Chatbots? What Are They?
Simplifying what chatbots are and what they can be used for
Chatbot is the new buzz word in the Tech industry. Chances are that 70% of people in this part of the world have never heard the word and do not even know what it means.
Well, lucky you as I will try to break down what a chatbot is in this article.
First of all chatbot is short for chat robot which literally means a robot that chats either through text or voice . Well, that is close to the truth. I like to describe a chatbot in terms of two friends having a conversation. You text/speak to your friend and your friend responds. Imagine a chatbot as the other friend who responds except in this case, someone, somehow already pre-loaded it with what to say.
Chatbots are meant to mimic normal human interactions.
For those who are familiar with Siri, Google assistant or Alexa, these are all voice-based chatbots with artificial intelligence, built to act as virtual assistants. For the purpose of this article, we will stick with the text-based(messaging) chatbots.
Got the hang of what chatbots are yet? No worries, here is another example to show you what a chatbot is and what it can be used for:
Lets say for example, you are chatting with friends on Messenger and you decide you need laundry services. You begin a conversation with an identified brand and it goes something like this:
In this case the chatbot is an extension of the company’s brand, kinda like an assistant offering the company’s services to a customer via a messaging platform. It goes further to offer customer support simply by responding to the customer’s queries. Chatbots when powered by artificial intelligence can provide really specific answers, aimed at imitating human interaction, to a particular customer.
Messaging chatbots have evolved over time and are becoming increasingly more popular. Their uses so far ( I say this because I believe we are yet to discover ALL the various ways a chatbot can be used) include:
- Customer support: A chatbot can be built to provide 24/7 customer service for customers. It provides quick answers to basic customer inquiries, it can help to troubleshoot or address complaints.
- Marketing: Chatbots can be used to engage and entertain users while also sending relevant notifications targeted to a specific customer’s preference.
- Personal assistance: With so many tasks waiting to be done, chatbots can be used to manage personal finance, get notifications on preferred topics or even help you find places.
- Weather reporting: Some brands have taken it a notch up by making chatbots that give weather reports, how cool is that?
- Food ordering: Ordering is made even simpler by chatting with a chatbot that takes orders and delivery details.
And lots more…..
With these points of mine, I hope I have done some justice to simplifying what chatbots are.
P.S: Aidahbot is a chatbot building platform for social commerce merchants to assist their sales on Messenger while keeping customers engaged.
