Chatbots: How robots are taking over the world, one chat at a time

Gulf News

Internet has been abuzz with the idea of robots taking over the world; it's already here  Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3w85WLG  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  #UAEnews #Dubai #technology

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00:00When you instantly reply after sending a message, it's not a real person replying, it's a chatbot or a chat robot.

00:11It's the latest craze to take e-commerce by storm.

00:14So what are chatbots and why are they generating so much buzz?

00:18Chatbots are personal virtual assistants.

00:21If you've used Siri or Alexa, and their other siblings, you've actually become part of the chatbot ecosystem.

00:28They're also known as Virtual Conversational Assistants, or VCAs.

00:33The first chatbot was called Elisa, developed in the 1960s.

00:37Chatbots perform different functions today.

00:40These include customer support, marketing, and sales.

00:43They are used in retail, banking, travel services, and other industries.

00:48Companies like Verloop.io, based in India, are building their AI technology to improve chatbot interactions and customer support.

00:56Hello everyone, I'm Gaurav, founder and CEO of Verloop.io, a customer support automation platform driven by conversational AI.

01:04To understand conversational automation better, we must know that the concept dates back to the 1960s, when Elisa, a therapist emulator, was born at MIT.

01:14It had a very basic functionality, but was revolutionary for its time.

01:19In fact, back then, a lot of people confused it with Yeoman.

01:23Fast forward today, with the general and cheap availability of large-scale processing power and advancements in machine learning, AI, and NLP,

01:31we are able to deeply understand typed and spoken languages and deliver truly delightful conversations that solve business problems.

01:39Businesses now have been successfully pairing conversational AI with messaging channels like WhatsApp and Telegram

01:46for various use cases ranging from contact center automation to IT helpdesk queries, FAQs, KYCs on WhatsApp, and even HR helpdesks.

01:55With everyday growing popularity of messaging channels, conversational AI helps businesses to be available for their customers 24x7 and respond to their queries instantly.

02:07People hate to wait. Conversational AI solves this for businesses.

02:12This not just builds better customer loyalty, but also frees up support agents from mundane and report queries to something more complex that requires human intervention truly.

02:24The way I see it, as we keep refining our machine learning models, NLP, and progress in AI,

02:31conversational AI will progressively keep getting better and expand from chat to other channels like voice, email, and other human-to-human interaction.

02:40We believe there is no limit and market size that can define this opportunity, as every business-to-human interaction is up for automation.

02:52Up to 27% of adults have used chatbots, specifically for shopping at least once in their life.

02:58In 2018 alone, there were already 300,000 chatbots on Facebook already, so there's a good chance you've already dealt with one.

03:07Chatbots help improve customer support, and usage numbers are about to explode.

03:12However, latest data shows that 46% of users would still prefer to communicate with a live person, but more and more consumers are buying basic goods like food or clothes via chatbots.

03:23In fact, chatbot usage increased by 80% in 2020 amidst the pandemic.

03:29Have you ever used one? And what do you think about the role of chatbots in your life?

03:33Drop us a comment below and for more info log on to gulfnews.com

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