While chatbots in their early stages did not spark much curiosity beyond the technology space, over the past decades’ advancements in the field have completely changed this perception, revealing chatbots as a powerful addition to any business. As the full possibilities for chatbots as business tools are only just beginning to be understood, there is still much further room to grow.
Even though chatbots most likely won’t be replacing humans or apps anytime soon, several companies are experimenting with breakthroughs in the industry that could lead to monumental success. Particularly as chatbot development techniques become easier and easier for first-time developers, now is the perfect time to delve into the latest trends and advancements in chatbot technology.
Chatbots becoming more Human
For anyone who has previously delved into the world of chatbots, they will immediately be familiar with terms like AI and NLP. For those who aren’t, these popular terms describe advancements in chatbots that have come onto the market in the past few years and have allowed for chatbots to develop almost-human capabilities. AI, or Artificial Intelligence, and NLP, or Natural Language Processing, are both tools developed for chatbots to allow these bots to learn and better understand human language in writing.
For some consumers, chatbots are seen as “too unnatural.” This was primarily due to previous builds of chatbots that featured simple Q&A frameworks or even which featured only buttons to submit responses, instead of a fully-fledged textbox. Thanks to advancements in AI and NLP, these concerns are greatly minimized, and will only continue to become less of a problem as chatbots will continue to become more human-like in the coming years.
Chatbots delivering Key Customer Insights
An often overlooked benefit of chatbot implementation is in their ability to store valuable customer data for analysis. Depending on the way a chatbot is set up, chatbots can be powered to record data from every one one of their interactions with customers, storing it away for review from human team members.
As data from chatbots continues to be more readily available, advancements in Artificial Intelligence could help to automate this data collection process even further. The analysis of this data currently requires dedicated teams to focus on improvement areas, help optimize workstreams, and minimize errors. Advanced chatbots can even improve this process by learning over time, creating a powerful
Artificial Intelligence helps to automate data collection. The analysis requires proper attention from a dedicated team, which can then focus on improvement areas, optimizing processes, minimizing errors, and creating success. Advanced chatbots are even able to improve themselves by learning over time.
Chatbots will develop Emotional Intelligence
While emotional intelligence may seem like a big leap for chatbots just learning to appear human-like, these advancements in the chatbot industry are closer than you might think. Emotional Intelligence developments in AI are capable of identifying speech and text, detecting what you have typed, and using it to extract information that can be used to understand what mood you’re in. This same AI is capable of examining punctuation and capitalization to predict the emotions of users.
These chatbots powered with emotional intelligence will be a transformative addition to the AI tech industry, transforming how customers can interact with bots, as well as the brands they represent.
Chatbots handling Payment Information
With more and more users coming around to trusting and using chatbots in their daily lives, these little bots are continuing to go beyond traditional customer service and are branching out into payment options.
For some providers, it could be simply a user looking to pay their phone bill, with the chatbot leading the conversation to help complete the final payment. In 2020, expect to see more bots with payment systems like PayPal already incorporated into their messenger platforms. These payment infrastructures will further allow chatbots to provide accurate updates to customers, delivering information on transaction data, payment confirmations, and even expense records, all in pursuit of acquiring higher user trust and retention.
Social Media housing latest AI Developments
With estimates reporting that there are more than 1.4 billion digital buyers worldwide already using messaging apps, it is clear this is a fertile ground for increased chatbot development.
Developing AI technologies to live in social media markets can help make different sectors of customer behavior much more clear to companies. For example, AI technologies can collect data on the time users spent online, as well as the different reasons why users are drawn to social media. AI will help companies streamline processes and analyze data in pursuit of gaining a deeper understanding of user behavior.
For those interested in more information on chatbot advancements, be sure to check out Discover.bot for the latest news and developments!