Bot in A Box I observe that some people have this perception that chatbots are actually called a chatbox. Perhaps this is due to the typing box we usually see at the bottom of a chat window. Well, what is a chatbot? In short, it is software that has the capability to interact with a human in a natural unforced way via a conversational communication method, either by text or voice. Some people calls chatbots, virtual assistants. Brief History of Chatbot The method was used in the Turing test in 1967 known as the world’s first chatbot recorded that interacted with a human. The evolution then started quite markedly after 16 years, with more chatbots like ELIZA, JabberWacky, and ALICE being developed. ALICE was my first interaction with a chatbot during my university study on AI. Now we have many modern chatbots which demonstrate the competitive evolution, led by giant tech companies, e.g. IBM’s Watson, Apple Siri, Google Now, Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana and even Facebook Messenger bot.

Architecture  High level architecture In a high level design, a chatbot must be able to detect human input accurately and also be able to transform back from a digital result to a humanised sentence. I found that this is very practical and useful. This flow can easily be scaled up to include quite a complex conversion of commands. Build from Scratch or Predefined Model? First of all, you need to have a very clear objective to build a chatbot and have complete clarity on the problem that you want to solve. If you want to enhance your business operation by automation and ease any manpower bottleneck, then there are plenty of built in, or predefined models on the market that will meet your needs. You do not need to build from scratch unless you are looking for a highly intelligent, bespoke, and mixed-conversational AI solution. By leveraging on a predefined model chatbot, you can always scale up and improve your chatbot by using the collected data. Each enterprise should make use of your collected data to find any gaps beyond your legacy business. The Trend According to Gartner’s study, chatbot market size is growing rapidly globally. It is estimated that the market will be worth $1.3 billion by year 2024. 47% of organisations will use chatbots for customer care40% of enterprise will deploy virtual assistants. Chatbot is expected to be found in high mobility channels, mobile applications, wearable smart devices, and in-car entertainment systems. In the near future, voice bots will become mainstream.

Conclusion Defining KPI measurement success is a key step in every enterprise AI solution. This will keep reminding you “why” you started the chatbot project in the first place. It is important to roll out the chatbot quickly with a minimal viable product. That way you can monitor and always ensure you have the flexibility to enhance your chatbot when required quickly and for minimal cost. Finally do not forget to include an accessible human intervention element in your design. It is a crucial to be able to handle complex conversations that require human escalation to answer the customer’s queries when the answers are unique. That way you make best use of all aspects available resulting in a streamlined in tune service for your customer’s needs. All the best!