Blog Archives - Front AI https://front.ai/category/blog/ Conversational AI | Service Bots Thu, 30 Mar 2023 17:36:59 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.5 https://front.ai/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-android-chrome-512x512-32x32.png Blog Archives - Front AI https://front.ai/category/blog/ 32 32 Research and development project with Laurea University of Applied Sciences and Hyvinvoiva Terveydenhuolto https://front.ai/research-and-development-project-with-laurea-university-of-applied-sciences-and-hyvinvoiva-terveydenhuolto/ Tue, 28 Mar 2023 07:44:00 +0000 https://front.ai/?p=1463 Background We were recently privileged to take part in a research and development project with Laurea University of Applied Sciences and Hyvinvoiva Terveydenhuolto (https://hyvinvoivaterveydenhuolto.fi/), roughly translated “Wellbeing to Healthcare”. The aim of this EU-funded project is to respond to the urgent need of nurses all over Finland to find ways to deal with their challenging…

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Background

We were recently privileged to take part in a research and development project with Laurea University of Applied Sciences and Hyvinvoiva Terveydenhuolto (https://hyvinvoivaterveydenhuolto.fi/), roughly translated “Wellbeing to Healthcare”.

The aim of this EU-funded project is to respond to the urgent need of nurses all over Finland to find ways to deal with their challenging workload.

“We wanted to explore the asset-based and solution-focused approaches with our chat bot as an alternative to the more common problem-focused approach. Instead of identifying a person’s problems and the possible causes resulting in the difficulties they are facing, in our approach the main attention is directed to their desires, successes, resources and the reasons for the progress that has already taken place. We also expected this sort of an approach to be easier for a chat bot, because we could train it to ask the right questions that help an individual figure things out for themselves, instead of training complex pathways that require a lot of guesswork and probably end up in a “sorry, I don’t understand” situation anyway.”
– Hilkka Lydén, project manager

The project was a welcome challenge, because it pushed us at Front AI to think about completely novel ways of solving the problem using our technology.

Methodology

Happily, Laurea had carried out a lot of user testing beforehand. We could proceed with lots of real user conversation data, which undoubtedly contributed to the good end results.

Analysing Laurea’s findings and test conversations led us to a formalisation of the conversation process. The process could be broken down into five separate phases, with three levels of questions in each phase. Implementing this in our conversational AI platform was made simple by its programmatic nature.

Instead of attempting to understand the user to a detailed level, which is the usual aim of a conversational AI project, the goal was to provide an experience where the entire point is the user thinking about and answering questions presented to them.

This meant that the logic of how we normally build projects was turned upside down. As opposed to trying to analyse and understand the user’s message, we built a process that would always return the user to the next appropriate question or phase in the conversation. The bot is the one asking the questions, not the user.

An interesting aspect that follows is that Unknown predictions, where the AI fails to predict to an intent, are the most common type of prediction and completely expected. The Unknown prediction is simply understood to be the user’s answer to the question, and we move on to the next question.

On the other hand, actual predictions and model training were restricted to cases where we knew the bot had to react in some specific way, such as pointing to external resources at the mention of suicidal thoughts or self-harm, or when the user says “I don’t know”, in which case we encourage them to try again and do not count the question as answered.

Results

Within a very short period of time, we were able to build a conversational process that feels genuinely helpful and valuable. Further developing the model to better understand the user could enable us to make the process more responsive by setting and examining variables that determine which questions are asked.

Another aspect that was considered, though not implemented in the first sprint of this project, is learning from older projects. ELIZA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA) was a groundbreaking “therapy bot” in the 1960s, whose principles of mirroring back the user’s utterances could be used to elevate the experience to a whole new level.

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Comparing ChatGPT with traditional Enterprise Conversational AI https://front.ai/comparing-chatgpt-with-traditional-enterprise-conversational-ai/ Tue, 20 Dec 2022 08:45:44 +0000 https://front.ai/?p=1383 Conversational AI is all the rage now! ChatGPT from the research company OpenAI in California impresses with its ability to understand human language with unimaginable speed and with its ability to create advanced and insightful texts. In just a few weeks, millions of people have recognized its potential and ability to produce and edit content:…

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Conversational AI is all the rage now! ChatGPT from the research company OpenAI in California impresses with its ability to understand human language with unimaginable speed and with its ability to create advanced and insightful texts. In just a few weeks, millions of people have recognized its potential and ability to produce and edit content: writing novels, essays, school assignments, poetry, songs, correcting code etc.

 

At the same time, warnings come from several sides about reliability if you need accurate, fact-based answers.

 

Reliability is where the weakness lies, at least in the current state of the research project, when considering using ChatGPT professionally for companies in their customer service, internal communication, etc. For any reliable and serious business application, it is required that all answers given to customers and citizens are precisely correct and consistent. This is especially true in regulated industries, like banking, finance, insurance and the public sector.

 

How does ChatGPT compare to Enterprise Conversational AI Best Practices?

 

The Similarities between ChatGPT and traditional Enterprise Conversational AI

 

1) From a technical point of view, there are no principal differences. The Machine Learning model Natural Language Processing (NLP) is based on Neural Network Deep Learning. The prerequisites for understanding the questions people ask are thus similar.

2) Both solutions require manual training of data to function. “Self-Learning” is based on the principle of “Human-in-the-loop”.

 

The Differences between ChatGPT and Enterprise Conversational AI

 

1) State-of-the-art Enterprise Conversational AI has one single use case defined (F.ex. Internal or external Customer Service at an Organization) – ChatGPT, on the other hand, tries to complete “almost any language task”.

2) The ChatGPT answers are not entirely consistent and it can respond differently from time to time when asked the same question. Sometimes it is fairly accurate, but the answers differ over time. A professional Enterprise Chatbot is trained always to answer consistently and correctly. It is always trained in accordance with regulations and the specific organization’s practised response. If it doesn’t have the requested data, it replies that it doesn’t know and can’t make it up.

3) The amount of training data and number of human AI trainers differ as ChatbotGPT is trained with 300 Billion words by approximately 40 Full-time AI trainers over many years.

 

It is easy to get impressed by the humanlike and exceptionally crafted communication skills that ChatGPT shows thanks to GPT3, so this bot has received a lot of buzz lately due to its perceived wit and ability to create Novels, Essays, Lyrics etc.

 

A fun detail; What does the bot say about itself?

 

Gartner says in a blog post published on December 8, 2022:

 

Chatbots allow interaction in a seemingly ‘intelligent’ conversational manner, while GPT3 produces output that appears to have ‘understood’ the question, the content and the context. Together this creates an uncanny valley effect of ‘Is it human or a computer? Or, is it a humanlike computer?’ The interaction is sometimes humorous, sometimes profound and occasionally insightful.

 Unfortunately, the content is also sometimes incorrect and never based on a humanlike understanding or intelligence. The training data used on the model determines the way questions will be answered. However, as noted earlier, GPT’s capability to unpredictably generate false information means that it can only be used for situations where errors can be tolerated or corrected.

 Complexity: Large models involve billions, or even trillions, of parameters. These models are impractically large to train for most organizations because of the necessary computing resources, which can make them expensive and environmentally unfriendly.


Read the full Gartner post here https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2022-12-08-why-is-chatgpt-making-waves-in-the-ai-market

 

Our conclusion

What is certain is that OpenAI’s ChatGPT has made Conversational AI known to millions of people, and it can be a helpful tool assisting in content creation. However, we don’t see the direct commercial use of the ChatGPT in our specific field of expertise (at least yet) due lack of predictable and consistent organization-specific answers created by a manageable amount of AI training. We look forward to seeing how NLP technology evolves and improves digital communication between organizations and their customers.

At the same time, we are very excited that the already advanced language models continue to improve so that our future services will provide even higher value for our customers in many use cases, not requiring so precise and case-specific answers.

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What will HR professionals be talking about in 2023? https://front.ai/what-will-hr-professionals-be-talking-about-in-2023/ Mon, 07 Nov 2022 12:16:28 +0000 https://front.ai/?p=1375 The year 2022 is soon ending, and the following year is already peeking around the corner. We at Front AI want to help you plan next year by telling you what kind of trends are likely to emerge. Time for the right kind of leadership Gartner has surveyed over 800 HR leaders in 60 countries…

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The year 2022 is soon ending, and the following year is already peeking around the corner. We at Front AI want to help you plan next year by telling you what kind of trends are likely to emerge.

Time for the right kind of leadership

Gartner has surveyed over 800 HR leaders in 60 countries to identify the priorities and challenges for 2023. Rising inflation, intensifying competition for talent and the volatility of global supply chains are confusing and pressuring organizations. HR leaders must balance between demands: cost savings and investments in talent, business requirements and workforce needs.

The top priority in Gartner’s survey is the effectiveness of managers and leaders. Leadership is changing as society changes, and more and more emphasis is on leaders’ ability to be genuine, adaptable and show empathy. Leaders need to lead people as individuals and understand how to connect with different individuals. Indeed, 82% of employees want to be seen as a person, not just an organization employee. Individual-centered leadership requires time and energy from managers and leaders.

How to ensure workforce adequacy – is a hybrid team the solution?

In Gartner’s survey, recruitment emerged as a top priority for 2023. This is not surprising as the population in the West is ageing, and attracting and engaging the workforce gets more difficult year after year. The most attractive employers can attract the best talent. Employer branding has become an essential competitive factor in attracting new talent.

However, organizations must also consider other ways of ensuring the long-term availability of labour. One solution is digital workers, e.g. virtual assistants. The strengths of digital workers are very different from those of humans, so the optimal outcome is to combine human and digital workers in the same team. We must move away from work as the performance of tasks and instead see work as problem-solving and leadership. The World Economic Forum estimates that we will lose around one million jobs as technology develops while another 1.75 million jobs will be created.

Is valuable time spent searching for information?

Conversational AI helps to increase work efficiency by decreasing workload. Employees can quickly get answers to their questions precisely when they need information. There is no frustration and inefficient working time, as there is no need to search for information in multiple places, and people don’t have to worry about accidentally using outdated instructions. Work is more efficient when there are fewer interruptions. Interruptions quickly lead to errors, as human working memory is limited.

Gartner predicts that by 2022, 70% of white-collar workers will interact with conversational platforms daily.

Nina Koskela, Head of Internal VA

Are you interested?

Do you want to discuss more with Front AI? We’d be happy to tell you more about how virtual assistants can help your organization.

You are welcome to book a free sparring session:
https://calendly.com/nina-koskela-front-ai/60min

 

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Four ways to improve employee experience with a virtual assistant https://front.ai/four-ways-to-improve-employee-experience-with-virtual-assistant/ Wed, 06 Jul 2022 07:37:49 +0000 https://front.ai/?p=1195 Most organizations ponder which is more important: customers or employees? Without employees organizations don’t have customers and without customers there are no jobs for employees. I see them as equally important and excellent care should be taken of both groups. We’ve all heard of customer experience, but still in today’s work life – where staff…

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Most organizations ponder which is more important: customers or employees? Without employees organizations don’t have customers and without customers there are no jobs for employees. I see them as equally important and excellent care should be taken of both groups. We’ve all heard of customer experience, but still in today’s work life – where staff turnover gives organizations a tormenting headache – employee experience is only vaguely familiar to most. Even though studies show that companies that invest in employee experience are four times more profitable than those that do not (1).

What is employee experience?

Employee experience is an employee’s journey through the employment life cycle, starting from candidacy for the job all the way to the end of exiting the organization. For some the journey might be months, but for many it lasts for years or even decades. Regardless of the duration, employee experience is each employee’s perception of this journey including organization culture, digital and physical environment(1).

One way to dig into the theme is to understand what qualities people are looking for in work life. According to Mercer’s study (2) – regardless of job or industry – people crave for an experience that is enriching, embracing, efficient and empathetic. To develop all these four qualities organizations can turn to an intelligent virtual assistant. A virtual assistant is a conversational artificial intelligence (AI) based helper, an intelligent chatbot, designed to help organizations to give their personnel always available and easy to use service.

Virtual assistants can help organizations improve employee experience in four significant ways:

1. Sustain focus with the help of an intelligent virtual assistant

People seek meaning and fulfillment in their jobs as well as possibilities to learn, develop themselves and have an impact on the work that they are doing (2). Yet research reveals, that on average, 95 % of a company’s employees are unaware of or do not understand its strategy (3). With a virtual assistant an organization can enhance communication of strategy, targets, and direction to all individuals – to ensure that everyone knows their role and responsibilities in the whole. A virtual assistant greets employees in the mornings and lets them know the most important news of the organization and helps employees to keep up to date in the information flood. Virtual assistant enhances target setting guiding both employees and managers through the process and ensures that time is spent on discussing important issues e.g., targets, expectations, and feedback.

2. More efficiency and less stress with a virtual assistant

People want efficient work conditions, which means tools and resources that help them do their jobs better and faster (2). Employees also expect to have the same type of consumer-grade technology they are used to (2). An organization-wide used virtual assistant is the centralized hub for information. It is everyone’s best friend, who is always available and wants to help regardless of the time, workload, or feelings. Since employees ask for help from virtual assistant instead of co-workers and managers, there are far less interruptions at work. Due to this efficiency is higher. Time spent on interruptions varies in studies but takes an average of 10-25 minutes for the individual to get back into the workflow where one was before the interruption. If that isn’t enough people in interrupted conditions experience higher stress, frustration, workload, effort, and time pressure (4).

3. More meaningful work for humans

As a virtual assistant does routine work for managers and professionals in internal service e.g., HR, IT, finance, procurement, their time is freed up for more meaningful work. As Mercer’s study (2) shows people crave for being accepted, heard, and belonging to a group. In the workplace it means managers must have time for their team members to show direction and to show that they care. Due to hybrid work time is needed even more since there is a shift from leading teams to leading individuals.
In a work community its everyone’s responsibility to be empathetic towards others and act according to the organization’s values. Also, a virtual assistant can be trained to act according to the organization’s values. An avatar and character are created for a virtual assistant, and it can show feelings in communication and encourage employees to act according to certain ways e.g., encourage employees to analyze their motivation and discuss this with their manager.

4. Virtual assistant as a source of information

Employee experience is an ever-changing issue, which can’t be solved with one project. Work needs to be done every day and organizations need to understand their employees’ needs. A virtual assistant helps by gathering data on employees’ questions, trends, and silent signals. Employee surveys can also be done with virtual assistant.
We at Front AI are passionate about helping our clients focus on things that matter. We reimage employee experience with conversational AI by automating employee touchpoints. If you want to discuss more about intelligent virtual assistant, you can book a free consultation time with me, and we’ll discuss how your organization can benefit from a virtual assistant.
Nina Koskela, Head of Internal VA

Sources:
1) The Employee Experience Advantage, Jacob Morgan
2) Building a better employee experience | Mercer
3) The Office of Strategy Management, Robert s. Kaplan and David P. Norton
4) The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress, Gloria Mark, Daniela Gudith and Ulrich Klocke

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Strengthen employee experience with Virtual Assistant https://front.ai/strengthen-employee-experience-with-virtual-assistant/ Tue, 03 May 2022 06:27:38 +0000 https://front.ai/?p=1109 Strengthen employee experience with Virtual Assistant   The working life is undergoing many forces for change that affect organizations of all sizes, regardless of industry. The Great Resignation originated in the United States but can also be clearly seen in Finland. According to the Confederation of Finnish Industries’ (Elinkeinoelämän keskusliitto) business cycle barometer labour availability…

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Strengthen employee experience with Virtual Assistant

 

The working life is undergoing many forces for change that affect organizations of all sizes, regardless of industry. The Great Resignation originated in the United States but can also be clearly seen in Finland. According to the Confederation of Finnish Industries’ (Elinkeinoelämän keskusliitto) business cycle barometer labour availability problems are the biggest obstacle to growth for organizations₁).

By changing jobs people are looking for a solution to working life challenges. And no wonder! According to The Work Trend Index₂) 54% of survey respondents feel overworked and 39% feel exhausted. More than 31,000 people of different ages and in different jobs took part in the global survey. The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (Työterveyslaitos) has studied the well-being at work of Finnish working people before and during the covid pandemia3). Young adults, under 36 years old, are worse off than older adults on all measures of well-being at work. Young adults have experienced a one-fifth increase in job exhaustion. At the same time, they feel that the support they receive from their manager has decreased.

Digital environment as part of the employee experience

HR professionals are expected to have solutions to these challenges. Expectations for HR professionals are very high. However, HR professionals time is often spent on day-to-day practicalities. Answering the same questions over and over again, advising where to find updated processes and how to act according to the organization’s policies.

Criticizing current ways of working is easy, but it requires courage to try new and different solutions. The role of the digital environment has strengthened during remote and hybrid working, challenging HR professionals to think about it as part of employee experience. Traditionally, employee experience has been seen only as organizational culture. In other words, employees’ experience and feelings about internal matters of an organization, including its organizational structure, leadership style, rewards and benefits. However, the digital environment, i.e., the tools personnel use to carry out their work (e.g. computer, user interface, telephone and all IT systems used in the organization) and the physical environment play a major role in the employee experience4).

The aim of systems cannot be to create more work for people, but to actually perform part of the tasks. How to reorganize work so that people can focus on their strengths and machines do the routine work?

An intelligent virtual assistant for assistance?

With an intelligent virtual assistant, an organization frees up HR professionals and managers time to focus on more meaningful work with people. Time for conversations with individuals and teams, creating common direction and building trust. Time of conversations that strengthen the emotional bonds between people in the work community, which inevitably faded during remote working. According to How Finland is doing -study, both disengagement and cynicism have increased during remote work3).

Virtual assistant is an AI-based assistant. It acts as glue between processes, people and systems in an organization being available 24/7. Virtual assistant helps and guides precisely at the moment and concerning those issues that the individual is wonder -whether the person is an employee or a manager. Virtual assistant loves routine, working and it always gives consistent advice. Virtual Assistant is a great helper, for example, onboarding new employees, who have a huge number of questions from lunches vouchers to organizational objectives.

Virtual assistants and other digital workers should be seen as part of the workforce that need to be managed. Virtual assistant needs a trainer who will follow up on the discussions, respond to emerging needs teaching virtual assistant to identify new topics and provide answers to users. The role of virtual assistant trainer is one of the new HR tasks that will replace routine tasks. Gartner predicts5) that by the end of year 2022, 70% of office workers will be interacting with conversational platforms.

Front AI is specialized in a new generation of conversational AI virtual assistants. Speakers in the webinar will be Front AI experts Tiila Käenniemi, AI Operations Manager and Nina Koskela, Head of Internal VA.

Want to learn more?

You can book a meeting with our experts and we’ll tell you more how virtual assistant can help your organization: https://calendly.com/sales-frontai

 

Authors of blog

Tiila Käenniemi, AI Operations Manager and Nina Koskela, Head of Internal VA

Sources:

  • January’s business cycle barometer, Confederation of Finnish Industries

https://ek.fi/tavoitteemme/talouspoliitiikka/suhdannetiedustelut/suhdannebarometri-tammikuu-2022/#spf-tilasto%20henkil%C3%B6st%C3%B6n%20vaihtuvuus

  • 2021 Work Trend Index: Annual Report. The Next Great Disruption Is Hybrid Work – Are We Ready? Microsoft

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work

  • How is Finland doing -study, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health

Miten Suomi voi? | Työterveyslaitos (ttl.fi)

  • The Evolution of Employee Experience, Jacob Morgan

https://medium.com/jacob-morgan/the-evolution-of-employee-experience-fb2285d34d03; https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-employee-experience-matters-now-more-than-ever-jacob-morgan/

  • Conversational AI, Deloitte

https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/signals-for-strategists/the-future-of-conversational-ai.html?utm_content=196943447&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lcp-10589345

 

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Customer Service Automation https://front.ai/customer-service-automation/ Mon, 07 Mar 2022 07:25:57 +0000 https://front.ai/?p=1063 Are you looking for ways to increase the degree of automation in your Customer Service? Would you like to know more about the technologies that can improve your Customer Experience and Operational Efficiency? If so, this blog post is meant for you. Matti Toivonen, our CXO, was a guest speaker in the Ask Me Anything…

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Are you looking for ways to increase the degree of automation in your Customer Service? Would you like to know more about the technologies that can improve your Customer Experience and Operational Efficiency? If so, this blog post is meant for you.

Matti Toivonen, our CXO, was a guest speaker in the Ask Me Anything session organized by our partner Digital Workforce. During the webinar, Matti answered questions around Customer Service Automation, Chatbots, and Conversational AI.

 

Here are the answers to the most burning questions:

 

Why should customer service be automated?

 

  • Customer needs are constantly changing. The on-going digital revolution has impacted customer behavior. Customers have become more demanding on the services and especially the digital appearances of the companies they do business with. This happened already before Covid, but Covid fastened it. Also, we all use instant messaging channels and they have become almost primary communication methods. Most likely you are in touch with your family and friends through some kind of app. The rise of instant messaging has changed the way we communicate in general.

 

  • Customers want to be in charge of choosing the channel they want to be in contact, and we believe that this channel is a digital one. People also expect to get service when it is suitable for them, so a lot of service transactions happen outside the normal office hours. People don’t want to queue anything, so they expect to get service fast – and not just any service but good quality service. That puts the service provider in quite a lot of pressure. It is not easy to offer 24/7 services and to organize that kind of operations. So, one should think about what technology could offer as an alternative to those situations. Basically, it becomes more and more difficult to tackle customer demand so that makes room for automation.

 

  • Especially external customer service questions are pretty routine. 50–80% of the questions are standard questions in which users could find the answers to themselves. In principle, all situations where human communication does not add value should be automated. There are cases where you need to show empathy or cases so tricky that they require a lot of investigation. Those are cases where it is worthwhile for a person to handle transactions. But routines and standard questions should be the starting point of automation.

What are the typical use cases of automation?

 

  • The best return on investment comes when there is a reasonable amount of contacts. At the end of the day automation should save time and effort and that happens when we a are talking about a reasonable amount of volume. It’s hard to give an exact number of the amount because it depends on the case but typically if the organization already has an organized customer service team or unit, then most likely there are enough tasks to get started with at least some sort of automation.

 

  • Chatbots are used both in external and internal use cases. Most of the applications so far are external, but the utilization of AI in internal functions is growing. For example, HR and IT have a lot of potential. Example industries vary a lot in terms of the volume of the contacts and the customer base, but typical examples are banking, insurance, and ecommerce. Chatbots can be used also for marketing, for example lead generation and even recruitment.

 

How does the automation impact customer satisfaction?

 

  • In general, it seems to be hard to get good satisfaction reviews in customer service. And it’s good to remember that people give negative feedback more easily to a computer than to a human. But what we’ve seen so far in the implementation with the clients is that if the chatbot covers most of the topics that the transactions are about, there is typically a good level of customer satisfaction. From a customer point-of-view, if you can get better service in terms of availability then that itself is a positive thing. And if the problem is solved that makes the customer satisfied.

 

  • Automation also impacts employee satisfaction. When the routine work has been removed from people, there is more time to focus on cases that add value. That makes the work itself more meaningful. Automation solutions also provide new roles for people. What we have seen with our clients is that the ones who work with the AI and are in charge of teaching and training the AI have been really satisfied with the work and can sort of multiply their expertise into the system.

 

What is conversational AI capable of?

 

  • We work with a platform that has natural learning understanding capabilities and is built in deep learning. That itself is a differentiation factor to what type of a bot you’re looking for: are you looking for something that has real AI skills and natural language processing or are you looking for something simpler. That puts the technology quite into a different light. There are plenty of options and one is no better than the other – they just suit in different types of purposes. So, it’s important to think what the role of the chatbot is and what you want to achieve with the solution. We work especially in Nordic languages and our AI understands different dialects. One example is our OuluBot. Oulu is a city in the Northern part of Finland and has its own strong dialect and we have been able to train the AI to understand the Oulu dialect.

 

  • One of the biggest differences between the AI platforms is the easiness of using itself: are the platforms made for AI professionals and programmers or are they low-code so one can manage it with some sort of programming skills or are they no-code platform systems that everyone can manage themselves. We operate with a no-code platform that everyone can learn to master without any programming skills.

 

  • Text, images, videos, files, and location can all be used with chatbots. Voice is coming too. So basically, whatever we see on the web browser is doable also with the bot. The customer can be identified too. And in most cases, it should be. Not knowing with whom we interact the level of service is rather low and general. For example, bank’s customers need to be identified: the bot can’t help you much if it doesn’t know who you are and if you have an account in that specific bank.

 

How to successfully implement?

 

  • Based on our experience we would say that very often chatbots are seen as an IT implementation of a project or as a programming project which they shouldn’t be. The value is not only in the technology itself but implementing it into the business needs. Then there is a better chance to deliver something valuable and make sure the focus is not only on the technology because the partnership takes care that the solution is right for the usage. One should also understand the actual problem and the root cause behind it in order to implement a comprehensive solution and not just a chatbot. So, to do the automation correctly one should always think about the channel strategy as well. That’s crucial for going forward after the implementation of the bot.

 

  • What we strongly advice in the implementation process is to use the existing data to understand what should be automated – so seeking the truth behind the need. But basically, what our customers say is that just implement fast and good enough, push it in the production, follow up, and do the necessary changes. And that’s it. Those are one of the key steps to manage the quality of the project.

 

 

Watch the recorded webinar here

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Chatbot Opportunities: How to Extend Scope https://front.ai/chatbot-opportunities-how-to-extend-scope/ Tue, 18 Jan 2022 09:18:23 +0000 https://front.ai/?p=1036 The most successful chatbot utilising organizations build their chatbot to serve in different areas of expertise with possible integrations. This is done over time as the chatbot conversations show the direction of how to develop the content. Using chatbots can change how the organization sees the needs of existing customers. At its best the chatbot…

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The most successful chatbot utilising organizations build their chatbot to serve in different areas of expertise with possible integrations. This is done over time as the chatbot conversations show the direction of how to develop the content.

Using chatbots can change how the organization sees the needs of existing customers. At its best the chatbot analytics can show changes in the business environment at an early stage. This makes it easier to react to them.

Here are 4 steps to extend the scope of chatbots:

1. Analyze what customers want

The organization starts to teach the chatbot within a project scope. After publishing the chatbot to users, it continues to teach the chatbot by analyzing conversation data. This is what increasing volume in chatbot usage is at its best: analyzing customer needs from the conversations and extending the scope of the chatbot’s areas of expertise. And it all starts with the customers’ questions.

2. Understand the different needs for internal and external chatbots

The organization may be using a chatbot for internal or external use cases. The users may be employees or customers. Sometimes the user questions asked from the chatbot may be somewhat different than what was originally expected. In short, know what brings value to the chatbot users in general.

3. Educate and help chatbot users

In some cases the organization’s product or service may be linked with another provider’s product or service. They may be used side by side. The chatbot users may need assistance in using applications and the software. Organizations often use multiple systems side by side and the organizations’ internal chatbot users need to learn how to use them. Learning can be made fun with the chatbot. The content can be in a written format but can also be given in a video format. Ticketing services can be added if the user needs further assistance.

 

Even if the users are not asking about the organisation’s core product or service, the organisation may still need to give advice to the user on how to proceed using the products and services side by side.

 

4. Analyze and improve customer service time usage

Whether to train the chatbot to answer a specific question or not can be verified by the amount of times users have asked about the topic. It could also be verified by the organization’s customer service team. If the customer service team is using a lot of resources to guide the customer on the topic, it is worth teaching the chatbot. This way the information is accessible 24/7 to the customer.

 

After all, the chatbot exists because of the customers and serves their needs. These needs can be met by analyzing the chatbot conversation data and reacting to new topics brought up by the customers at an early stage. As the customers see that the chatbot is solving their issues, they are more likely to use the chatbot services further. Acknowledging these opportunities with the chatbot is important and increases the volume.

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Valio’s Muru artificial intelligence chatbot is a new channel for customer understanding https://front.ai/valios-muru-artificial-intelligence-chatbot-is-a-new-channel-for-customer-understanding/ Thu, 16 Dec 2021 12:29:40 +0000 https://front.ai/?p=991 The recipe service from Valio.fi is one of the most popular in Finland. The recipe service reaches 1.5 million unique visitors every month and offers a catalogue of more than 5,000 recipes. With a huge amount of content that consumers explore with different requirements and on different devices, the relevant information needs to be quick…

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The recipe service from Valio.fi is one of the most popular in Finland. The recipe service reaches 1.5 million unique visitors every month and offers a catalogue of more than 5,000 recipes.

With a huge amount of content that consumers explore with different requirements and on different devices, the relevant information needs to be quick and easy to access. Valio’s team has provided a chat service with consumers through the online service but delays in responses could be possible during evenings and weekends. During discussions, a bot emerged as a natural solution to better serve consumers.

Valio’s customer experience team consists of seven hard-working professionals responsible for web service development, consumer dialogue, customer experience measurement and web analytics. The chatbot Muru, which was launched in the spring of 2021, is also part of the responsibilities of the customer experience team. Behind Muru there is a working group with members also from different marketing teams.

Read this exciting case study to learn why working with a bot can, in some way, be compared to playing jazz. And how Muru is something to inspire holistic development and a source of data to be exported to other channels and business development.

Read the full case story here

Lue casetarina suomeksi tästä

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5 Reasons Why Every University Should Have an AI-powered Virtual Assistant https://front.ai/5-reasons-why-every-university-should-have-an-ai-powered-virtual-assistant/ Wed, 01 Dec 2021 11:50:40 +0000 https://front.ai/?p=987 Universities receive thousands of queries and requests per year. They are typically either external questions received from persons considering applying to the university or internal questions and requests from students and staff struggling with a wide range of IT-related issues. Normally all of them are handled strictly during office hours, which means that some of…

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Universities receive thousands of queries and requests per year. They are typically either external questions received from persons considering applying to the university or internal questions and requests from students and staff struggling with a wide range of IT-related issues. Normally all of them are handled strictly during office hours, which means that some of the cases will have to wait until the next day. However, students also work outside the office hours and want help just when they need it.

 

Work at the universities tends to pile up for spring when new applications are processed and for fall when new students start. Often there are simple answers and solutions to many questions, but due to volume, the service is congested. AI significantly reduces the burden of such issues by freeing up staff to deal only with more challenging cases.

 

Students like to use digital technologies as learning tools. Moreover, they appreciate easy and quick way to solve their problems. As the “Google generation” they are used to getting the information they want right away, with just a few clicks. That is why universities are interested in taking advantage of AI in order to improve their service. Universities are increasingly adopting AI-based chatbots aka virtual assistants to enhance their interactions with both new and existing students. Conversational AI enables dialogue in natural language. The conversation is like with a human, but much faster.

 

 

Here are five reasons that highlight the potential of an AI-powered virtual assistant:

 

1)    Service around the clock

 

Extended service hours are essential as more and more people study remotely and require support outside regular office hours. Don’t fail in connecting with students instantly – Gen Z won’t wait up.

 

2)    Expanded scope

 

In addition to IT support, the virtual assistant can be put to work in other units as well, such as the Student Affairs Office, Admission Services, and library. Over time, it will learn more and free up staff to handle larger projects.

 

3)    Simple communication

 

Instead of relying on multiple platforms, focus on a single channel. Communicate in a way that makes student participation easy. The AI-based virtual assistants give students access to important information at their fingertips.

 

4)    Less hassle

 

Conversational AI has a large impact on student outcomes by encouraging students to proactively address small issues before they become bigger problems. Universities can increase the completion rate of tasks such as filling in applications for admission and applying for financial support by changing the way they are presented.

 

5)    Easy implementation

 

You may be worried about difficult implementation, but not all virtual assistants require programming skills or in-depth knowledge of IT. For example, FrontAI’s EduBot is easy to use and quick to deploy. A complete, pre-taught AI-model with a broad hierarchy of topics covers the most common needs for student and IT services, making it extremely cost effective.

 

Conversational AI as a communication strategy

 

AI-powered virtual assistants add a whole new communication layer, providing immediate, on-demand support to everyday questions. By creating your communication strategy according to the needs of the students, you can remove many obstacles that prevent them from succeeding. This can help universities secure a higher number of course registrations and increase admissions. Enhanced education system means happier students and better reputation for your university.

 

To learn more, read our case study on how we implemented an AI-powered virtual assistant that understands one of the most difficult languages ​​in the world, Finnish, for Finnish universities.

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How to quickly get the most out of your Internal Virtual Assistant https://front.ai/how-to-quickly-get-the-most-out-of-your-internal-virtual-assistant/ Thu, 30 Sep 2021 16:24:09 +0000 https://front.ai/?p=962 Artificial intelligence-based service bots, in other words conversational AI, have not only broken through as external chatbots for B2B- or B2C customer services, their importance as internal virtual assistants (VAs) within the organization has been strongly emphasized lately. The need for Internal communication and support has increased during the pandemic. Organizations waste a lot of…

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Artificial intelligence-based service bots, in other words conversational AI, have not only broken through as external chatbots for B2B- or B2C customer services, their importance as internal virtual assistants (VAs) within the organization has been strongly emphasized lately.

The need for Internal communication and support has increased during the pandemic. Organizations waste a lot of time and money when employees search for information from different places and ask their supervisors, co-workers, HR experts, or browse intranets. (We also addressed this issue in the blog Internal Virtual Assistant – Why do you need one? Front AI)

Let’s assume that your organization is advanced and you have an internal AI-based bot in use. Congratulations, you have taken a step towards better internal organization efficiency and staff satisfaction. You may perhaps now face new challenges If you don’t get the staff to use and trust the virtual assistant. There is always a risk that the bot will remain a marginal solution that will not achieve its goals if you don’t pay enough attention to the organization’s culture.

In this blog, I want to emphasize some things to keep in mind when making the bot a virtual assistant your “best buddy” who is widely used and always asked first. The most important thing is to create a “bot culture” where the whole organization internalizes and understands that the bot adds value by increasing staff satisfaction, streamlining operations, and making the whole organization more effective.

This list is not exhaustive, and every organization can have its own starting points, but I think these steps are essential to have in mind when creating a corporate bot culture and an irreplaceable VA.

1. Everything starts with the management commitment
As with all renewal projects, management commitment and example are crucial. The virtual assistant (VA) must be firmly part of the internal communication strategy and have clear ownership. A VA cannot be just a system to purchase, and, after that, it’s left on its own with insufficient resourcing. There are no free lunches; if you want to achieve something, you must invest in resources. Besides, it is good to remember that an effective VA has swift ROI, and your experts can focus on more critical tasks.

2. Easy to approach “Buddy”
The VA needs to be an easily approachable “Buddy” who appears in the right places at the right time, offering its help. The VA needs to feel and look like one co-worker so efforts must be put on the personality of the VA – including the avatar, appearance and tone of voice. In some organizations, the VA is the first support person for new employees, and they are expected to always ask the VA first before asking their supervisor or an HR expert.

3. Understand the right timing and provide spot-on support
Employees usually seek information precisely when the subject matter in question is relevant to them. When the VA knows the organization annual HR clock, it can be a great tool helping the supervisors to understand which themes they should implement next. What could be better than a VA that, on its own initiative, pops us and tells us that development discussions are approaching, asking if you need help with preparations, etc.

4. Plan the VA learning journey
Implementing a VA is a journey that can start with finding quick wins and low hanging fruits and continue with a VA which can provide personalized answers. With integrations and user authentication, the VA can fetch information from the back-office systems and databases and update employee data in them.
In the beginning, one rule of thumb is to go broad instead of deep on topics and intents (= the goal the person has in mind when typing in a question) and choose one or a few focus areas for going deeper. Those can be, for example, most requested use cases such as vacation, sickness reporting, and facility management requests. Keep in mind always to have a high focus on expanding the scope and improving the intents. The attitude of the VA should be, “if I didn’t know today, then tomorrow I will.”

5. Do not forget the marketing
From an expectation management point of view, the employees must understand that the VA is not ready from day one, and it evolves constantly. One should tell honestly what the VA knows today and what are the following learning topics. The development of the VA must be constantly reported on various channels like intranets, team meetings, coffee room screens, etc. It is also beneficial if the staff are involved in identifying new topics and assisting in the development of the VA.
The marketing of the VA must reinforce the image of the VA as your “best buddy” you can always trust and remind that together we will help the VA become the best expert in the organization.

In the end, people will use the VA only if they feel that VA helps and facilitates their daily lives and that they get answers quickly from a VA that understands their questions.
With the current staff shortages in many industries, it is the right time to consider a VA that serves staff tirelessly and adds value by increasing staff satisfaction and streamlining operations. If you are considering an internal VA, do not hesitate to contact us. Also, take a comprehensive look at chatbots, conversational AI and their related technologies in our Chatbot Guide

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