6 Uses of Chatbots for Learning

Chatbots are popping up like dandelions and companies everywhere are rolling them out to reduce manpower costs and increase convenience for consumers. Did you know that they can also boost learning and liven up training?

Here are 6 uses of chatbots for learning:

1. On-boarding bots

69% of new employees are more likely to stay with a company if they have a great on-boarding experience. How do you ensure on-boarding for success? New hires typically go through days and weeks of training, meeting with important personnel in the organisation, then having knowledge and information dumped on them. Some human resources departments have started using chatbots to act as their guide for new hires. New employees have predictable questions (such as procedures for equipment requests or how to apply for annual leave), so chatbots can push the answers to them directly rather than overwhelm HR with these repetitive requests. Employees could also be introduced to different people in the company or given a virtual tour of their new work premises by chatting to the chatbot. Chatbots are easy to engage with and approach compared to busy HR executives. On top of that, HR chatbots could walk newbies through company policies, regular paperwork and follow up with employee surveys to gauge their satisfaction with the on-boarding process and areas for improvement. Chatbots will not replace HR, but allow HR to focus on more important employee issues and reduce costs in on-boarding processes. New hires will not end up feeling like lost sheep at the end of the first day of work and have employee satisfaction right from the start.

2. Mentor bots

Mentoring is one of the most valuable experiences for working professionals. It is a form of informal learning. A good mentor provide guidance and advance for long-term career success but it may not be easy for us to have access to someone who can be readily available to answer our questions. Some companies have started pioneering the uses of mentor bots to guide them on leadership journeys and grooming the next generation of successors. Similarly, in educational institutions, mentoring schemes are in place to help students develop strategies for dealing with both personal and academic issues. However, in view of the ratio of teacher advisers to the population of students, it may be stressful for a teacher to take on many students under his or her wing. Mentor bots can serve the same purpose and attend to the needs of many students. These bots could coach students over a period of time and provide practical advice, encouragement and support through their learning journey.

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3. Learner engagement bots

In most e-learning courses, learners are isolated as they do not interact with their peers. Some may also find online courses not engaging and become passive learners. Chatbots can help create interactive digital learning experiences for learners. How can they do that? For instance, they could be facilitators to guide learners in the content, act like virtual tutors who provide instant answers to queries or pose questions during key points in their learning path. Chatbots would engage learners by pushing out videos, podcasts and quizzes to enrich their learning experiences.

4. Learner support bots

Chatbots can be used for reinforcement in learning, by pushing out information at scheduled times or in response to trigger events. For instance, after employees have taken a sales fundamentals course, chatbots could offer a quiz the following day to test their knowledge or prompt them on a concept as they come across it in their course of work. Learning support chatbots can also respond to queries on training content quicker as compared to waiting for a response from the course trainer. They are available 24/7 and learners could retrieve knowledge for certain tasks almost instantaneously. Chatbots could also encourage social learning via group debate and discussions. The best part is that these interactions would lead to user-generated content that have the potential to drive innovation and future thinking in the organisation.

5. Practice bots

Practice bots will take on the roles of customers, vendors and difficult employees. Consider the value of a chatbot who can drill and practice different customer scenarios with a newly-hired customer service agent. Practice bots can help to reinforce product training amongst sales and customer-facing professionals by providing a platform for real-time practice. Technology can do a lot of work and provides much flexibility while learning on the job. In educational institutions, differences in students’ performance depends on how much they engage in deliberate practice. Knowledge acquisition is enhanced when students are given opportunities to practice or apply what they have learned. Practice bots allow students to apply existing knowledge to new situations, gaining confidence and new insights with experience.

6. Scenario bots

Closely related to practice bots, scenario bots offer simulations that enrich the learning experience. For instance, negotiations can be pretty tricky situations for newly promoted managers. Chatbots can create “impasse”, “lowball” or “accommodating” negotiating profiles and have managers engage in these scenarios to test how they would react in such situations. With sufficient practice in simulated business environments, managers will feel more confident and empowered to make business decisions that impact business profitability. Other forms of scenarios that chatbots can practice with users could be in the forms of presentation training, pitching to clients and front-line customer experiences.

If you are interested in using AI chatbots for your organisation, chat with us today!

Originally published at https://articles.noodlefactory.ai.