Move over FB Messenger — Is enterprise chatbot adoption going to be faster?

The Facebook Messenger Chatbot hype has been dubbed as premature. Nevertheless, it’s achieved a keen awareness on how self service tasks can be automated. The vision of Tony Stark’s “Jarvis” being available on your humble smartphone seems real. This has driven a fundamental rethink of the way we interact with businesses and services. The rise of Chatbots signal two fundamental changes that bode well for the enterprise.

Conversation as the Interface:

Ever since the emergence of the graphical user interface (browser) we’ve been taught to use search and query as the primary way to seek information. With the rise of the smartphone, a “mobile app” has become the preferred way to interact with enterprise systems. Now many years later, comes a new conversational interface where you can “ask” questions and get a “response.” No downloading an app, no laborious updates! Texting your Inventory system or your CRM system for customer information and getting a cogent answer instead of a bunch of links- is an entirely new concept which is very attractive to the business user.

Self service comes to the enterprise:

Companies thrive on structured processes and institutional intelligence. Whether it’s understanding your employee benefits, processing a loan, troubleshooting your internet service, who needs a pesky “hold for the next available agent” message? If institutional intelligence can be coupled with a structured process — assistance is now only now a conversation away.

Then what’s the problem?

Enterprises in general, operate on a single pivot — a system of record. Whether it’s customer profile, billing details or inventory status, this information resides somewhere in a system of record — layered behind security and entitlement protocols. Unless your conversational interface has access to this information, an enterprise transaction cannot be executed in a meaningful manner.

Bridging the divide:

An enterprise grade chatbot platform has to bridge the divide- to deliver value beyond the hype. It needs to combine (1) conversational interface (2) machine learning (3) Artificial Intelligence (4) integration to your systems of record in a single framework. It needs to supports an enterprise’s existing security and entitlement protocols so that enterprises can create, manage and execute meaningful intelligent interactions with their employees and customers.