With the evolution of AI, chatbots have come a long way from just displaying pre-recorded messages to mimic human-like conversations with human users. Chatbots can actively take on some of the responsibilities that come with running an online business, especially while executing tasks in operations, marketing and automation of order processing. Chatbots are an effective and low-cost alternative for providing basic customer service, and they can also be used over social media. Chatbots are a class of ‘Intelligent Assistant’ technology like Siri or Google Assistant. Traditionally, they are made to focus on one definite task within a given organization, for instance, they can work within customer service, order management or even as a virtual salesperson depending on the kind of skills that power them. 

As per a recent study conducted by Survey Monkey among users, the following trends were observed in usage of Chatbots:

• They help in answering simple questions
• They could handle complaints to resolve quickly

• They render detailed or expert answers
• They are easy to communicate with

Currently, there exists two classifications of chatbots viz., an ordinary one and an intelligent one powered by Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). With AI and the evolution of NLP (Natural Language Processing), chatbots have now become an exceptional tool in taking over customer interactions and mainstream digital advertising. Simply ask Google Assistant or Siri for a search result and you will find over 100M results. AI has begun to embed itself into most aspects of human life, right from the growing number of self-checkout cash registers to advanced security checks at the airport. AI is just about everywhere.

Benefits of employing an AI based functional chatbot are:

• 24/7 Customer Service
• Quick Response Time for Customer Queries
• Reduced Operational Costs
• Multiple Language Support
• Consistent and Accurate
• Lead Generation Agent
• Reduce customer frustrations (compared to IVR)
• Gaining a deeper understanding of customers

Most smartphone users across the globe use messaging apps more than any other phone application. As per a study by the Economist, over 2.5 billion people have at least one messaging app installed. Hence, brand communications are driving into chat-based messaging apps. Organizations developing their personalized chatbots are being backed off by existing chat apps like Facebook Messenger, MS Teams, Viber, Slack, Kik, etc. Chatbots can not only personalize conversations but also draw into AI for improving knowledge. Powered by advanced AI technologies like NLP and Natural Language understanding (NLU), chatbots can drive interactions, answer questions, deliver personalized notifications, collect feedback, schedule appointments, and even be ‘equipped’ to learn from human behaviour.

SAP Conversational AI (CAI) is the collaborative end-to-end chatbot building platform that allows developers to create chatbots. This platform can be used to automate business processes and helps reduce time to market.