Word of the Day: chatbot

Word of the Day Daily updates on the latest technology terms | January 3, 2019 chatbot A chatbot (sometimes referred to as a chatterbot) is programming that simulates the conversation or "chatter" of a human being through text or voice interactions. Chatbot virtual assistants are increasingly being used to handle simple, look-up tasks in both business-to-customer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) environments. The addition of chatbot assistants not only reduces overhead costs by making better use of support staff time, but it also allows companies to provide a level of customer service during hours when live agents aren't available. Chatbots can have varying levels of complexity and can be stateless or stateful. A stateless chatbot approaches each conversation as if it was interacting with a new user. In contrast, a stateful chatbot is able to review past interactions and frame new responses in context. Adding a chatbot to a company's service or sales department requires little coding; today, a number of chatbot service providers that allow developers to build conversational interfaces for third-party business applications.   Perhaps the most important aspect of implementing a chatbot is selecting the right natural language processing (NLP) engine. If the user interacts with the bot through voice, for example, then the chatbot requires a speech recognition engine. Business owners also have to decide whether they want structured or unstructured conversations. Chatbots built for structured conversations are highly scripted, which simplifies programming but restricts the kinds of things that the users can ask.   In business-to-business (B2B) environments, chatbots are commonly scripted and used to respond to frequently asked questions or perform simple, repetitive calls to action. In sales, for example, a chatbot may be a quick way for sales reps to get phone numbers. Chatbots can also be used in service departments, assisting service agents in answering repetitive requests. For example, a service rep might provide the chatbot with an order number and ask when the order was shipped. Generally, once a conversation gets too complex for a chatbot, the call or text window will be transferred to a human service agent. Quote of the Day "While 2018 was the year of chatbot adoption in customer service, 2019 will see the absolute dominance of the chatbot across most customer interactions for consumer-oriented companies." - Kathleen Walch Trending Terms Turing test machine learning engine voice recognition virtual assistant conversational user interface ChatOps Learning Center AI in 2019 will be all about bots and pre-trained models Virtual assistants, chatbots, pre-trained models, ethics and broader adoption will be some of the major trends to watch in the world of AI in 2019. What's the difference between chatbots and virtual assistants? When it comes to the difference between chatbots and virtual assistants, Forrester's Thomas Husson said one is close to a 'dynamic FAQ' and the other is more of a third-party aggregator. Can you guess which is which? Understand chatbot use cases and features for business Chatbot use cases are becoming more viable in the enterprise. Learn how these bots work and their pros and cons for business use. HR automation tops 2019's six big trends HR automation will likely be a major trend for HR pros in 2019. Two things are driving interest: Declining prices of automation tools and improving technology. But how the technology will impact HR jobs is still a question mark. Customer data to play important role in CX software in 2019 In 2019, AI will improve CX software and annoy users and customers, while customer data and product integration will be more important than ever, according to analysts. Users could find applications that work better for them as data continues to integrate easier. Quiz Yourself Bad customer service news spreads like wildfire on Twitter. The wise company deals with customer complaints in an __________ manner. a. empathic b. empathetic Answer Stay in Touch For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition, please contact me at: mrouse@techtarget.com Visit the Word of the Day Archives and catch up on what you've missed! FOLLOW US About This E-Newsletter This e-newsletter is published by the TechTarget network. To unsubscribe from Whatis.com, click here. Please note, this will not affect any other subscriptions you have signed up for. TechTarget, Whatis, 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466. Contact: webmaster@techtarget.com Copyright 2018 TechTarget. All rights reserved.