Chatbot Software Outsourcing Trends
Businesses are looking to chatbots more and more as they seek better customer experience and it seems that customers are also more accepting of them as a way of communication. By 2025 it is anticipated that the global revenue for chatbots will reach USD 1.23 billion.
The key benefits of Chatbots are:
- Constantly available
- No breaks, sick days or vacations
- Perform repetitive tasks reliably and accurately
- Great for customer interaction
The use of mobile messaging apps is increasing; people no longer expect to wait on the line for a query to be answered and chatbots provide an immediate response, making sure that customers are not driven away by frustrating wait times.
Many businesses look at outsourcing their chatbot development needs. This gives a variety of benefits including:
- Faster development time
- Access to skilled developers and the most advanced technology
- Less financial and organization risk
However it is imperative to choose the right outsourcing company based on the following considerations:
- What the bot will need to do
- How much the company has in its development budget
- What in-house talents are already in place
Once these questions are answered a company can then look at outsourcing according to the specific services it needs. Some of these include:
Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK): Allows for natural language processing. Written for Python-based chatbots such as Microsoft’s LUIS and IBM Watson. Python is a versatile programming language and it is easy to learn. A company would need about 14 weeks to implement, integrate and administer the program and while paying a salary for 14 weeks is expensive, it is still cheaper than hiring full-time in-house workers.
JavaScript
JavaScript (JS) is widely used in chatbot development and is the second most popular language after Python because of its simplicity and fast processing times and the availability of vast libraries. Complexity, time and money are the main reasons for outsourcing the development of a JS-based chatbot.
Artificial Intelligence
The main advantages of AI include:
- Integration across platforms
- Better user engagement and experience
- Better decision support for the user
- Keeps user attention
NLP is a key component with AI allowing context, local variations, accents and so on to come into the equation. Each time a conversation is held new insights are gained and the system can learn how better to interact.
Bringing AI into a business is a challenge and outsourcing gives access to a global pool of talent, it reduces the cost and time involved. Outsourcing removes the risk of making expensive mistakes and, if the project is not delivering, the organization can simply walk away.
Non-Technical aspects of chatbots can also be outsourced and by tweaking speech patterns and content can be useful in perpetuating a brand image. Customer support is an area that benefits immensely from the use of chatbot technology. It can eliminate waits in call centers, personalize the service based on customer trends and increase levels of satisfaction. As chatbots can immediately access information, they are accurate and fast in their responses giving a great customer experience with obvious commercial benefits.
Chatbot technology is revolutionizing the way that organizations and customers interact. Businesses need to adapt to ensure that they take advantage of this new technology, to provide a customer-friendly interface and stay competitive.
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