The term Conversational AI is a fairly new one, with many new solutions, including Humley’s Digital Assistant, coming to the market in the last few years. But what exactly is Conversational AI and why is it so important for organisations?
Where did it come from?
The origins of Conversational AI are routed in the evolution of chatbots. Chatbots have been around since the early 1960s, getting slightly more sophisticated as the decades rolled on, but only as proof points of what was to come downstream.
By the mid-2000s, chatbots began to be commercially deployed, automating basic customer requests, but largely proving to be disappointing and frustrating as their binary nature was limiting, often resulting in hilarious ‘rabbit holes’ of confusion with customers ultimately desperate for a real person to contact.
Conversational AI was, therefore born out of the need for a more sophisticated tool to help organisations handle the plethora of ‘live’ communications they receive daily from customers, suppliers, and employees.
The growing maturity of AI technology significantly assisted with this and has meant that AI applications such as Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning can be added to platforms to understand the nuances of the human language more comprehensively and provide more relevant and personalised user response.
So, what is it?
Conversational AI is the application of a set of technologies, such as Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning within automated voice and chat messaging Assistant.
AI Assistants enable users to make requests, perform actions and interact with a variety of complex systems in a natural way, delivering faster and more meaningful responses leading to improved satisfaction and efficiencies.
How is Conversational AI different from Chatbots?
Conversational AI enables organisations to achieve even greater transformational benefits and efficiencies than the average chatbot through its application of Intelligent Automation technologies and ability to orchestrate a far wider variety of tasks.
Due to this use of technology applications, Conversational AI Assistants can be deployed across a far broader variety of use cases, including not just customer service, but also Sales, Supply Chain, HR, Finance, and IT.
Key Differences between Chatbots & Conversational AI
Chatbots
Typically keyword and rule driven, based on predefined scripts and outcomes.
Navigation based rather than intent discovery and adaptive responses.
Improvements are driven by explicitly changing rules and outcomes to satisfy user requirements.
Typically fail when user input varies from narrow pre-trained entries.
Conversational AI
Replicates human interactions, to help users find complex and diverse knowledge and data.
Understands context and learns continuously from every user interaction.
A constantly learning AI driven experience that suggests new content based on customer and employee inputs
Can switch or break out to new queries, without losing its original context.
To find out more about Conversational AI and how it could transform your organisation, get in touch today.