Virtual customer service: building your chatbot

Nowadays, there is a significant evolution in the simulation of conversations with humans through chats. These chatbots provide an improvement in organizational efficiency and enhance the performance in supporting customers and partners. That is why they are increasingly a trend on the web. There are several solutions to conversational virtual agents and chatbots at this time. Many of these solutions have built-in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and understanding systems. This research aims to build a roadmap for those who want to develop a virtual assistant using a framework or a pre-built solution. This work compares the several products related to chatbots providing information that helps one to find the best solution for each case.INCT-EN - Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia para Excitotoxicidade e Neuroproteção(UID/CEC/00319/2019

Chatbot de Suporte para Plataforma de Marketing Multicanal

E-goi is an organization which provides automated multichannel marketing possibilities. Given its system’s complexity, it requires a not so smooth learning curve, which means that sometimes costumers incur upon some difficulties which directs them towards appropriate Costumer Support resources. With an increase in the number of users, these Costumer Support requests are somewhat frequent and demand an increase in availability in Costumer Support channels which become inundated with simple, easily-resolvable requests. The organization idealized the possibility of automating significant portion of costumer generated tickets with the possibility of scaling to deal with other types of operations. This thesis aims to present a long-term solution to that request with the development of a chatbot system, fully integrated with the existing enterprise modules and data sources. In order to accomplish this, prototypes using several Chatbot management and Natural Language Processing frameworks were developed. Afterwards, their advantages and disadvantages were pondered, followed by the implementation of its accompanying system and testing of developed software and Natural Language Processing results. Although the developed overarching system achieved its designed functionalities, the master’s thesis could not offer a viable solution for the problem at hand given that the available data could not provide an intent mining model usable in a real-world context.A E-goi é uma organização que disponibiliza soluções de marketing digital automatizadas e multicanal. Dada a complexidade do seu Sistema, que requer uma curva de aprendizagem não muito suave, o que significa que os seus utilizadores por vezes têm dificuldades que os levam a recorrer aos canais de Apoio ao Cliente. Com um aumento de utilizadores, estes pedidos de Apoio ao Cliente tornam-se frequentes e requerem um aumento da disponibilidade nos canais apropriados que ficam inundados de pedidos simples e de fácil resolução. A organização idealizou a possibilidade de automatizar uma porção significativa de tais pedidos, podendo escalar para outro tipo de operações. Este trabalho de mestrado visa apresentar uma proposta de solução a longo prazo para este problema. Pretende-se o desenvolvimento de um sistema de chatbots, completamente integrado com o sistema existente da empresa e variadas fontes de dados. Para este efeito, foram desenvolvidos protótipos de várias frameworks para gestão de chatbots e de Natural Language Processing, ponderadas as suas vantagens e desvantagens, implementado o sistema englobante e realizados planos de testes ao software desenvolvido e aos resultados de Natural Language Processing. Apesar do sistema desenvolvido ter cumprido as funcionalidades pelas quais foi concebido, a tese de mestrado não foi capaz de obter uma solução viável para o problema dado que com os dados disponibilizados não foi possível produzir um modelo de deteção de intenções usável num contexto real

Supporting Inclusive Learning Using Chatbots? A Chatbot-Led Interview Study

Supporting student academic success has been one of the major goals for higher education. However, low teacher-to-student ratio makes it difficult for students to receive sufficient and personalized support that they might want to. The advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and conversational agents, such as chatbots, has provided opportunities for assisting learning for different types of students. This research aims at investigating the opportunities and requirements of chatbots as an intelligent helper to facilitate equity in learning. We developed a chatbot as an experimental platform to investigate the design opportunities of using chatbots to support inclusive learning. Through a chatbot-led user study with 215 undergraduate students, we found chatbots provide the opportunity to support students who are disadvantaged, with diverse life environments, and with varied learning styles. This could be achieved through an accessible, interactive, and confidential way

Virtual assistants in customer interface

This thesis covers use of virtual assistants from a user organization’s perspective, exploring challenges and opportunities related to introducing virtual assistants to an organization’s customer interface. Research related to virtual assistants is spread over many distinct fields of research spanning several decades. However, widespread use of virtual assistants in organizations customer interface is a relatively new and constantly evolving phenomenon. Scientific research is lacking when it comes to current use of virtual assistants and user organization’s considerations related to it. A qualitative, semi-systematic literature review method is used to analyse progression of research related to virtual assistants, aiming to identify major trends. Several fields of research that cover virtual assistants from different perspectives are explored, focusing primarily on Human-Computer Interaction and Natural Language Processing. Additionally, a case study of a Finnish insurance company’s use of virtual assistants supports the literature review and helps understand the user organization’s perspective. This thesis describes how key technologies have progressed, gives insight on current issues that affect organizations and points out opportunities related to virtual assistants in the future. Interviews related to the case study give a limited understanding as to what challenges are currently at the forefront when it comes to using this new technology in the insurance industry. The case study and literature review clearly point out that use of virtual assistants is hindered my various practical challenges. Some practical challenges related to making a virtual assistant useful for an organization seem to be industry-specific, for example issues related to giving advice about insurance products. Other challenges are more general, for example unreliability of customer feedback. Different customer segments have different attitudes towards interacting with virtual assistants, from positive to negative, making the technology a clearly polarizing issue. However, customers in general seem to be becoming more accepting towards the technology in the long term. More research is needed to understand future potential of virtual assistants in customer interactions and customer relationship management.Tämä tutkielma tutkii virtuaaliassistenttien käyttöä käyttäjäorganisaation perspektiivistä, antaen käsityksen mitä haasteita ja mahdollisuuksia liittyy virtuaaliassistenttien käyttöönottoon organisaation asiakasrajapinnassa. Virtuaaliassistentteihin liittyvä tutkimus jakautuu monien eri tutkimusalojen alaisuuteen ja useiden vuosikymmenien ajalle. Laajamittainen virtuaaliassistenttien käyttö asiakasrajapinnassa on kuitenkin verrattain uusi ja jatkuvasti kehittyvä ilmiö. Tieteellinen tutkimus joka liittyy virtuaaliassistenttien nykyiseen käyttöön ja käyttäjäorganisaation huomioon otetaviin asioihin on puutteellista. Tämä tutkielma käyttää kvalitatiivista, puolisystemaattista kirjallisuusanalyysimetodia tutkiakseen virtuaaliassistentteihin liittyviä kehityskulkuja, tarkoituksena tunnistaa merkittäviä trendejä. Tutkimus kattaa useita tutkimusaloja jotka käsittelevät virtuaaliassistentteja eri näkökulmista, keskittyen pääasiassa Human-Computer Interaction- sekä Natural Language Processing -tutkimusaloihin. Lisäksi tutkielmassa on tapaustutkimus suomalaisen vakuutusyhtiön virtuaaliassistenttien käytöstä, joka tukee kirjallisuusanalyysiä ja auttaa ymmärtämään käyttäjäorganisaation perspektiiviä. Tutkielma kuvailee kuinka keskeiset teknologiat ovat kehittyneet, auttaa ymmärtämään tämänhetkisiä ongelmia jotka koskettavat organisaatioita sekä esittelee virtuaaliassistentteihin liittyviä mahdollisuuksia tulevaisuudessa. Tapaustutkimukseen liittyvät haastattelut antavat rajoitetun kuvan kyseisen uuden teknologian käyttöön liittyvistä haasteista vakuutusalalla. Tapaustutkimus ja kirjallisuusanalyysi osoittavat että virtuaaliassistenttien käyttöönottoon liittyy erilaisia käytännön haasteita. Jotkut haasteet vaikuttavat olevan toimialakohtaisia, liittyen esimerkiksi vakuutustuotteita koskeviin neuvoihin. Toiset haasteet taas ovat yleisempiä, liittyen esimerkiksi asiakaspalautteen epäluotettavuuteen. Eri asiakassegmenteillä on erilaisia asenteita virtuaaliassistentteja kohtaan, vaihdellen positiivisesta negatiiviseen, joten kyseinen teknologia on selvästi polarisoiva aihe. Pitkällä aikavälillä asiakkaiden asenteet teknologiaa kohtaan vaikuttavat kuitenkin muuttuvan hyväksyvämpään suuntaan. Lisää tutkimusta tarvitaan jotta voidaan ymmärtää virtuaaliassistenttien tulevaisuuden potentiaalia asiakaskohtaamisissa ja asiakkuudenhallinnassa

Designing Process-based Chatbots in Enterprises: The Case of Business Travel Organization Considering the Users’ Perspective and Business Value

Chatbots have attracted much research attention in recent years, and organizations have increasingly begun applying them in everyday working life. However, researchers have rarely investigated how chatbots can support everyday tasks in enterprises. As such, we lack design knowledge for chatbots that support internal business processes since research has mostly examined customer-facing use cases. Notably, researchers have rarely considered chatbots’ economic and user-related effects, which, thus, remain unknown. To address this gap, we conducted a design science research study to survey a process-based chatbot application for business processes. From examining the scenario, we deduced design principles and implemented a software artifact. We evaluated the concept with 69 participants and surveyed the users’ perspective in terms of design and acceptance and the organizational perspective in terms of process efficiency and quality. In doing so, 1) we derived six design principles for process-based chatbots and implemented a respective chatbot, which enabled a user-adapted process and provided situational-dependent input options and support; 2) we found that users had a positive attitude towards using chatbots for business processes in terms of user experience and acceptance; and 3) the process performed at an economically efficient level that compared well with existing solutions and that IT affinity and prior experience had no influence on performance. Furthermore, our solution improved the process quality compared to the existing solution

Chatbot Introduction and Operation in Enterprises – A Design Science Research-based Structured Procedure Model for Chatbot Projects

Chatbot research has become an emerging research area. Researchers survey the technology behind and the whole ecosystem from different perspectives, e.g., human-computer interaction, design research, or anthropomorphism. To foster the transfer from research to practice, a comprehensive structured procedure model is missing yet. Due to this, the transfer of the research results into real-world settings in enterprises is often complicated. Hereto, we propose a comprehensive structured procedure model to guide practitioners in chatbot projects based on a Design Science Research study. In doing so, necessary project steps are pointed out and corresponding research results are highlighted to make them reusable for practice in a targeted manner. Thus, we provide structured support for chatbot projects in enterprises

Arabic Educational Neural Network Chatbot

Chatbots (machine-based conversational systems) have grown in popularity in recent years. Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence (AI) are sophisticated technologies that replicate human communication in a range of natural languages. A chatbot’s primary purpose is to interpret user inquiries and give relevant, contextual responses. Chatbot success has been extensively reported in a number of widely spoken languages; nonetheless, chatbots have not yet reached the predicted degree of success in Arabic. In recent years, several academics have worked to solve the challenges of creating Arabic chatbots. Furthermore, the development of Arabic chatbots is critical to our attempts to increase the use of the language in academic contexts. Our objective is to install and create an Arabic chatbot that will help the Arabic language in the area of education. To begin implementing the chabot, we collected datasets from Arabic educational websites and had to prepare these data using the NLP methods. We then used this data to train the system using a neural network model to create an Arabic neural network chabot. Furthermore, we found relevant research, conducted earlier investigations, and compared their findings by searching Google scholar and looking through the linked references. Data was gathered and saved in a json file. Finally, we programmed the chabot and the models in Python. As a consequence, an Arabic chatbot answers all questions about educational regulations in the United Arab Emirates