It was at the 3rd best business school (according to the Shanghai ranking), IPAG Nice, that the conference “Re-humanizing Digital Communication? The Role of Chatbots and Avatars” was held. This institution and CPM-06 collaborated to discuss, with speakers, the issues surrounding digital communication.
According to digital communication experts, 2018 will be the year of widespread development of Chatbots. But what is a Chatbot? Franck Dubos explains it as a “computer program capable of simulating a conversation with one or more humans through voice or text exchange.”
In short, it’s a pseudo-character that facilitates the search for information on a website. Initially, this conversational agent, as it is also called, operates with the help of a “database of question-answers triggered by certain words identified in the conversation.”
This is the case for OUIbot, the chatbot on the OUI.sncf website. This little orange character can find a ticket according to your criteria. Simply write or say “I want to go to Paris this weekend,” and OUIbot will respond, delve into your search, and find the ticket that suits your wishes. “The ambition of OUI.sncf is to be a travel companion,” explains Ivan Bellais, head of external relations at SNCF. “Customer relations are at the heart of the system and that’s what we really want to develop.” To please its customer, this travel companion is even capable of making jokes…
Chatbots with emotions?
Elodie Choisy has reconciled with chatbots. The communications director of the Union Pour les Entreprises des Alpes-Maritimes, who advocates for human relationships above all, is opposed to the idea of talking to a machine. However, she found herself reconciled with them. It was when she recently had to change her phone plan, and no phone consultant was offered, that she realized the importance of the chatbot. “In five minutes my problems were solved and all of this for free,” she confides. The question of the humanization of these robots then arose.
Developers, wanting to go much further, have equipped conversational agents, thanks to artificial intelligence, with “a very efficient natural language analysis system capable of improving over time with their use.” So much so that they will be able to simulate emotions. “We will almost feel like we are talking to a person,” explains Franck Dubos. Thanks to the ARIA-VALUPSA project, the new generation of Chatbots gains sensitivity and can replicate the specifics of an interaction between two humans.
A new customer relationship
Besides finding a humanization in digital relationships, two other factors explain the success of Chatbots. A technological factor because it is a tool that allows you to be efficient in relational missions but also behavioral. According to 2017 statistics from Citizen Call, 57% of consumers are interested in Chatbots for their immediacy. As users become increasingly connected, they need instantaneous reactivity.
On the business side, the benefits are just as numerous. They can retain users through personalized relationships and by providing innovative services, reduce costs, facilitate the purchasing process, or even relieve customer services…
By 2020, 80% of companies are expected to have implemented an automated conversation method, according to a study by Business Insider conducted in 2016.
