How a chatbot works — here are the concepts you need to know
Contextual understanding — A challenge for chatbots is to interpret the question based on the context in which it is asked. Chatbot developers solve this by allowing the bot to analyse conversation history, timing, tone of conversation, sentence structure and more. Contextual understanding can be offered in some Chatbot Builders to create conversation topics.
Conversational channel — The channel used for communication between human and bot. It can be directly on a website or in services such as Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Slack, Kik or over text messages.
Machine learning — A field of AI that allows chatbots to identify patterns in large amounts of data and learn from previous conversations with humans. This means that the chatbot gets better at delivering relevant answers the longer it is used.
NLP (natural language processing) — An area of artificial intelligence that involves giving computers the ability to understand human language, recognise linguistic patterns and convert text into speech. It is NLP that determines the intent of a conversation.
NLU (natural language understanding) — Although computers are good at recognising and interpreting human language, interpreting our intentions (see Intents above) presents a much greater challenge. Thanks to NLU, the chatbot can often understand the intent even if we misspell, omit certain words or express ourselves ironically or humorously.
Sentiment analysis — Through advanced linguistic analysis, the chatbot can interpret the customer’s mood and determine whether he or she is satisfied or dissatisfied with a particular product or service. This can to some extent replace the traditional type of customer satisfaction surveys.
Chatbot: What is it, what is it for and how do they work?
Transfer — When the chatbot is unable to resolve an issue on its own, it can be passed on to a human contact centre agent through a so-called transfer.
Typing delay — Adding a delay before the chatbot responds to a message from the visitor can make the conversation flow more naturally.
Webhook — An automated transfer of the information the customer types in a message to the chatbot, such as an email address or phone number. The information is sent to one of the company’s other systems, such as a crm system, and can be used to improve customer service.
Quick reply — By displaying a number of pre-programmed, possible quick replies that the customer can click on, the issue can often be resolved more quickly than if the customer types in all the answers themselves.
Would you like to create your own chatbot development? Contact Enkronos team today.
