User Experience — The Future of Conversational Interfaces
Virtual assistants and conversational interfaces are on the ascendant and are common in customerservice settings.
This has resulted from the huge advances in machine learning and the way that language is processed.
A conversational UI works more like a normal conversation and allows access to data based on more normal ways of interacting. More and more platforms now have them in place and they are providing a great experience for millions of customers.
Conversational UI and Virtual Assistants
Chatbots use a conversational UI to interact with the user to meet verbal or typed requests. The bot then performs the required actions. There are different types of conversational UI including Q&A interfaces which don’t use machine learning to produce natural language. These are algorithm-based and can supply general information. If the bot is unable to provide this the user is passed to a human for support. These are often found in customer support situations.
Recently, user engagement interfaces have increased in popularity. As well as giving answers and information these conversational UIs can also make recommendations, for example, for a product or some content the user may find useful.
PDA organizers help a user manage schedules by providing reminders and generating lists whereas an Intelligent Virtual Assistant or AI Assistant like Alexa, Siri and Cortana also provide user interaction as part of the Internet of Things.
To Summarize, the Main Uses for Conversational Interfaces Are:
Customer Support — taking information from source material according to conversational need. More advanced customer service applications can also provide invoices, receipts and other information.
Conversational Navigation — this help improves customer experience by guiding them various online processes ranging from shopping to form filling, content or product suggestions, and so on.
Lead Generation — this occurs when the interface interacts proactively rather than waiting for the user. It is often used to gain customer information by entering into conversation. This information includes things like name and contact information that can be followed up as potential future customers.
Productivity Enhancement — the conversational interface can help streamline work activity by managing tasks, obtaining reports, providing status updates and undertaking research.
Content Suggestion — pointing users toward the most valuable content to make the business offerings more relevant to the user.
Marketing — a good conversational UI can help with marketing across many platforms to provide information, content and follow-ups.
To get the best from a Conversational Interface a company must be clear about its use. Development should only start once the relevant use cases have been identified to maximize the available development budget. Conversational UI continues to develop and is likely to bring with it significant business advantages.
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