An idea of a virtual dialogue partner is described in many science fiction novels and movies. People were dreaming about this long time ago for different purposes, starting from dissolving loneliness to having an all-knowing assistant. And nowadays this dream has become absolutely true. We have chatbots! It has been one of the most discussed IT trends in developing apps recently. So what exactly they can do and why you need them? All that we’ll tell you in this article.
If you are a person who is often distracted by such questions as “What is the weather for tomorrow?”, “What will be in the cinema on the weekend?” while you are working or surf the internet, chatbots can become your best friends. Why? The revolutionary thing is that users do not have to switch the context for searching and download a targeted app for executing certain operations. A bot is a program which helps to automate communication and information search in different platforms.
The most famous and widely used chatbots are those, used in messengers. They assist in booking, shopping, looking for various info, and all that within one mobile app. Because of this feature, there are a lot of rumors lately that the age of mobile applications if over. Yes, people prefer to use simpler products and they like chatbots because here we see that conversation becomes the new UX itself. But mobile apps haven’t killed websites, and bots will not kill apps either. It’s just a new niche which has its employment and target audience. Now, let’s find out more details about them.
The first bot was developed far away in 1966. That was Eliza made by Joseph Weizenbaum. It was so confusing for people that many couldn’t differ her from a real person. So, in fact, chatbots are far not so new. It’s just only recently we have got a huge need to automate everything. But still, we want this automation to have a human “face”. Today, with AI this can become real. Many people think that bots are already intelligent, but most of them are not. Let’s figure out what types of chatbots exist and how good and bad ones differ.
The number of bots is really huge and here are some of the most used for today.
Search bots can find you anything and is extremely helpful for CEOs. They search for news, images, videos, check and index content, etc.
Game bots automate some processes in video games, help to level-up characters in strategy games or can even manage a game themselves, for example in an online casino.
Bots for fun - the function of these bots is just to entertain you, like repeating your words with a funny voice, answering any questions, telling you a daily horoscope or giving some ridiculous advice.
Stock market bots are highly valuable instruments in this sphere. They manage with calculations, control numerous indexes which people are not able to do regarding the volume of this information. About a half of trading operations are executed by stock bots.
E-commerce bots are probably the most used type. They talk to us in online shops when we buy something or order any services, and help us to process the deal.
Briefly speaking, chatbots are used for 3 reasons mainly:
Regarding this information, it’s pretty clear that it’s great to augment your website or a mobile app with a chatbot, but not to develop it just to have a lonely bot. Let’s briefly have a look at what kinds of mobile apps you can implement chatbots.
Speaking about implementing a chatbot into an app, we don’t mean messengers only. A bot can add some value to numerous types of applications.
But all these types of bots, mentioned above, should be really smart to make the interaction with your clients smooth and quick. To provide your customers with pleasant user experience, your bot must talk like almost like a human!
There are two ways how they can support a conversation with us:
And these are 2 core different types of bots, meaning their “intelligence”.
The ones which are taught how to talk have limited scenarios of their behavior, communicate by means of predefined answers only and resemble an autoresponder. However, they are able to support a pretty long dialogue till the task is finished.
The second type can recognize human speech freely, not just some limited vocabulary, make conclusions and support a dialogue on their basis. Such bots are the best because they make people feel like they talk to a live person, not a robot. And this is the type of bots which can make a revolution in this sphere. But to have such characteristics, NLP( Natural Language Processing) and MLA (Machine Learning Algorithms) must be used. These AI techniques can make your bot seem pretty intelligent.
This technique has actually provoked the splash of chatbot popularity today. So, is this what makes chatbots intelligent? Unfortunately, not yet. In fact, the IT world is still not very close to the real intelligence, but it moves there pretty fast. And Machine Learning focuses on developing products, which are able to analyze patterns of speech, pictures and make logical conclusions on the basis of the gathered experience. By means of machine learning algorithms, bots learn to communicate from people.
The next step is to make chatbots recognize our speech and make them able talk in a human like manner. Here the NLP step into the breach. By means of Natural Language Processing algorithms chatbots can create new dialogues without using predefined responses, which can make us feel like talking to a parrot.
Our team has just finished a network called Doctoring. Doctors from the United Kingdom register for communication on professional purposes there. To ease the process of registration, we have decided to implement a bot at the app. The peculiarity of bot is that it not only greets new members and asks for their credentials. It checks that the doctor’s name and GMC license number match to those, which are in the base of licensed doctors. After that it welcomes the doctor, calling the name, for example, “Are you doctor James?” and invites the user to join the network. Why is the chatbot helpful? In our situation it saves time and a user doesn't have to fill in his email, cell phone number or other data and avoids synching with his network to keep his private life separately from professional communication. Also, the Doctoring chatbot makes sure that no one except real doctors can register there by checking the license number. So, it’s both a friendly service and a safety measure. The additional pleasant moment is that this feature doesn’t cost more than a usual registration process development, but is pretty fresh and interesting to your customers.
If you know programming, with the following services it has ever been easier. Just choose a platform and options which you need.
With Telegram service it starts with using a Botfather. By means of it you make the first bot. After that you get a registration token and have an access to the Telegram Bot APIs to create and train other bots.
Facebook messenger gives an opportunity to use its bots for your business. You can make FB bots intelligent by means of wit.ai Engine Bot which uses NLP technologies.
wit.ai is free of charge platform (for now), dedicated to NLP development. It constantly updates its algorithms and invites everybody to advance their algorithms to create intelligent bots.
Botkit is another free platform to create chatbots for many popular messengers, like Facebook, WhatsApp, Slack, and others. It has a GitHub community which steadily develops the platform.
Pandorabots is an open web service which has two platforms for creating bots: Pandorabots Playground and AlaasS. The first one is an integrated environment where you can create chatbots. The second is AI as a Service with an access to APIs and SDKs to develop and integrate bots with apps.
If you are not experienced in programming, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make a chatbot.
Chatfuel lets users create bots for messengers without coding. The only what you should do is to define the goals towards your bot’s communication process and provide with some content. The platform will manage the rest of work. The services are free until you pass 100 000 bot-client conversations per month.
Botsify can assist you to create and integrate one chatbot with FB Messenger for free unless the number of users to whom your bot talks goes beyond 100 a month. After that, you should choose one of the pricing plans which the platform proposes.
There are a lot of platforms to choose where you can create a chatbot, but the most important moment is that your customers should like your bot!
A lot of famous companies make their chatbots so the competition is really huge. These are recommendations to create an outstanding and useful chatbot.
You should regularly revise the effectiveness of the bot’s communication and improve its answers on those questions, where you have found any problems. Update the bot regularly.
Chatbots are extremely trendy now and can really add value to your business if you develop and implement them correctly. If you are ready to try this new thing but not ready to develop it yourself, our developers are always glad to help you!
About author
Daria R. is a copywriter at Cleveroad. It is a mobile and web development company in Ukraine that successfully implements various projects of any complexity.
What is a bot?
The most famous and widely used chatbots are those, used in messengers. They assist in booking, shopping, looking for various info, and all that within one mobile app. Because of this feature, there are a lot of rumors lately that the age of mobile applications if over. Yes, people prefer to use simpler products and they like chatbots because here we see that conversation becomes the new UX itself. But mobile apps haven’t killed websites, and bots will not kill apps either. It’s just a new niche which has its employment and target audience. Now, let’s find out more details about them.
What makes them special for us?
What are the spheres of their usage?
Search bots can find you anything and is extremely helpful for CEOs. They search for news, images, videos, check and index content, etc.
Game bots automate some processes in video games, help to level-up characters in strategy games or can even manage a game themselves, for example in an online casino.
Bots for fun - the function of these bots is just to entertain you, like repeating your words with a funny voice, answering any questions, telling you a daily horoscope or giving some ridiculous advice.
Stock market bots are highly valuable instruments in this sphere. They manage with calculations, control numerous indexes which people are not able to do regarding the volume of this information. About a half of trading operations are executed by stock bots.
E-commerce bots are probably the most used type. They talk to us in online shops when we buy something or order any services, and help us to process the deal.
Briefly speaking, chatbots are used for 3 reasons mainly:
- Сonsulting of current or potential clients in such spheres as banking, shopping, and any possible services.
- Assistance in booking, making payments, getting any kind of analytics, notifications on delivery services and so on.
- Learning and having fun. These bots, like “Talking Angela”, simply entertain people. They also can help you study a foreign language, teach a child some simple things and answer different questions.
Regarding this information, it’s pretty clear that it’s great to augment your website or a mobile app with a chatbot, but not to develop it just to have a lonely bot. Let’s briefly have a look at what kinds of mobile apps you can implement chatbots.
Mobile apps to use bots in
Shopping and shipment apps
Here a bot can assist to choose your size, notify about sales, new arrivals, delivery processing and so on.Cooking apps
In such apps a bot can be a personal cook! It can help its owner find recipes according to his diet and tastes.Educational apps
In this sphere a bot can become a partner in studying languages, solving problems in math or logic. It can assist to pronounce words, find new tasks and remind that it’s time to study.Booking/traveling apps
A chatbot in such apps can help to find and book tickets according to certain traveling roots on different types of transport for the best price and defined dates. This can save a bunch of time and even money, making the journey way more pleasant.But all these types of bots, mentioned above, should be really smart to make the interaction with your clients smooth and quick. To provide your customers with pleasant user experience, your bot must talk like almost like a human!
What helps them talk smart to us?
- We teach them predefined answers.
- We teach them to learn how to communicate with us.
And these are 2 core different types of bots, meaning their “intelligence”.
The ones which are taught how to talk have limited scenarios of their behavior, communicate by means of predefined answers only and resemble an autoresponder. However, they are able to support a pretty long dialogue till the task is finished.
The second type can recognize human speech freely, not just some limited vocabulary, make conclusions and support a dialogue on their basis. Such bots are the best because they make people feel like they talk to a live person, not a robot. And this is the type of bots which can make a revolution in this sphere. But to have such characteristics, NLP( Natural Language Processing) and MLA (Machine Learning Algorithms) must be used. These AI techniques can make your bot seem pretty intelligent.
Why use Machine Learning?
The next step is to make chatbots recognize our speech and make them able talk in a human like manner. Here the NLP step into the breach. By means of Natural Language Processing algorithms chatbots can create new dialogues without using predefined responses, which can make us feel like talking to a parrot.
Chatbot by Cleveroad
How to make a chatbot?
With Telegram service it starts with using a Botfather. By means of it you make the first bot. After that you get a registration token and have an access to the Telegram Bot APIs to create and train other bots.
Facebook messenger gives an opportunity to use its bots for your business. You can make FB bots intelligent by means of wit.ai Engine Bot which uses NLP technologies.
wit.ai is free of charge platform (for now), dedicated to NLP development. It constantly updates its algorithms and invites everybody to advance their algorithms to create intelligent bots.
Botkit is another free platform to create chatbots for many popular messengers, like Facebook, WhatsApp, Slack, and others. It has a GitHub community which steadily develops the platform.
Pandorabots is an open web service which has two platforms for creating bots: Pandorabots Playground and AlaasS. The first one is an integrated environment where you can create chatbots. The second is AI as a Service with an access to APIs and SDKs to develop and integrate bots with apps.
Zero-code bot development platforms
Chatfuel lets users create bots for messengers without coding. The only what you should do is to define the goals towards your bot’s communication process and provide with some content. The platform will manage the rest of work. The services are free until you pass 100 000 bot-client conversations per month.
Botsify can assist you to create and integrate one chatbot with FB Messenger for free unless the number of users to whom your bot talks goes beyond 100 a month. After that, you should choose one of the pricing plans which the platform proposes.
There are a lot of platforms to choose where you can create a chatbot, but the most important moment is that your customers should like your bot!
Which features make a chatbot popular?
Make the conversation natural
The conversation of your bot and a customer should be active and include only necessary information. Provide your bot with predefined answers which were made on the basis of real conversations in your business sphere.Don’t be too perfect
The content for predefined answers is usually taken from business documents, records of conversations with customers and their feedbacks. One of the secret to more natural bot conversation is to take the most of the data from conversations with customers, not business docs! This will help your bot seem more alive. Also, implement machine learning and let your bot study from its communication with the clients.
Don’t stop teaching your bot
You should regularly revise the effectiveness of the bot’s communication and improve its answers on those questions, where you have found any problems. Update the bot regularly.Choose pay-for-performance model
To get most of the advantages of your chatbot we advise to choose the pay-per-performance payment model because it does not include any additional payments, it’s very transparent and the payment period starts with the first conversation, but not some defined date.Summary
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