What Is A ChatBot?

So here I am, manually writing about automation. Ironic? I know right! Anyway, now I have your attention let me get started. So, you may be thinking, ‘what is a ChatBot’? And if so, you’re not alone. If you’re looking for the answer, you’re in the right place! Luckily, ChatBots are actually really easy to understand. Our world is surrounded by automation and sometimes you don’t even realise it’s happening.

ChatBots are clever, tiny little systems that communicate with people… automatically! The first-ever ChatBot was created by professor Joseph Weizenbaum in the 1960s. It was named ‘Eliza’ and the way Eliza worked was by matching with words the user input and then feeding back a relevant response.

Different Types Of ChatBot!

Don’t get yourself confused! If it wasn’t clear up to this point, I’ll give you a little insight. There are many different types of artificial intelligence ChatBot (Technically). There are ones that will respond to you in text form and ones that will reply in spoken word.

Technically, any form of tech that you can ask a question and receive a response from… Is a ChatBot! So, even Google Search is a ChatBot when you think about it. Just like Eliza from the 60s, Google Search is a text-to-text conversationalist!

You’re not in the ’60s now though, it’s 2020, and ChatBots have come a long way! A great example of a modern artificial intelligence ChatBot is Amazon’s Alexa, which I’m sure you have been exposed to at some point. If not Alexa, then Google Home. If you wanted to try and be humorous, you could even say that ChatBots have become chatty!

What Are The Benefits Of A ChatBot?

How can a ChatBot help you or a business? I’ll start off by using a few great examples of online ChatBot services. ManyChat, a company who provide a niche service combining both Facebook Messenger and SMS to help grow a business through automation.

For a business, ManyChat can make potential £££’s of stress-free easy money using their ChatBot. Thanks to the artificial intelligence used within ManyChat a business can provide potential customers with all product/ service information, discounts, contact details and much, much more. All this happens around the clock, 24/7.

As an end-user, ChatBots make communications a far greater experience compared to manually conversating online. Having the ability to receive an instant, relevant response saves online users a lot of time waiting for a response. Thanks to artificial intelligence selecting a response from mountains of data, the user doesn’t have to wait around hours, or potentially days, for someone to respond to their query.

What Makes A Good ChatBot?

So, now you know what the benefits of a ChatBot are… What makes a good ChatBot? ChatBots are completely useless if they’re not designed, optimised and utilised correctly.

The first thing to think about when creating a Chatbot is the end-user. Leave them feeling like they’ve learned to use a new piece of tech that makes sense. A ChatBot needs to be easily navigable, fast and completely transparent… Just like your website!

As previously mentioned Alexa is a brilliant example of a good ChatBot, especially given that Alexa literally talks to you. She is quite the home companion and if you don’t have one, I’d seriously recommend it!

Alexa uses automatic speech recognition (ASR), magically turning the sound of your spoken words into text. So basically, tell her something and she will find an answer for you selected from her gigantic database of text contents. Now that’s what I call a good ChatBot!

However, good and perfect are two completely different things. She still won’t give me a real answer for the meaning of life, whether aliens exist and after a few Cava’s, she doesn’t even listen to me… Yes, I know the drunken speech isn’t great… but come on!

Imagine Talking To A Robot!

I’m sure you would love the idea of being able to have a good old chin wag with the likes of RoboCop, Wall-E and The Iron Giant right? If none of those movies ring a bell then you may have just been living under a rock.

Surprisingly, you’re probably communicating with Robots, or should I say artificial intelligence ChatBots every day. So in reality, you’re a step ahead of movie robots already. Your life is basically being taken over by ChatBots.

Chatbots can be easily implemented into an SEO strategy to help communicate quickly and effectively with your customers. Circulate can provide you with your very own ChatBot to boost your website interactions even further! Check out our SEO services here to learn more.

With that said, “Hey Alexa, end blog!”.