Chatbots aid with contextual problem solving and the past few years have seen a proliferation of these in websites, social pages, phone calls with some being helpful and others being invasive and clearly irritating. Voice is a new entrant and although voice bots are harder to build, they get us closer to conversational AI and strides in NLP technology and speech synthesis have made it possible to automate context-specific workflows. Virtual voice agents or voice bots as they are popularly called seem to be ‘the always available & willing to help’ voice genie that everyone is looking for.

Benefits of conversational voice bots

An important benefit that they provide is that they are always on. When used properly, they can help with customer engagement and satisfaction. A bot treats everyone the same and does not suffer from human biases and temperaments, so there is a certain consistency and fairness to its dealings. Compared to a live person, it is significantly cheaper and can offer services in multiple languages and across multiple channels. Another big problem that apps face and that bots solve is around upgrades which is why a lot of apps get downloaded but very few get good usage. Upgrades for bots are seamless and instantaneous and the user is not bothered with forced upgrades. 

Industry Verticals that benefit

There are some industry verticals like retail and eCommerce where the application of bots is obvious, say by offering discount coupons to prospects to aid their conversion cycle or prevent a cart abandonment situation, or offer product recommendations after a product selection. Health Care is harder to penetrate because of HIPPA regulations but wellness and patient monitoring are all value-added services that are preventive in nature and can save a trip to the hospital by advising on nutrition and fitness.

Deployment Channels 

Today, every credible business has a website. Embedding a bot at different key locations of the website to answer FAQs, provide guidance on product features, surveys and feedback are all value-added features. The same experience can be repeated in other social channels to create an omnichannel experience for the customer. This can be extended to an incoming or outgoing phone conversation with a handoff to a human when the situation warrants it. IoT devices are all around us and the intelligence and decision-making capabilities embedded in them continue to grow. From smart h. omes turning on the heating systems anticipating your arrival to smart refrigerators stocking up milk when it was running low and voice-based GPS navigation in cars to help you focus on the road and keep your hands on the wheel while making the last-minute purchase or call.

Problems with existing chatbots

The problem with current chatbots is that they are text-based and hard to use for some people. Research shows that people speak three times faster than they type, making voice a natural choice for a next-generation frictionless user experience interface. It is also convenient for older folks who are technologically challenged or people who are vision/reading impaired or younger folks on the go multitasking. This is not to say text does not have a place but to emphasize voice as a first-class citizen with text to fall back to. The technology is ripe but background noise, nuances of accent, local vernacular, and several other factors should be considered to make the end-user experience meaningful.

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