Chatbots phenomenon, a lasting fad ?

Automate repetitive tasks

At what salary would you be willing to perform the same repetitive tasks? In “Les enjeux psychiques du travail” (mental issues of work), Pascal Molinier describes the work of telephone operators as a pathogenic source of neuroses and anxiety.

Indeed, people working in call centers are, most of the time, answering the same questions. This is less rewarding by definition than those involving research work, stimulating our awakening, curiosity and creativity. As a result, the need to automate the redundant is important. The chatbots come into play! When, how and at what cost?

A solution? Chatbots!

Chatbots, conversational agents, or virtual assistants, have been enjoying a massive expansion around 2010 with Facebook and Microsoft. After a few mixed or bad experiments, the most famous of which will surely remain Tay, object-oriented programming is today effectively crystallizing concepts such as “conversation”, “digressions” or “intentions”, both written and oral. Thanks to the Natural Language Understanding, artificial intelligence allows a more fluid, multi-supported interaction than ever before, and above all, allows to meet the initial need: to give the right answer quickly.

Goal: optimizing time management

Whether we are looking for « a ticket for 2 people from Paris to Toulouse for Valentine’s Day weekend », or requesting « paid leave next Monday and Tuesday », conversational agents offer considerable time savings to users. In the example above, it takes an average of 1 minute to complete your trip on a ticket booking website. Formulated as such, it takes 15 seconds to type!…and only 5 seconds to speak! In companies, mastering internal jargon is a decisive step in ensuring good communication. Rather than interrupting our manager daily on such questions, why not ask them to the new chatbot?

Towards a diversification of uses

Luxury, finance, transport, energy, industry… medical? To meet their goals while complying with the rules of the targeted sectors, chatbots interface with facebook, skype, hangouts, but also slack, whatsapp… and are slowly invading show rooms to living rooms through cars on-board computers (Renault, Nissan, Über). In after-sales service, chatbots became the first factor for improving customer relations in 2017, with 80% of right answers (source: PwC). The CAC40 companies have understood this and are currently all equipped with at least one chatbot. Thus, as long as a list of the most frequently asked questions on a given topic can be compiled, the best solution will always be the cheapest one that works.

Free and GDPR-compatible self-service solutions exist, so why not using them?