Articles about Chatbots

When you contact a large organization it's increasingly likely that, in the first instance at least, you'll find yourself dealing with a chatbot rather than a real person.

Most of these are based on some form of AI, but are they really all that clever? Deon Nicholas, CEO and co-founder of Forethought, doesn't think so. We spoke to him to find out more and discuss whether there might be a better solution.

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These days when you contact a company online it can be hard to know if you're dealing with an actual person or with an AI bot.

Clearly AI has a role to play in automating repetitive tasks and answering straightforward queries. But can it really have a wider role to play in improving customer experience? We spoke to Derek Roberti, VP of technology at Cognigy, a global conversational AI platform provider, to find out.

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The onset of COVID-19 has altered the way hospitals, establishments and companies functioned and the need to limit physical interactions has made it difficult for certain entities to cope. One of the worst affected industries has been the global healthcare sector, which lay at the forefront of the pandemic. The seismic increase in patient volumes directly translated into the multiplication of operations and patient care-related work. It became evident that hospitals were not equipped with the right tools or devices to handle the onslaught.

Despite boosting hiring practices and increasing personnel, healthcare providers spread across 66 percent of the globe have stated that the workforce shortage is a leading driver of service disruptions in the healthcare industry,  according to research by the World Health Organisation. Apart from treatment and pathology, a significant portion of the patient care journey comprises routine tasks laden with redundancies. Patient form-filling, EHR retrieval/updating, patient insurance filing, report generation, follow-up booking, patient scheduling etc., are regular day-to-day tasks that have drastically risen in volume, leading to bottlenecks. A study by the National Library of Medicine revealed  that doctors spent 33 percent of their time on these types of front-desk operations instead of pathology and treatment.

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Consumers increasingly prefer to interact with bots rather than humans, especially when it comes to researching products, learning about new services or making customer service queries.

A new study from the Capgemini Research Institute finds almost 70 percent saying they will progressively replace visits to a store or bank with their voice assistant within three years’ time.

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After a period of beta testing, Google is unleashing Hangouts Chat on the world. Despite the name crossover, the service is completely separate to Google Hangouts, and over the course of the next few days it will be made available to all G Suite users.

Hangouts Chat competes directly with the likes of Slack and Microsoft Teams, allowing for easier workplace communication and collaboration. The service can be used on the web, and there are Windows, macOS, iOS and Android apps available. Google is emphasizing not only how it integrates with other Google products, but also support for bots.

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Darling of the communication and collaboration world Slack is partnering with Oracle. The plan is to integrate Oracle enterprise software into the messaging tool that graces so many workplaces.

While neither company has yet published details of the arrangement they have come to, both have confirmed the partnership to Reuters. Slack will be used as the interface for Oracle's sales, human resources and business software.

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