapidly robots will take over the workplace.

Customer-facing industries have jumped on the chatbots bandwagon almost as soon as they arrived into the market. The results have been increased efficiencies and reduced costs, especially in customer service functions. It is no surprise then that businesses across a plethora of industries are looking into how they too can adopt chatbots and what it can mean for their business outcomes.

As consumers are spoilt for the convenience offered by e-commerce, consumers are increasingly expecting conversations related to their purchases to happen online, anytime, anywhere. This makes the role of chatbots increasingly apparent in a market saturated with businesses trying to outdo each other in terms of customer service.

Let’s explore areas in which chatbots can make shopping a simple and more enjoyable experience.

HOW RETAILERS CAN USE CHATBOTS TO PROVIDE BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE

DRIVING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

The one thing that makes a customer come back to an app or a website is superior service and finding products suited for their needs. In order to stay ahead of the competition, it has become imperative that retailers are actively engaging customers 24/7. A happy and engaged customer is likely to spend more than the disengaged one.

Chatbots enable retail businesses to provide superior customer service by driving customer engagement 24/7 without requiring human intervention 24/7.

As an intuitive alternative to customer service, chatbots are making waves with their conversational user interface, backed by machine learning in order to provide efficient and personalized product recommendations and a way to smartly engage with the customers.

Chatbots also integrate with various communication channels such as Facebook Messenger, Kik, and e-commerce websites. This allows retailers to provide 24/7 support, enhanced shopper experience and recommendations. The overall result is happy returning customers and a noticeable boost in sales.

ENHANCE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

Shopping online can be chaotic since there are a plethora of choices and large catalogos can often be clumsy and overwhelming. That said, how would you like it, if you felt like you’re in a physical store with a shopping assistant?

Chatbots are creating a similar experience as that of a physical store. They assist customers online by helping them navigate through various options to find the products they are looking for. With the intention to provide excellent customer service, chatbots are programmed to answer simple queries and provide front-line support to customers and to accentuate their shopping experience.

CHATBOT EXAMPLES IN THE RETAIL INDUSTRY

“Chatbots integrating with messaging apps” is an emerging retail trend.

Retail therapy, is no longer abstract. With the kind of experience messaging apps are providing in terms of usage, retailers are able to effectively eliminate friction for customers.

Also, integrating chatbots with a messaging app is enabling customers to experience a whole other level of shopping experience.

H&M

2016, saw a major upcoming trend with the launch of H&M’s chatbot on messenger app Kik. A significant amount of customers liked the recommendations and user experience. The experience enabled customers to choose from the recommendations, filters and style preferences. It enabled them to share product pages and favorite items with their contacts on the Kik app.

TACO BELL

Similarly, fast-food giant Taco Bell integrated their chatbot with the messaging app Slack, which allowed customers to use the app to request food items, prices, ingredients and pay. This integration led to the brand’s expansion and enhanced their brand image.

MACY’S

Macy’s optimized chatbots for mobile and web primarily to locate items and provide customer service, which includes answering queries and assisting customers in finding the product they’re looking for.

SEPHORA

Sephora is pushing towards conversational commerce with its debut on the messaging app. With Kik, Sephora is connecting with their customers to drive sales, by leveraging the one-to-one experience and replicate in-store conversations on mobile. Customers can directly make purchases within the Kik app. Sephora Chatbot enables users to make beauty recommendations, DIYs, read ratings and find products that are accurate for their skin type and tone.

The bot provides an experience similar to that of shopping with a friend or a store associate while interacting with the appropriate content and finding relevant products. Sephora Chatbot with the messaging app Kik is particularly targeting Gen-Z audiences and providing a fun, social platform to engage with their customers and improving the brand image with innovative ways of engaging with new and existing clients.

CHATBOT USE CASES FOR RETAIL EMPLOYEES

AI-POWERED SALES BOTS FOR FIELD SALES FORCE

Retail companies deploy several field-sales personnel who need quick and easy access to key sales data. Working in field force is all about the data – recording past interactions and saving data for future references is paramount when you’re talking to the customer during your front-line sales activities.

Allowing your sales personnel access to AI-powered intelligent sales bots provides them with valuable insights, which further gives them the leverage they need to close sales along with reminders and notifications which provide timely assistance to the sales force in doing their tasks leading to the elimination of manual efforts and increase in efficiency and saved time.

It is crucial for a salesperson in the field to have access to all relevant data and be able to prioritize the line of actions. With intelligent sales bots and the conversational interface they offer, it gets easy and quick to make informed decisions. Sales reps can focus on tasks that need their attention, be more productive in shorter time periods.

Further Reading:

AI-POWERED SALES BOTS FOR FIELD SALES FORCE

HR departments often struggle with managing a large and disparate workforce – right from managing job recruitment, selection, onboarding and promotion to developing and overseeing employee benefits and wellness programs. They also have to draft and enforce personnel policies. All of these are challenges that can be addressed by chatbots.

Automating HR functions and enabling conversational experiences eliminates paper-based workflows and allows the HR department to be better connected and more efficient.

Let’s walk through how chatbots can improve the process of hiring a new employee.

Chatbots can help the HR department smoothen the onboarding process. AI helps eliminate repeatable tasks and efficiently answer frequently asked questions related to – training processes, documentation feedback, work ethics, codes, etc. – all of which are particularly relevant and vital for new hires.

AI-powered chatbots facilitate change throughout the company, by regularly updating changes in the backend, and ensuring that all employees are notified immediately.

Chatbots for HR also enhance communication between the HR department and employees, enabling faster accomplishment of tasks.

Further Reading:

AI-POWERED BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE BOTS FOR REAL-TIME ALERTS

Now more than ever, it has become imperative for retailers to harness analytical data on supply chain motion, inventory levels, consumer demand, sales, etc. – all of which are critical to making sound business decisions, especially in the areas of marketing and procurement.

Chatbots enable advanced retail analytics that offers detailed customer insights, as well as insights into the business and processes of the organization, in order to highlight areas that can or should be improved. BI bots are particularly gaining popularity because of their ability to: engage in natural conversations, provide real-time alerts and effective security and enable seamless integration.

As businesses work hard to increase employee productivity, BI chatbots incorporate a culture of analytics to employees’ daily workflows.

Acuvate’s BI bot lets employees get access to relevant BI data and analytics via a 3rd party messaging app like Slack, Skype and more. The bot provides a persona to the BI system, filters data and eliminates the need to switch between multiple dashboards.

The BI bot from Acuvate can seamlessly adapt to office jargon and correctly interpret user intent. It sends data, key analytics and alerts to the relevant user, and keeps them updated about any data anomalies.

It also includes important features such as multi-factor authentication, channel authorization and user authentication. The bot seamlessly integrates within your line of business applications and makes transactions while searching for your documents.

FUNCTION-SPECIFIC USE CASES

While the above are industry-specific use cases of chatbots, retailers can also consider generic function-specific use cases of chatbots such as:

AI BOTS HELPING ENTERPRISE HELPDESK

By leveraging AI bots, enterprises are revolutionizing help desk practices with 24/7 availability and quick responses, thereby enabling employees to be more productive.

Increased support from the IT staff enables employees to access self-service without the need to constantly go through a ticketing system. AI bots help employees with basic issues and answer their queries to fix problems easily, without requiring human intervention.

AI bots reduce support costs by minimizing the size of the staff that is typically required to maintain the IT helpdesk department. Also, since employees can enlist the assistance of chatbots to get issues resolved, there is less dependence on a helpdesk for low-value tickets. This means there are fewer interruptions at work and subsequently, improved productivity.

Check out Acuvate’s Chatbots for IT Helpdesk

THE ROLE OF CHATBOTS IN INTRANETS

Successful Intranets are known to increase employee collaboration while contributing to knowledge management within an organization. An employee typically has to login to the intranet to gain access to new updates, messages, notifications, etc.

However, when a chatbot is implemented into the intranet, it can serve a variety of purposes – it can keep users notified about relevant updates, announcements, news, and other sources of information stored on the intranet. Chatbots facilitate an environment where employees are automatically made aware of vital information and are provided with hassle-free access to insights and quick suggestions, thereby motivating employees to continue using the intranet.

Acuvate’s MeshBOT helps mitigate intranet adoption challenges by empowering employees to optimally utilize intranet. As employees interact with MeshBOT, it gathers information and patterns, which enables it to provide a personalized experience.

LAUNCHING CHATBOTS IN THE RETAIL SPACE CAN BE A GAME CHANGER

Chatbots have a variety of use cases for industries across the board, but for retail, in particular, they hold great promise. Dramatically increased sales, upsell and cross-sell opportunities, informed decision making, personalized experiences, improved customer satisfaction, service and loyalty – all of these can be direct benefits of leveraging chatbots.

Build your own bot in a matter of hours using BotCore – an Enterprise Chatbot Accelerator solution by Acuvate. Learn more about our approach to building chatbots for the retail industry.

If you’d like to learn more about this topic, please feel free to get in touch with one of our experts for a personalized consultation.

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The post Important Use Cases and Examples of Chatbots For The Retail Industry appeared first on BotCore.

How Chatbots Can Simplify the Recruitment Process

Rakesh Reddy — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 12:42:00 +0000

How Chatbots Can Simplify The Recruitment Process

According to CareerBuilder, over 67% of the applicants have a positive impression about organizations who keep them updated throughout the application process.

However, it is a herculean task for recruiters to provide regular updates to every one of the aspirants participating in the recruitment process.

In fact, they hardly have time to personally update the status of rejected applications while they’re busy sourcing candidates. Almost 75% of the applicants never hear back from recruiters.

This is an area in which chatbots can transform the applicant experience and take it to a new level.

According to Randstad Talent Trends survey, 84% of C-suite executives and human capital leaders assume AI will have an impact on the workplace in the next three to five years. And research firm IDC predicts the overall market for AI is expected to cross $46 billion by the end of 2020.

AI has the ability to take your HR experience to a higher level. According to Donald Southern, an HR expert at Resumes Planet, “AI can assist you in handling recruiting, productivity, and retention more effectively than regular HR techniques. Besides, it enables you to do the recruitment process faster than ever before.”

HOW ARE CHATBOTS SIMPLIFYING THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS?

Chatbots have been around for quite a while now, but in today’s digital world they are playing a vital role in many business processes. Organizations are quickly adopting this AI-powered technology, especially in the recruitment processes.

Chatbots are setting a new trend in the recruitment industry to manage time-consuming or repetitive administrative tasks with ease.

They provide a range of functions like

Resume Parsing
Making significant inquiries to filter the applicants for the screening process,
Providing updates about the status of an application
Answering FAQs to speed up hiring process for the busy recruiter.

Additionally, chatbots will come handy to collect data from candidates using a text conversation rather than asking them to fill out lengthy forms. A SmashFly report found that 74% of candidates who start filling the job applications will drop off before completing it. Organizations that use chatbots can save 74% of recruitment marketing efforts, time and budget!

Candidates can take the help of the HR virtual assistants available on their company websites or social handles to pump in their required information for the job application. Needless to say, all the conversations enabled on a website or social platforms undergo the standard security compliance and authentication methods while conversing with the chatbot.

By 2022, HR and recruiting chatbots have the potential to reduce business costs by more than $8 billion – Juniper Research

Here are few advantages of using recruitment chatbots:

They are available round the clock.
Quickly responds to any query raised.
Frees up HR personnel time.
Saves time and money with its smart and automated workflow.
Reduces cost per hire.
Handles multiple requests from different applicants simultaneously.
Keeps candidates engaged throughout the recruitment process and helps in improving the brand value.
Available across different messaging channels like Messenger, Slacks, SMS, etc.

4 SMART WAYS CHATBOTS ARE USED TODAY IN RECRUITMENT PROCESSES

ANSWER CANDIDATE FAQS

Juniper research forecasts that chatbots will answer 75-90% of queries and saves an average time of over 4 minutes and $0.50-$0.70 per interaction.

Recruitment chatbots are used to communicate with applicants to answer FAQs, interact with them to ask qualifying questions and speed up the screening process, and can also schedule an interview with a recruiter.

A major benefit of chatbot in recruiting is its ability to engage with an unlimited number of applicants simultaneously in real-time and answer their questions instantly, thereby greatly enhancing the candidate experience.

A recent survey by Allegis observed that 58% of candidates are comfortable interacting with AI for initial questioning in the application process.

COLLECT CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE FEEDBACK

Do you know how applicants feel about their recruiting experience with your organization?

In today’s tight labour market, organizations are identifying that candidate experience is turning into a major differentiator. Getting feedback and suggestions about candidates experience is key to differentiate from competition and build relationships.

AI enables intelligent chatbots to collect feedback and process it further. Chatbots capture feedback from applicants by asking simple questions about the job application and the screening process and also take suggestions to enhance it.

Sometimes, candidates tend to drop off in the middle of the application process. In these cases, chatbots can quickly get into action by enquiring why the candidate chose to not pursue the application further.

Key data that can be collected to add value to your recruitment process:

Notation Feedback: Design relevant questions that come with predefined answers. This helps in instant exchange of real-time feedback. Instead of forms, candidates will have a powerful interactive conversational interface to share their feedback.
Point of Improvement: Employers can pose questions like “where do you think we need to improve” and gain insights on the areas of improvement. The feedback collected from candidates is passed on to recruiters to initiate necessary actions and refine the process to best fit the human capital needs.

Using these insights, organizations can ensure provide an engaging experience to candidates and help HRs in eliminating human bias and capacity for error.

EMPLOYER BRANDING TOOL

According to LinkedIn report on employer brand statistics, 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job.

Using a recruiting chatbot to communicate and engage with applicants can enable the organization to be recognized as innovative and responsive in recruiting when compared to peer companies.

Some organizations are taking their branding to the next level by giving a personality to their recruiting chatbot. They align the chatbot and its interactions with their organizational culture and values. Another benefit of recruitment chatbots is that they foster the employer brand by ensuring consistency in messaging and treating candidates during the recruiting process.

According to LinkedIn reports, organizations who differentiate themselves with a strong employer brand enjoy a 50% lower cost-per-hire and 1-2x faster time to hire.

HELP RECRUITERS SAVE A LOT OF TIME AND RESOURCES

According to SHRM Survey, the average Cost-per-Hire for companies is $4,129 and it takes an average time of 42 days to fill an open position.

A recruitment chatbot can dramatically lower both the cost of hire and time to hire by automating a large part of qualifying and scheduling interviews while simultaneously keeping candidates engaged.

Most resumes received for a high volume role may be unqualified and recruiters don’t have the time nor capacity to interact with candidates they plan to reject. Using a recruitment chatbot can help them interact with applicants and quickly screen out unqualified candidates. This helps both the applicant and HR save time and ensure engaging candidate experience. Moreover, recruiters can focus most of their time and effort on creating connections and building relationships with qualified and interested candidates.

With the present push towards AI and automation in the recruitment process, chatbots with advanced applications have the capacity to reduce recruiter workload.

In a complex scenario demanding engaging several candidates at once, chatbots are the most promising answer organizations have. They eliminate complexities and help businesses ensure there are no missed opportunities by providing an avenue to create efficient, engaging experiences for both recruiters and candidates. Chatbots also help organizations build the employer brand, which is vital to attracting the right talent.

Are you looking for a recruitment chatbot solution? Check out Acuvate’s enterprise bot builder platform BotCore, which enables organizations to create and train their own recruitment chatbot to handle employee queries and improve HR and operational efficiencies.

If you’d like to learn more about this topic, please feel free to get in touch with one of our experts for a personalized consultation.

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The post How Chatbots Can Simplify the Recruitment Process appeared first on BotCore.

Business Productivity Archives - BotCore

Top 5 Myths About AI You should stop believing

Top 5 Myths About AI You Should Stop Believing

The top 5 AI MYTHS

1. There Is No Need For AI Strategy

2. AI Is All About Automation

3. AI, Machine Learning And Deep Learning Are The Same

4. AI Will Replace Humans

5. AI Is A Cost-intensive Undertaking

conclusion

Envisioning The Work-Life Of An Employee In A Chatbot-Driven Enterprise

Envisioning The Work-Life Of An Employee In A Chatbot-Driven Enterprise

what is a chatbot?

chatbots – making nathan’s life easier

Recruitment

HR Onboarding

IT Helpdesk

business intelligence

Intranet/Employee Assistant

explore how chatbots can help

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exploring the use cases of an enterprise chatbot

How Chatbots Can Help The Hospitality Industry Transform The Guest Experience

How Chatbots Can Help The Hospitality Industry Transform The Guest Experience

KEY GUEST-FACING BENEFITS OF CHATBOTS

KEY BUSINESS-FACING BENEFITS OF CHATBOTS

TRANSFORMING THE GUEST EXPERIENCE WITH CHATBOTS

1. VIRTUAL ASSISTANCE FOR BOOKING ROOMS/FLIGHTS OR SPECIFIC SERVICES

2. INSIGHT DRIVEN SERVICES

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS THAT WOW THE GUEST

GOING THE EXTRA MILE

FINAL WORDS

FREE EBOOK

a guide to choosing an enterprise bot builder platform

Chatbots vs Apps: What does your business need?

Chatbots Vs Apps: What Does Your Business Need?

CHATBOTS

APPS

EMPLOYEE-FACING SCENARIO

Case-study

UPON DEPLOYMENT OF THE BOT, THE COMPANY’S COST-PER-CONTACT AND COST-PER-TICKET DECREASED BY OVER 20%.

​

CONSUMER-FACING SCENARIO

BUILDING A CHATBOT V/S MOBILE APP

WILL CHATBOTS REPLACE APPS?

FREE EBOOK

a guide to choosing an enterprise bot builder platform

4 Amazing Things Enterprise Chatbots Can Do For Users

Amazing Things Enterprise Chatbots Can Do For Users

4 AMAZING THINGS ENTERPRISE CHATBOTS CAN DO FOR USERS

THEY CAN PUSH PERSONALIZED ALERTS

THEY CAN COMPLETE TASKS

FETCH INFORMATION

THEY CAN ANSWER QUESTIONS

CONCLUSION

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Different Ways Manufacturing Companies Can Use Chatbots

Different Ways Manufacturing Companies Can Use Chatbots

SUPPLIES AND INVENTORY

ORDER FULFILMENT AND DELIVERY

ALLOW MAINTENANCE CREWS TO CHECK ENVIRONMENT OR WORKPLACE CONDITIONS

SUPPLY CHAIN

DEVELOP A BOT STRATEGY

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a guide to choosing an enterprise bot builder platform

How Chatbots will help in HR onboarding

How Chatbots Will Help In HR Onboarding

7 WAYS HR CHATBOTS CAN HELP IN HR ONBOARDING

INITIAL SCREENING

WALKING RECRUITS THROUGH INITIAL ONBOARDING REQUIREMENT

GUIDING NEW HIRES THROUGH COMPANY POLICIES

INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIZATIONS TEAM

SHIFT MANAGEMENT

EMPLOYEE SURVEYS OR REFRESHER QUIZZES

EXPERIENCE IMPASSIVE YET HELPFUL INTERACTIONS

HR CHATBOTS ARE THE FUTURE

A Return To Workplace Checklist For HR Leaders

Every ERP System Needs An AI Chatbot. Here’s Why

Every ERP System Needs An AI Chatbot. Here’s Why