Chris Knight
Chatbots are evolving fast as the new best friend for business when it comes to customer service and engagement. Here's what you need to be ready for in the coming years.
Chatbots started out as plain text scripts with a limited scope. Now, through AI features like natural language processing and access to third-party cloud services, they can have complex conversations in multiple languages (SnatchBot supports 53 languages so far) and even use text-to-voice and voice-to-text to work through smart devices when a keyboard isn't appropriate. As businesses become more global, having a bot that can respond in the right language can help boost your engagement, sales and broaden the appeal of the company.
You can already make orders for pizza, taxis and other services through a chatbot, and larger transactions will become a natural feature as bots get smarter. This will be especially true for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, to make using them a whole lot easier, rather than remembering endless accounts and long codes. Buying on the spot will make chatbots a more rounded and natural experience whether its a reminder to order groceries on your list or business consumables, or you're chatting to a plumber or trade.
Medical bots are already handling non-urgent queries, helping decide if you need to see a doctor. Charities and mental health agencies also use bots as a non-threatening voice to chat to for people with all types of issues they might not want to discuss with another person. Helping improve access, accessibility and giving practical advice will be a huge way that people can feel better about reaching out, while not overloading stretched health services.
Businesses are building all sorts of bots to help their workers and customers. And soon, that should move up to the executive suite as bots link to business decision making processes and analytics. These smart bots could alert bosses and leaders to changes in sales, market conditions, as soon as the data changes, or alert them to anything worthy of their time, using AI to offer advice and to report on likely impacts to the CIO, CEO and other key roles.
From taxi to airport, from airline to hotel, bots are a popular service among the travel industry to provide advice and get you going places. Expect these bots to join forces over time to work as one highly useful and more universal travel advisor. They could link up with knowledge of your travel plan and advise on delays, possible upgrades, essential infomation and anything else visitors or business travelers need to know on the go.
