Have you ever had the reaslisation that you were talking to a robot instead of Annie, your friendly customer service representative?
Over the past two years, chatbots have made a strong influence in online service. Accessed in many different ways and industries, chatbots have proven themselves a digital lubricant for online customer service, replacing the FAQ and providing an immediate natural feel for question finding. In the health, fitness, and dating world, to name a few, chatbots, and its growing AI, are proving more effective and accessible for users than human contact.
Here is a look at several companies who are doing this, in different industries, to great effect:
DONOTPAY
The application, DONOTPAY, is designed to offer free legal advice to simple litigation matters. The bot is created to scour simple yet dense legal jargon and content to offer a cheaper alternative to whom the human touch is unfeasible (language, cost, the rest). De-pricing legal knowledge is a huge future step forward, it bypasses the exorbitant costs for basic knowledge others unfortunately can’t access.
DUOLINGO
Being bilingual in the future is a matter for discussion; the benefits of being so are not. The Duolingo program, previously a game-based system, has now evolved into an educational back-and-forward conversation that will adjust to your knowledge and grasp, allowing you to create your ideal language buddy while you learn.
MIRROR
Let’s look at an app called Mirror. The app is simply an at-home device (it looks like a mirror!) that projects an instructor and classmates at home. The idea simulates being at a workout class: it is the digital solution to a chaotic 21st century life, and perhaps another step closer to us humans achieving some sort of life balance.
BAIDU’S MELODY
A Chinese medical application designed to help doctors and patients alike. The idea is to increase communication between the two, therefore improving doctor productivity and helping patients access quicker answers. The patient will go on to the application and state their medical symptoms,
from which the machine will learn, ask the right questions, and make an educated diagnosis. Ideally the closest thing to a home doctor visit, without the four-hour waiting period.
LARA
A dating coach Chatbot, launched by Match.com, but powered by Facebook messenger, is a conversation service called Lara. The bot works to determine your preferences, rather than answering a dry form, in order to make the whole process more interactive. The idea is that Lara will start a casual conversation, throughout which she will be asking some personal questions, amongst other things, before inviting you to set up a Match.com account, all within the Facebook messenger app. Once the setup is complete, Lara will continue to chat and search for that special someone who meets your ideal criteria.
Since 1990, a date tied to the Loebner Prize, a competition to create human-like software, we have seen the advantageous effects of human-like computing; but it is only recently that we, as casual consumers, have witnessed the effects. Like Elon Musk’s work now will pay dividends to our children, this is beginning to shape the way we experience not only the digital world but also beyond.
Whether or not these concepts work is up to years of testing. Literally every other tech agency these days is developing their own brand of AI, machine learning, whatever—but do they work? Everyone has had a bad greeting on a shopping site’s chat, have experienced an obnoxious automated phone line, have felt depersonalised online. Certain industries lend themselves more to this (finance, retail customer service, general complaints), but its application now is so broad it paints a picture of a near-future beyond the simple analysis that comes with a human touch.
Human interaction still seems to be the final resolution for now, but we cannot deny that chatbots are fulling a certain need and have mass potential to play a bigger role in our everyday lives.
Watch this space.
iProspect Australia national head of social strategy Jovana Radovic