It's no news that Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are gaining traction and influencing human activities, engagements and ways of life. As the world keeps evolving and technology advances, information sharing and effective communications are the lifelines of successful businesses and human interaction. Hence, several organizations and personal brands have embraced the adoption of chatbots, as the virtual communication assistance tool to welcome and provide guidance to their web visitors and enhance quick engagements.

Now, what is a Chatbot?

A chat bot or chatterbot is a computer software application used to conduct online chats. Chatbot is an artificial intelligence software designed to give virtual assistance to internet users through effective communications and help online users.

It is designed to enhance seamless interaction between an artificial-controlled machine and human communication either through voice commands or messages. The system works independently and is programmed to respond to enquiries based on the knowledge database available to it at a point in time.

The ideal is built around fostering effective web-based communication and giving adequate and timely support to human users using an interfaced simulation to replace the traditional human-human conversation.

A chatbot is a computer software built to operate independently of human interaction. Chatbots started in the tech industry, especially on their different platforms and websites, where live chats and prompt responses are made to human interactions based on predefined scripts and machine learning applications.

In recent times, there’s been great integration of chatbots on social media platforms to foster customer support and outreach. It has increased customers' engagements and interactions with products and services offered by companies.

Types of Chatbots

While, chatbots are designed to give spontaneous, accurate and useful information during human interaction with them, it is pertinent to learn the different types of chatbots, understand their functionality, database structures and the core application that is most suited for different businesses and situations during the conceptualization of its adoption for use.

The types of chatbots are:

Hand-scripted Reply Chatbots:

These chatbots forms the most simplified chatbot which is operated on a basis of the branching method to illustrate response/outputs based on the input/enquiries. That is, the bot responds to end-users based on the predefined question imputed into it during its configuration.

This bot is made to access a deeper database of questions that are made into a list of predefined ideas of what the users are likely to make enquire about. This type of chatbot is similar to the menu-based chatbot.

Contextual Chatbots:

This type of bot uses artificial intelligence and machine learning, and this means that it can understand language and you can speak with it like having a conversation with a human. Normally, this type of bot get smarter and can support a conversational engagement like in human-human interaction.

It grows in memories and improves over time because of the questions asked by end-users. It doesn’t rely on keywords or script to provide answers.

Keyword Recognition-based Chatbots:

This is a more comprehensive chatbot and is structured to listen to what the user types using certain inbuilt keywords and respond to users questions. This type of bot is built with customizable keywords and artificial intelligence to give appropriate responses. Unfortunately, these chatbots are defaulted by redundant questions or repetitive keywords.

Hybrid Chatbots:

This chatbot portrays a thin line between the keyword recognition-based bot and the menu-based both. In this case, end-users can choose to have their question directly or make a selection when the former is inactive.

Uses of Chatbots

The following are the uses of chatbot:

Chatbots are Used by Businesses to Improve the Communication of Messages to Their Customers

The relevance of chatbots has been of great influence on the manner with which businesses and organizations build rapport with their web visitors to guide them through getting what they are looking for.

It is Used as a Tool for Customer Service and Improving Capacity

Customer service and experience forms the most important part of any business and its sustenance. While customer service prevents businesses from burning out, it is not very easy to get humans to work round the clock to respond to questions or take orders from the customer. It reflects the retention power of an AI chatbots design to help them get a great experience at any point in time.

Chatbots are Modified to Improve Sales

Artificial intelligence had helped greatly to brush up many traditional ways of operating most businesses around the world. Since most chatbots operate and are programmed to make product recommendations to customers and improve sales and business revenue.

Stay on Top of Trend

Chatbots have been widely used on social media platforms to improve the end-user experience while interacting with them. Facebook and telegram are some of the quickest users of bots. Businesses can understand the latest trends among their customers, get feedback on how to improve their products and increase sales.

It Help to Create a More Personalized Experience

Human interaction with AI and ML chatbots help to create seamless interaction with customers. It mostly feels like talking for a human and understanding the language the end-users commonly interact with. It helps businesses to build trust and strong relationships with their customers and prospective clients.

Summary

In conclusion, Chatbots are built on the deep knowledge of artificial intelligence and machines that bring about technological advancement and vastly improve customer engagements, increase lead generation and profit maximization for business. Most importantly, it helps to improve communication and improve business to customer relations.

Want to create a chatbot solution for your business? Contact Zummit Africa at contact@zummitafrica.com to request a demo.