Even if the client has all the information the program requires to resolve their problem, language is inherently flawed and includes bias, intonations and colloquialisms that computer programs in this day and age are not yet equipped to interpret. This could accelerate the problem solving process and give the customer the results they want with far more efficiency and convenience.Īt the end of the day, a chatbot’s effectiveness at responding to a user’s query is limited by the user’s ability to communicate it. Information that the client may not know themselves, such as the make and model of their product, could easily be determined by a visual chatbot with access to a vast database of images and information to compare it to. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, which makes a video worth a million (depending on duration and frame rate, but let’s not get technical). With traditional chatbots projected to save businesses over 8 billion dollars annually by next year, it is no question why adding more features and abilities to this technology is of interest to business leaders. With this being said, why is it that businesses are so interested in visual chatbots? Why do I need my chatbot to see? Their possible applications in the business world have been explored and expanded throughout the last decade, and 2021 will surely be no exception. These advanced bots can interpret not just language-based, but visual data from users. Visual chatbots differ from this norm in one major way - they have eyes. One could say that standard chatbots have ears. You can even take a look at a hilariously unproductive conversation between two early chatbots, ELIZA and PARRY (AKA “ ELIZA with attitude” developed in 1972).ĭespite this progress, the vast majority continue to rely on typed input from users, or occasionally spoken dialogue. If you want to see for yourself, try comparing ELIZA (1966) to ALICE (Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity, 1995). Ĭhatbots have come a long way since this early attempt at a natural language processing program (also known as an NLP chatbot). What distinguishes visual chatbots from standard chatbots?Īs high-tech as they may sound, chatbots - short for chatterbots - have been around since the 1960s when John Weizebaum created ELIZA.įigure 1: A brief and not particularly helpful therapy session with a version of ELIZA.
These systems could replace thousands of customer service workers and increase customer satisfaction, saving businesses huge sums of money. Given sufficient time and investment, the possibilities of visual bots are practically endless. It could even walk you through installing a light fixture or fixing your wifi router. It could scan your face and tell you which glasses would look best on you. What is a visual chatbot?Ī visual chatbot is an AI computer program that is able to interpret images or video provided by users in real time and respond to questions about the visual content.Īn effective visual bot could identify damage on your vehicle following an accident and give you a quote for repair costs. The integration of visual information processing into traditional chatbots can add a whole new dimension to the automated conversation experience. Certain companies, like Ada, boast far-higher NPS numbers, but the average scores in the industry show that many tools are lackingįortunately, new developments in AI promise more efficient and multi-faceted ways of interacting with users. In a recent survey, over half of online customers were unsatisfied by their ACX (automated customer service) experiences, citing slow response speed ( 59%), inability to understand context ( 51%), and low accuracy of solutions ( 44%) as their biggest pet peeves.
Online chatbots have been a cornerstone of the customer service side of online businesses since the mid-2000s, receiving customer feedback and answering questions rapidly - though often ineffectively.
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to increase its ability to convincingly replace humans, software developers and businesses alike dream up more and more creative ways to apply it in order to generate profit.