Once upon a time, on a blue planet, marketers were given a precious gift by the Goddess of artificial intelligence;
chatbot. These nice computer programs were able to automate tasks, by
chatting with Muggles through a conversational interface. Thanks to AI,
they can answer to complex requests, create personalised answers, and
more importantly, they can learn, and the interactions can improve over
time.
Do you need to order online a new magic wound? Easy! No need anymore
to scroll through lots of webpages on a website. Just use the
conversational interface and let the nice little avatar helping you. It
will ask you questions, and your answers will help the program to
satisfy your needs.
When
looking at the picture below, it is no surprise to see how popular
chatbots are becoming. For marketers, it’s a magical tool to engage users and grow their business. But what is the share of interactions handled by AI? In 2018, it was only 5%. But, by 2022, this figure is expected to increase fourfold to 20%.
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| Retrieved from SocialMediaToday |
Is it just a fad?
Definitely no!
In addition to the convenience it brings to both companies and Muggles,
sorry, customers, as mentioned above, chatbots bring tones of
opportunities. No need to download additional apps, chatbots can be
integrated into websites but also in messaging apps, the place where
customers already spend their time. Still not convinced? Read that: in 2016, for the first time in history, people were using messaging apps more than social networks, they had over 5 billion monthly active users!
It is also important to note that chatbots are part of a larger shift we are seeing in consumer behavior.
When they research something, users want the information they need as
quickly as possible. To do so, they are turning more and more to voice
search and other technological advancements. They want to see value in
the places they already are. Moreover, some people even tend to prefer
to talk to robots about personal matters instead of humans.
Have a look
at the video below that talks about Replika, a popular app (7 million
users!) that allows people to share their feelings with an AI companion.
With magical powers came great responsibilities
A chatbot is a magical tool. However, it should be used cautiously. When studying the performance of chatbot, some researchers argued that trust is the focal point of successful interactions.
One of the challenges is the double-edged sword of messaging.
People are accustomed to having complex conversations with other humans
on messaging apps. It can be really frustrating to chat with a machine
that is completely off the mark. Have a look below at my personal
example (zoom in for more clarity). One day I got some issues when paying for a module to my British university through my Revolut
account. I tried the chat at 7 am, and the chatbot did not understand
my request at all. Hopefully, when I asked to talk to “someone”, I was
positively surprised about the promptness of the banking app. After just
a few minutes, my problem was solved by a nice agent. Even though the machine couldn’t help me, the system quickly recognized its limits. In my opinion, Revolut’s
strategy is right. The machine is here to filter the requests, but if
it’s too complex, an agent takes over. And according to Susannah
Richardson, in her article for IndustryWeek, “the
real hallmark of success for an automated self-service system is its
ability to understand cases where an automated response is not
appropriate”. The main challenge lies here. The system needs to recognise when a human intervention is needed. My case was pretty simple, as I asked for it.
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| Personal conversation on the app Revolut |
My
situation shows how challenging chatbot can be. But there are also
other risks. With e-mails, if marketers spam someone, technology can
help by filtering spams. But with bots that are functioning inside
messaging apps,
spammers can pollute personal space. And this is not very pleasant. I
am not really looking forward to having my WhatsApp looking like my junk
mail folder.
Another
challenge is that a lot of background data is required for an AI
chatbot to be able to answer to requests. Twenty customers may ask for
the same thing but in twenty completely different ways. For example, a
credit card company analysed how customers asked for their current account balance. For such a simple request, they did ask it in 2100 distinct ways.
Hi Joanne! I enjoyed reading your article. I feel like a mudblood: P
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I have to say that I have been impressed by the amounts of money generated by chatbots. Although I think it is a revolutionary and useful idea, I must say that in my personal experience the use of these intelligent systems has generated more frustration than help. In addition, I find the level of development and implantation that are accomplishing in our daily basis really chilling. It reminds me to the 2001 a Space Oddissey's robot... And we all know that Hal 9000 did not have good intentions!
Still, the main barrier I see is the possible inability of older people, who are not used to the digital environment, to deal with artificial intelligences. Just think that only in the UK, only one in five people aged 75 and over now use a smartphone (Williams, 2019). Thus, a large part of that demographic cohort may feel excluded.
As you pointed out in your post, I do not think that the communication with agents can be replaced, at least in the medium term. However, and seeing how technology evolves, it may be that in the future the Turing tests (Hern, 2014) could give us some surprise...
All the best,
César
References:
Williams, R. (2019). One in five people aged 75 and over now use a smartphone. Inews. Retrieved from: https://inews.co.uk/news/one-in-five-people-aged-75-and-over-now-use-a-smartphone-157778
Hern, A. (2014). What is the Turing test? And are we all doomed now? The Guardian. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/09/what-is-the-alan-turing-test
Thank you for your feedback César.
DeleteI agree with you, it may be harder for people not used to technology to be exposed to AI. But imagine taking an appointment online, I can imagine my grandma on her ipad answering easy questions to book an appointment with her doctor. I think it depends of the complexity of the request.
Hi Joanne,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, a great topic on something which has so much potential. While reading this I couldn’t help but think back to the very first interaction I had with a chatbot on MSN (back in the early 2000s). Smarter Child was similar to lots of these new chat bots, however without the purpose of operating on behalf of a brand. One thing I find interesting is that people are very fearful and dubious about the interactions with have with AI, however in reality these have been around for years and isn’t a fad!
I think you raise a really important point around how sometimes these tools can be off the mark and get it wrong (your example is brilliant), it’s important that in times where the users aren’t getting the answers they desire that a new channel of communication is presented, for example an agent supporting.
That being said, I think there is a challenge for brands to ensure that these chatbots represent the brand as they would expect employees to, while also promoting in a way which encourages marketing metrics of success, for example NPS or returning purchases.
Great post, thank you. Charlotte
Thank you Charlotte! I am sure we will see lots of development in the coming years.
ReplyDelete