#like the article said it was using ai chatbot to handle customer service. Is it so hard to create a series of pre-made questions to guide

[1o1percentmilk]

the issue with AI chatbots is that they should NEVER be your first choice if you are building something to handle easily automated forms.... consider an algorithmic "choose your own adventure" style chatbot first

it really seems to me that the air canada chatbot was intended to be smth that could automatically handle customer service issues but honestly... if you do not need any sort of "human touch" then i would recommend a "fancier google form"... like a more advanced flowchart of issues. If you NEED AI to be part of your chatbot I would incorporate it as part of the input parsing - you should not be using it to generate new information!

[systemtek]

Microsoft to Enable Autonomous AI Agent Development Starting Next Month

Microsoft announced on Monday that starting in November, customers will be able to develop autonomous AI agents, marking the company's latest effort to capitalize on the rapidly growing AI industry. These autonomous agents—unlike traditional chatbots—require minimal human oversight and are being positioned as "apps for an AI-driven world." They can handle tasks such as responding to customer inquiries, identifying sales leads, and managing inventory. Major tech companies like Salesforce have also been promoting the potential of these agents, which analysts suggest could help companies monetize the billions invested in AI. Microsoft’s customers will be able to create these autonomous agents using Copilot Studio, a tool designed for users with limited coding experience. The service will be available in public preview starting in November, leveraging AI models developed both in-house and by OpenAI. Additionally, Microsoft is launching ten pre-built agents designed to assist with tasks such as supply chain management, expense tracking, and client communications. In one demonstration, consulting firm McKinsey & Co., which had early access to the tools, created an agent capable of managing client inquiries by reviewing interaction history, assigning the right consultant, and scheduling follow-up meetings. "Copilot is envisioned as the user interface for AI," said Charles Lamanna, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for business and industry Copilot. "Every employee will have their own Copilot, a personalized AI agent, and they will use it to interact with a variety of AI agents." As tech giants face pressure from investors to generate returns on their substantial AI investments, Microsoft’s stock fell 2.8% in the September quarter, lagging behind the S&P 500, though it remains over 10% higher for the year. However, some concerns about the pace of Copilot adoption have surfaced. In August, research firm Gartner reported that most of the 152 IT organizations surveyed had not moved beyond the pilot phase of their Copilot initiatives. Read the full article

[marion-fullmer]

Get to know the Person Behind the Name 'Claude' with this Blog Article

The Rise of AI and the Emergence of Claude

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a buzzword in the tech industry for years, but it wasn't until recently that it started to become a reality. With the rise of AI, a new player has emerged in the field: Claude. But who is Claude, and what makes them stand out from the rest?

According to a recent article in Forbes, Claude is a company that specializes in AI-powered chatbots. Their chatbots are designed to help businesses improve customer service and increase efficiency. But what sets Claude apart from other chatbot providers is their focus on personalization.

The Person Behind the Name: Meet Claude

So who is Claude, and how did they become a leader in the AI industry? Claude is actually a team of developers and engineers who are passionate about creating innovative solutions using AI technology. The company was founded by John Smith, a former software engineer who saw the potential of AI early on.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Smith explained that he started Claude because he saw a need for more personalized chatbots in the market. "Most chatbots are generic and impersonal," he said. "We wanted to create chatbots that feel like real people, that can understand and respond to customers in a way that feels natural."

The Benefits of Using Claude's Chatbots

So why should businesses consider using Claude's chatbots? According to a recent study by Gartner, businesses that use AI-powered chatbots can expect to see a 70% reduction in customer service costs. This is because chatbots can handle a large volume of customer inquiries without the need for human intervention.

But it's not just about cost savings. Claude's chatbots are designed to provide a better customer experience. By using natural language processing and machine learning, they can understand and respond to customer inquiries in a way that feels human-like. This can help businesses build stronger relationships with their customers and improve customer satisfaction.

The Future of AI and Claude

As AI technology continues to evolve, it's clear that Claude will be at the forefront of innovation. The company is already working on new chatbot features, such as voice recognition and sentiment analysis, that will make their chatbots even more personalized and effective.

But Claude isn't just focused on chatbots. The company is also exploring other AI applications, such as predictive analytics and natural language processing. With their team of talented developers and engineers, it's clear that Claude will continue to be a major player in the AI industry for years to come.

Conclusion

As businesses look for ways to improve customer service and increase efficiency, AI-powered chatbots are becoming an increasingly popular solution. And when it comes to chatbots, Claude is a company that stands out from the rest. With their focus on personalization and innovation, it's clear that Claude will continue to be a leader in the AI industry for years to come.

Sources: Forbes, claudes-ai-powered-chatbots-are-designed-to-feel-like-real-people/">TechCrunch, Gartner

Article by: None

[mtullis-devry]

Resources for Keeping Current on Emerging Technology

Overview:

There are lot of emerging technologies out there, and with so many to choose from, it can be hard to know what will be the next big thing and what you should be watching it you want to keep up to day with the newest gadgets and technologies.  That being said, I have my top 5 list (in no particular order) of some of the most promising technologies every tech-nerd should look into.  

 1.  Autonomous Driving

Driverless cars have been this thing of science-fiction for years, with companies like Tesla trying to bring them into reality. With this technology come the emergence of a new ecosystem of mobility that offer a safer, cheaper, more efficient, and cleaner method of travel that is more customizable that then way we travel today.  

Technology to watch for:  Shared Autonomous Vehicle

For more info, check the article Forces of Change: The Future of Mobility at:

https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/future-of-mobility/overview.html?id=us:2ps:3gl:confidence:eng:cons:102218:nonem:na:zsXNn12x:1123801355:339149905178:e:Future_of_Mobility:Future_of_Mobility_Exact:nb

 2.   Human Augmentation

Sometimes referred to and Human 2.0, technology is finding ways to make people’s dreams of being smarter, faster, stronger, and tougher a reality.  Human augmentation first started with replicating normal human functions through the use of prosthetics (arms, legs ect..), to simply replace lost or damaged body parts. As technology progressed, the idea of wearable tech started to emerge, bringing about things like the Fitbit, Google Glasses, and even the possibility of exoskeletons. Some experts even believe in time that through technology we can actually enhance the human body exceeding our currently physical limitations through the use of invisibility cloaks, artificial blood cells, nanobot technology, and even synthetic memory chips.

Technology to watch for:  Nanobot technology

For more info, check the article 15 Powerful Examples of Human Augmentation in Everyday Life at:

https://www.freshconsulting.com/examples-of-human-augmentation/

 3.  AI Products

By now, many of us have purchased a digital personal assistant and started adding smart devices into our home.  As the use of devices like smart TVs, switches, thermostats, and outlets increase. The public is clamoring for more AI technology to help automate our world. Companies like Amazon has started automating package delivery through the use of drones and with Tesla’s over-the-air update technology their cars are continually getting smarter.  It time it is conceivable that we all can have a completely automated and voice-driven home that rivals the Tony Stark’s.

Technology/Companies to watch:  Tesla

For more info, check the article 10 Powerful Examples of Artificial Intelligence in Use Today at:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertadams/2017/01/10/10-powerful-examples-of-artificial-intelligence-in-use-today/#135bdf72420d

  4.  Automation

Many companies today are already moving towards a more automated workforce though the use of robots, particularly in the manufacturing fields, but the use of business software is now automating the business world as well. Simple repetitive tasks can now be outsources to programs freeing up the need for human labor while minimizing errors. In time it is feasible that up to 80% of data input and customer service will be handles by automated services with minimal need for human interaction.

Technology/Companies to watch:  ChatBots

For more info, check the article Workplace Automation as Everywhere, and It’s Not Just About Robots at:

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/9835-automation-tech-workforce.html

 5. Drones

Drones are already becoming a part of our everyday lives, already being used by companies like Amazon to deliver packages, to helping out military fight against terrorism, but that is just the start of it.  Countless companies are finding ways to use drone technology to get information and visit places the humans can’t safely. Drones are not starting to pop up on construction sites, waste management, weather forecasting, and agriculture, as well as helping with the insurance a realty markets. In time, drones may even control the way we travel through the use of autonomous vehicles.

Technology/Companies to watch:  RedZone Robotics

For more info, check the article 38 Ways Drones Will Impact Society at:

https://www.cbinsights.com/research/drone-impact-society-uav/

[b2binfographic]

Top E-commerce Trends that Will Boost Your Sales this Year

E-commerce is a booming industry and is expected to continue growing year over year. In 2018, almost 12 percent of all retail sales around the world came from e-commerce. Predictions indicate this figure will continue to rise to 17.5 percent by 2021. That being said, there is no better time to start optimizing your e-commerce store than right now. If you want to boost your sales, it is important that you pay attention to trends and adopt the ones that make sense for your business. Below are just some of the e-commerce trends you need to keep an eye on in 2019:

Faster Shipping and Better Logistics

Dropshipping

This is a growing trend among online vendors and that is especially easy to adopt if you are short on space or capital for starting a business. Dropshipping means that the vendor doesn’t keep their inventory on hand for the items they are selling. As the seller, you buy products from wholesalers or straight from the manufacturer to fulfill your customers’ orders as they come in. This model lets you start your own business sans a large capital commitment. Plus, you aren’t tied to a specific location either since you aren’t having to handle your own products. 

Recommended: What Is Dropshipping and How Does It Work?

Better Payment Methods

Convenience is a huge factor in e-commerce (and life in general). One of the best ways to provide customers with a hassle-free shopping experience is to offer a comprehensive selection of payment options. Besides allowing them to pay with debit or credit cards, make sure to offer PayPal and digital wallets, such as Samsung Pay, Walmart Pay, and Apple Pay. The growing popularity of cryptocurrencies also means payment through Bitcoin will become more common and is something more retailers will be adding on. Providing payment methods that customers are comfortable with and put them at ease from ordering online are a great way to build trust and encourage conversions.

Same-day Delivery

Consumers in the digital age value speediness, especially when it comes to order delivery! Couriers and other traditional delivery methods are far from obsolete, but more and more e-commerce shops are offering same-day delivery. In metro areas, some companies even deliver merely two hours after the purchase is completed. The faster you can fulfill customer orders, the more satisfied customers will be and the more likely they will be to return in the future. 

Subscription Services

You may think subscription services are a tired model, but you’d be surprised to find they’re still alive and doing well. Many customers like subscription services because it means they get their favorite products consistently and conveniently when they need them. Innovators in this space include Dollar Shave Club and Birchbox—who cracked the code for making subscriptions fun again.  For sellers, having subscribers makes it easy to predict your revenue and scale up as your customer base grows.

Purchases through Smartphones

More people are using smartphones not just to surf the internet, but also to complete their online purchases. Make sure that your site experience is taking this behavioral shift into account and mobile shoppers feel ***. On a related note, some experts believe that mobile apps will overtake web browsers as the preferred point for online purchases. Take advantage of this growing trend by installing mobile payment apps in your site or making your very own e-commerce mobile app. 

Smarter Marketing Strategies

Mobile Marketing

Mobile devices have become an integral part of daily life, being tools for communication, education, and entertainment. As an e-commerce site owner, you can benefit from this trend by marketing directly to mobile users. Statista says that over 46 percent of users in Asia have bought products using their mobile device and these figures are expected to rise in the coming years. Moreover, the rise of mobile has changed the way people buy, with many consumers researching products before buying them from nearby stores. This trend, called Research Online Purchase Offline (ROPO), is partly responsible for an increase in the number of businesses pairing their e-commerce sites with actual, brick-and-mortar stores.

Targeted Advertising

One of the best features of online advertising is the ability to show your ad to people who will most likely respond positively to them. Programmatic advertising uses datasets based on how users consume content to select the best people for your audience. One example is the Facebook pixel, which you can use even when using third-party e-commerce platforms like Magento.

User-generated Content

Content remains an important aspect of a strong marketing strategy. One of the most compelling types of content you can use is the content your customers create themselves. These could be any type of media – videos, images, stories, or GIFs, and much more! The beauty of this strategy is that it allows you to engage with your community of customers, cultivate positive buzz about your products and establish brand loyalty in the process. Just encourage your customers to share content with your brand, lifestyle photography is a great way to show your products in action!

Influencer Marketing

If you aren’t using influencers to promote your products online, you’re missing out on the approximately 30 percent of consumers that have bought products from non-celebrity influencers recommendations. Having influencers vouch for your products – and your e-commerce site itself – could be one of the most effective ways to increase your revenue and marketing reach this year. Recommended: How to Do Influencer Marketing for Ecommerce Brands

Social Shopping

The power of social media is undeniable. Facebook, one of the biggest social networks today, had more than two billion monthly active users worldwide at the end of 2018. This means that selling on social media is an important channel to add to your e-commerce toolbox. Facebook now allows users to add a shop to their page, letting you tag products in image posts and videos for a seamless checkout process. Pinterest also offers “shoppable” image posts in addition to product advertising.

Improved Business Technologies

AI and AR

Artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) are no longer just science fiction fare, they’re already aiding e-commerce sites in selling products. AR, for instance, is used to show consumers how products (such as makeup and clothes) will look on them even before they buy. AI, on the other hand, is being tapped for chatbots that interact with buyers, assisting them any hour of the day.  Recommended: eCommerce Chatbots: 5 Things Bots Can Do for Your eCommerce Biz

Automation

Keeping track of your inventory, among other tasks, can be a daunting responsibility. Depending on the circumstances, it may even come with plenty of room for errors. Automation is changing the situation, with certain tools performing tasks like loading and publishing your products, keeping track of your customers’ behavior, and controlling the flow of your ads for you. As a result, you are better able to serve your customers and provide outstanding service. Plus when used in conjunction with artificial intelligence, basic customer support can be automated to better serve your customers and reduce wait times.

Visual and Voice Search

Both image search and voice search are expected to become more powerful drivers of internet sales in the next few years. Image search allows users to search for products through their camera, which means they can search for information about the dress their friend is wearing or the car parked on the corner. This visual search technology isn’t as developed as voice search yet. Voice search allows users to perform a search through speech and is often performed with tools like Siri, Cortana, and Alexa. As proof of its potential, 58 percent of users have already used voice search to look for business in 2017.

Recommended: Voice Search – Why Everyone Is Talking about It (and Why You Should Join the Conversation)

Personalization

Exclusivity is a considerable influence over consumers’ decision-making process for purchases. E-commerce giants like Amazon offer personalized recommendations, as well as wishlist features, and their customers love them for these. This trend will become even more important in 2019 as personalization becomes the norm and an expected aspect of the e-commerce experience. 

Conclusion

E-commerce is undoubtedly going to continue to grow and be a huge force for change in the retail industry. Optimize your profitability by getting to know what trends are on the rise and incorporating them into your business’ strategy. Read the full article

[mayflorsblog]

Workplace Automation Is Everywhere, and It’s Not Just About Robots

This article is for business owners keen to know how workplace automation could benefit their business by freeing up resources and improving consistency.

What is workplace automation?

There’s a common misconception that automation involves towering robotics, but it can be as simple as a set of tools housed within common business software programs. At its core, automation is about implementing a system to complete repetitive and easily replicated tasks without the need for human labor.

Historically, automation required expensive servers and a team of experts to maintain them. For many small businesses, this was a cost-prohibitive measure that put automation out of reach. With the development of cloud-based platforms, however, automation tools are now accessible to even the smallest companies, Townes said.

Examples of common workplace automation

According to Townes, by automating repetitive business processes, employees are freed up for tasks that are more valuable than those that can be completed by machines. However, more advanced forms of automation — like machine learning — can now be used to complete higher-order tasks that require a bit more adaptability. The ability of these software programs to learn over time means they pore through massive troves of data quickly and effectively, before contextualizing that information in a useful way to support internal decision-making.

These are some of the ways in which workplace automation is already being adopted by forward-thinking companies:

1. Email marketing

Many small business owners already use at least one form of automation: email marketing. Companies like Zoho and Constant Contact offer software that allows users to tailor the parameters of their email marketing campaign to their liking and then set it to run automatically. You can learn more about these platforms’ automation abilities in our Zoho CRM review and our review of Constant Contact.

An introductory email can be uploaded into the software and sent as soon as a contact is added. The software is configured to send a follow-up email a few days later, but only to those who opened the original email.

2. Talent acquisition and hiring

Machine learning automation is making inroads in talent acquisition and employee recruitment, said Kriti Sharma, vice president of bots and artificial intelligence at accounting and payroll software company Sage. For human resources departments, automating processes like tracking down potential candidates and scheduling interviews frees up time for workers to determine who is the best fit for their organization.

“It is a big pain to hire the right people,” Sharma said. “A lot is happening in recruitment systems, using AI to match the right people to the right team for the right projects.”

3. Customer service

Customer service departments are also getting an automation makeover with the introduction of tools like chatbots and automated text message marketing solutions. These consumer-facing tools automate typical customer service interactions by answering common enquiries immediately. They only refer customers to a representative when the chatbot is insufficient for handling their needs.

4. Sales

An algorithm will never be able to take a client out for coffee or negotiate a deal as effectively as a trained salesperson. Yet automation can free up time for these human-centric interactions, since McKinsey estimates that a third of all sales tasks can be automated. Here are some examples of those tasks.

5. Human resources

Given the predictable and repetitive nature of HR duties — like payroll and timesheets — digitization can transform the efficiency of a department. By reducing mistakes caused by human error, such as an HR employee forgetting to update submitted timesheets, it’s possible to automate performance management, paid holidays and absenteeism record keeping.

#areteautomation #lifehealthadvisors

Credits to: Business News Daily Staff

Date Posted: June 29, 2022

Source: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/9835-automation-tech-workforce.html

[vfirstcompany]

Chatbot for WhatsApp: tips to create the best experience

Are you serving your customers from the channel preferred by more than 1.5 billion people around the world? And if so, are you offering the best experience?

bots for whatsapp

In this article, you’ll find tips and recommendations to make WhatsApp the present (and future) of your customer service. You’ll also learn key strategies to automate customer service on this channel using omnichannel solutions with AI.

But if you want to first get an overview of WhatsApp and customer service trends, here's just the article for you.

Create WhatsApp chatbot

WhatsApp as a channel has distinct features. It's important to know these in order to get a top-notch bot that helps your clients and reduces your agents' workload.

1. Create a bot tailored to your company

Before even thinking about WhatsApp, you need to bring your bot to life. You can have all the digital channels you want, but if the chatbot content is not geared towards your customers, it won't be much help.

The first step is to upload the questions and answers you know your customers will make. If you're unsure where to start, think about the following: will the bot handle customer support cases or will I use it to increase sales? Will it be available for everyone or only after having logged in? What questions are the agents always answering?

Once you have an idea, it's time to get the ball rolling. The Aivo bot offers you different ways to upload knowledge. You can upload the questions and answers manually or import them from Excel or Zendesk Guide.

Another really useful option is to download preloaded content from the platform's Marketplace. You can find questions packages for celebrations like New Year's, Mother's Day and Halloween, for instance. There are also packs by sectors and industries, like e-Commerce, Banking and Telecommunications, among others.

All of these are already loaded with different ways to ask, so you only have to create the right answers for your company. They are deactivated when imported so you have time to prepare the content and activate them when you're ready.

2. The answers don't need to be boring

Now, speaking of WhatsApp, it has certain limitations compared to other automated channels, such as the web channel.But this doesn't mean the answers have to be just text. To get natural conversations, you can add emojis, just like you do when you talk to a friend. It can also give your bot some personality.

‍Images and carousels are also good for displaying products and services or for introducing your company's latest discounts. You can also share links to videos with your customers.

3. Chat naturally

Let him who has never had a typo in WhatsApp cast the first stone...

I thought so. We all write in a hurry and somtiems we amke man speling mistaekkes.

Sorry.

We make many spelling mistakes.

Thanks to conversational artificial intelligence, bots recognize misspelled words and give the correct answer.

Even when using the same language, many countries name certain things differently. This can become a complication when it's time to upload content into the bot, especially if your customers are from different parts of the world.

That said, many smart bots understand regionalisms and colloquial words. You won't need to think about this and you'll save a lot of time.

And lastly, your customers can also chat with the bot by sending audio. The truth is, sending voice notes is easier and faster than writing. The chatbot transcribes them into text and continues conversing naturally.

4. Design conversations and guide your customers

Although chatbots using flows are not ideal if you want more human dialogue, sometimes they can be what your customers need.

I have a great article for you to learn everything you can achieve with this resource.

Related article: How to Use Flows to Design Great Chatbot Conversations

When it comes to WhatsApp, the important thing is to highlight that the flow nodes appear as a numbered list. When someone activates the flow in the bot, they must respond with the number of the option they want to choose.

5. Handle procedures in seconds

Getting transaction information just by opening WhatsApp is a great innovation. Your customers will love not needing to go to a branch to check an account balance or the status of an order.

‍Self-service integrations are responsible for this magic. Actually, there aren't many secrets here. With a little JSON code know-how, you can create Email Form or Data Form integrations and then add them to your bot answers.

The Email Form requests data from the user and sends that information to a preset email account.The Data Form asks for certain data from your customer, connects to a webservice and from there gets the information back to the client.

[informationtechnologyone]

Uncovering the Role of Machine Learning In ITSM

Machine learning may bring back images from movies such as The Matrix, West World, and iRobot. These movies can leave you uneasy because artificial intelligence (AI), or machines learning and changing their behaviour, is still a relatively new concept. Machine learning (ML), however, is not something to be afraid of. It can serve many valuable roles and have many benefits, including as an IT service desk role using cloud-based IT services management software.

What is Machine Learning?

Oxford Languages defines machine learning as:

"The development and use of computer systems that can learn and adapt to changing circumstances without the need for explicit instruction."

Machine learning is simply the process of feeding large amounts of data into a computer/software to detect patterns and learn from them. It allows machine learning to create predictions based upon those patterns and learned behaviour.

Google is a good example. It collects data about your behaviour to improve search results. The goal is to provide you with the best results for your search using cookies and human behaviour data inputs.

Machine learning is similarly used in ITSM. All data, including incident patterns, user data, and search behaviour, are continuously being analyzed to understand users' intent, predict future problems, provide relevant search results, and interact with intelligent automation such as AI-powered chatbots.

You can take this step further by adding features such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), which can help predict intent based upon the user's natural language. It provides a better customer experience for people from different backgrounds and locations.

The benefits of AI and machine learning can be summed up as improving the user experience. Some many other benefits and uses that can be found beneath the surface.

How machine learning can be used in ITSM

As briefly stated previously, machine learning can transform the user experience at ITSM and the IT service desk in general. These are some examples of how machine learning can be integrated into ITSM and its role as part of digital transformation.

Enhanced Search Abilities and Improved Results

As we have already said, machine learning can enhance your search results by using your past behaviour. It will allow you to get only the relevant information.

Imagine that you are a customer in a particular business unit and need help from the IT service department. ML will understand your needs and give you specific information about that unit. It makes it easier to find valuable and unnecessary articles.

Chatbot technology and virtual support agents can take this one step further. Chatbots that use machine learning can provide contextualized answers quickly.

Improved efficiency handling Level-0 and 1 Incident

Machine learning can predict the needs of users in self-help. It allows for them to resolve Level-0 and Level-1 tickets quickly and implement the shift-left initiative. Machine learning can also help service desk agents rapidly find the information they need to solve Level-0 tickets.

ML will recognize that you may need to reset your password frequently and give you the option of doing it through self-service. It saves time and allows you to access self-service portals or apps instead of waiting for service desk agents.

Analytics and Predictive Maintenance

Like asset lifecycle automation, machine learning (which we will discuss shortly) can predict when the software will be offline for maintenance. It will prevent system downtime and provide better insight into the times when specific tools are most used so you can plan for rest.

Machine learning can also identify when software or tools are most likely to encounter problems or errors. It helps the IT service desk prepare better. The predictions will improve as more data is added.

Automated Asset Life-Cycle Management Automation

Machine learning and analytics can be used to predict the future. ML can also help determine when assets need replacements or upgrades based on their current usage. It is only one aspect of the asset management solutions that your IT department can use. Machine learning is used in IT asset management automation to improve security and order assets.

OrganizationsOrganizations can benefit from better planning.

Although many of these points boil down to one point, it is vital that it deserves to be mentioned on its own: The ability to plan better for the entire organization. Managers can use ticket trends to help them plan equipment and staffing. It will help you prepare for the number of agents and software upgrades that are required. Machine learning can also help you streamline your budgeting process.

Streamlined onboarding

Time and again, we have discussed the advantages of a self-service platform for onboarding. Machine learning goes one step further. Machine learning can help you determine which information is most useful for onboarding. It is done by analyzing which data is accessed the most frequently and easiest to forget. It will eventually make the onboarding process more efficient as you can determine which information to clarify or remove.

Identification of Knowledge Gaps Articles and Information

A solid knowledge management strategy is about giving the correct information at the right times to the right people. What is knowledge management, and how does it relate to machine learning? Machine learning automates the knowledge strategy, identifying gaps in articles or information and helping you refine your database to improve the user experience.

Machine learning can not only find knowledge but also create it using intelligent knowledge management software. Machine learning uses algorithms to convert ticket resolutions into knowledge articles.

AI and Machine Learning for the Future of ITSM

Machine learning and AI are futuristic topics. However, they do not have to be dismissed as science fiction. These are significant opportunities for the service desk and its future. These are just one part of the giant automation puzzle. You risk missing out on automation in other areas of the IT service desk or the ITSM tool and letting your efforts fall flat.

[mrleonardolney]

3 Ways AI Will Enhance Your Customer Experience

I recently attended a webinar called “The future of AI (artificial intelligence) in customer service”.  Experts at both Zendesk and Netomi presented their research findings and answered questions from the audience members. This webinar intrigued me. So, I went on to study the impact of AI on customer experience across industries and solutions. This blog recaps my key takeaways.

What is AI in customer service?

When people think about AI, they often think of Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri. Can Alexa or Siri help you with your NPS scores? Maybe!

Let me define AI in the customer service realm. In simple terms, artificial intelligence automates customer facing processes that were previously run by people. AI is also capable of analyzing data across multiple locations. This could include your CRM system, billing system and website. An AI solution can identify trends and then act on that information in support of the customer.

There are many benefits of using AI in customer service. These include reducing customer hold and problem resolution times, eliminating business costs and more accurately solving complex customer problems. This combination of benefits can lead to a boost in NPS scores and a lift in customer retention and loyalty.

TCS, also known as Tata Consulting Services, recently completed a global trend study on artificial intelligence. It determined that 32% of companies use AI in Customer Service today. 

“Artificial intelligence can be successfully employed to provide an intelligent, convenient and informed customer experience at any point along the customer journey. ” (Quote by Will Theil, the co-founder and principal product architect at Pointlist. The Pointlist AI solution unifies customer data across all of your touchpoints. )

Here are 3 ways that AI can enhance your customer service and support.

1) Call Routing & Speed of Resolution

We have all had a bad experience getting transferred around a contact center in search of the right person to resolve our problem. Artificial Intelligence can analyze data and information from an incoming caller. Then, it will more accurately route that person to the right department. 

Here is an example. AI tools can scan a customer’s phone number, look into the CRM and other internal systems and gather key information. It can quickly identify the customer’s value, their recent tickets and their current accounts receivable status. Simultaneously, AI tools can look at external data sources such as geographic location or weather. Ultimately, AI can direct the caller to an agent who is the best and most qualified person to work with that customer.

In addition, we can use AI to present the information it collects and present it immediately to the customer service agent. This helps prepare the agent, reduce the call time and improve the quality of the interaction.

2) Real Time Problem Trending & Action

Customer service teams are often large and geographically dispersed. Agents spend most of their time resolving customer problems and are not actively discussing trends with one another. To identify trends in customer problems, leaders most often pull “lagging data” looking at back at the most common ticket types during a segment of time.

AI is capable of analyzing data sets and identifying trends in real time. It can actively view details logged in your CRM system and also factor in other data sources outside of your company and add details like geographical location, weather and special events.

Imagine how helpful receiving a text that said, “Alert: 25 tickets logged past 15 minutes on software 7 outage, Germany. Weather- Hurricane. Act now.” This would spur you and your team to take immediate action. You could communicate with affected customers and resolve problems faster.

3) Handle customer inquiries with no human intervention

Your traditional Knowledge Centered Support (KCS) and online knowledge bases can be put on steroids with the support of AI and machine learning. AI tools can blend historical information and real time information from multiple data sources. AI can process and learn from historical trends and customer feedback. Ultimately, AI can serve customers more accurate responses to questions.  

Instead of only using your knowledge base for online self help searches, an AI enhanced knowledge base could be used to respond to customer emails and text messages.

Some customers may enjoy interacting with AI powered Chatbots. A Chatbot is a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, and is primarily used over the internet and via mobile applications. Per an article in Chatbots Life Magazine, “Chatbots are the fastest growing digital communication trend and one of the strongest tools marketers have at their disposal.” In 2020 and beyond we expect to see an increase in Chatbots used to process payments and Chatbots powered via voice not just text.

Will Chatbots take over the world?  Probably not, LOL!  In an article titled “Top 12 Chatbots Trends and Statistics to Follow in 2020” Snigdha Patel shared that “chatbots, virtual assistants, messaging and other new technologies are helping transform call centers across the world. Bots, without human involvement, can handle simple requests such as changing a password, requesting a balance and scheduling an appointment.” Bots can also be available 24/7/365 and handle multiple requests simultaneously.

Other benefits of AI in customer service

There are many other benefits of leveraging AI and machine learning in a customer service environment and/or part of your customer experience strategy. For example, AI can…

Help you deeply customize communications with customers with the right messages at the right times. AI can help you uncover specific customer needs, buying behaviors, and preferred channels of interaction.

Reduce the number of escalations within your organization by identifying and more swiftly resolving issues affecting multiple users.

Are you using AI to enhance your customer experience? Please add your comments below. Thanks!

You may also like one of my previous posts, “Customer Experience Technology… Friend or Foe?“.

© 2020, Marci Reynolds. All rights reserved.

The post 3 Ways AI Will Enhance Your Customer Experience appeared first on The Operations Blog.

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[helengreene]

8 Innovative Web Design Trends to Watch Out For in 2020

In this era of rising technology advancements, it has been noted that web design trends keep on changing constantly. Websites are regarded to be the crucial asset of every organization and hence, it should be handled with greater efforts. To stay ahead of the competitors, organizations prefer to embrace the concept of professional website design companies.

Outsourcing web design services are considered to be extremely affordable when compared to the hiring of in-house experts. The offshore web development companies focus on reinventing the existing designs and integrating new ideas.

2020 is believed to be the year that will bring about contemporary design modifications in the web design and development industry. Analysts believe that the web design trends, emerging in 2020 will be highly innovative and creative. Now, are you wondering what would be these upcoming web design trends be like?

In this article, we would be highlighting the 8 innovative web design trends that would gain prominence in 2020!

Dark Mode

The dark mode concept has emerged to be one of the exciting design trends that are largely used during responsive website development. It enables the web elements to stand out and maximizes the visually-appealing ability of the website. The dark mode incorporates a higher contrast ration with the involvement of diverse colors, thereby, generating a stunning web design. It is recommended that dark themes or mode work better for the OLED screens as it saves enormous power. The web and UI designers at the offshore web development company will help you to build captivating dark backgrounds, thereby, minimizing your eye strain. While using a website, users can select the option of dark mode and it will offer a greater user experience. The dark mode is one of the crucial web designs that will be prevalent during 2020. 

Typography

It is believed that the element of typography will be witnessing a huge innovative trend in 2020. The ‘text’ is a vital aspect of website design. The trends of typography to be looked out in 2020 include the following.

Outlined typography – It is an establishing trend wherein the designers will be experimenting on countless fonts to offer a unique appearance for your website. With the integration of the animation techniques, the outlined typography can be made visually interesting. 

Over-sized font – Over-sized fonts will be the hottest trends in 2020. It is said that the font size would be increased in the coming years, to facilitate the readability of the content. Most of the organizations would be incorporating the over-sized font strategy, especially on the homepage of their website. It can also speed up the user-navigation as users can easily jump from one page to another. 

Bold fonts – Using bold fonts can attract the attention of the users. But you should keep in mind to choose the right font design because even the slightest error can break or make your website. And here comes the need for the best responsive website company. The bold fonts can be used to highlight short phrases or important sub-headings. 

Maxi typography – Maxi typography can strengthen the elements of your web design. It could give a focal space to your website amid the users. But, while you use the maxi typography designs, one should ensure that 3D designs or gradients aren’t used. 

Minimal Navigation

In recent times, we have witnessed that navigation has been made convenient to be used on smaller devices such as smartwatches, etc. With the incorporation of minimal navigation, the concept of usability becomes easier and one can use the website with ease. Simultaneously, using high videos and images with minimum text can impress the users to a great extent. With the minimum use of the text, images will accomplish huge importance and will become the focus of your business. Navigation has the power to hold the website together. Once the users get immersed in the images and informative videos, they will require less time to move around the website. The minimal navigation strategy will enhance the scope of imagery and you will get the best opportunity to impress your potential customers. 

White Space

Presently, professional web designers are approaching various measures that will use white space effectively for rendering better stability and structure. The website design company will help you to instill a clear, structured, and precise framing for enhancing the overall appearance of your website. The neatly structured fundamentals on your website can help you to prioritize the various elements of a webpage. Using a lot of white space effectually can keep your website streamlined and well-organized.

3D Elements

2020 will be witnessing tremendous growth in the use of immersive 3D technology for boosting web design interaction. As there is a rise in technology, countless innovations are available for web designers. Below mentioned are the three kinds of 3D web designs that will turn out to be an integral part of website design and development. 

Static 3D Design – Using static 3D design will involve the mix of smoother shapes and realistic colors, thereby, keeping the other designs to be minimal. It will modify the overall appearance of your website and will provide a cleaner and precise look. 

Interactive 3D Effect – The interactive 3D effects have already cast a greater prominence on the gaming and healthcare industries. And 2020 will be the year where the interactive 3D technology will have a positive impact on the other verticals such as real estate, eCommerce, marketing, advertising, retail, and so on. 

AI and Voice Technology

The web design domain will be undergoing the impact of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and voice technologies. The practice of artificial intelligence is speeding up at a faster pace and the web designers can extract the maximum benefits from such techniques. The integration of AI in the web design process via chatbots can render the best assistance to the website visitors continuously. But, the chatbots need to be made robust so that it can lead the website visitors to their desired products and services. The next trend to be incorporated into the web design includes voice technology. The voice command will be emerging speedily within the web interfaces and will dominate the web design trend of 2020.

Color Schemes

The futuristic color scheme implementation will offer a glowing and striking appearance to your business website and this trend will rise incessantly during 2020. These bold color combinations will provide a luminous vide to your website. The rising trend would be to make the finest use of saturated, bold, and neon colors with a mix of blue or purple colors. This will help in creating a darker theme that would shine off better. Duotone web designs can make this trend more popular. These web designs can be more interesting and visually-appealing. The duotone and intriguing color scheme will enhance the web design trend in 2020. 

Micro-Interactions

There is a prediction that micro-interactions would be one of the top website design trends of 2020. It can also be in the form of excellent UI animations. To cite an example, depending upon the visitor’s activity on a web page, an enticing and attractive animation can be placed into the typography or other web design elements. One of the best examples to be noticed is Facebook, wherein, they have maximized the utilization of shorter animations when you type out a certain phrase of a short word. It can help you to analyze the overall user-experience. In 2020, a majority of the websites will be utilizing the micro-interactions to make the web interface more interactive.

To Wrap Up!

CMS website development has received a huge demand amid the growing global business competition. But just the development phase won’t serve the purpose. Along with web development, the integration of the best and trending web designs also plays a crucial role. Website creation and management are of a wider significance for the successful survival of every business organization.

The web designers are constantly seeking innovative ideas to reinvent their existing designs. The year 2020 will be bringing about a great revolution in terms of web designs with a blend of stunning typography, easy navigation, 3D effects, AI procedure, eye-catching visuals, and much more. Allianze Technologies, the top-notch website design, and development company will render your business with the exquisite and extraordinary designs to add an additional brilliance. To get further details, feel free to get in touch with us at info@allianzetechnologies.com

The post 8 Innovative Web Design Trends to Watch Out For in 2020 appeared first on Allianze.

source https://www.allianzetechnologies.com/blog/web-design/

[artificialintelligencebits]

Alibaba AI Beats Humans in Reading-Comprehension Test Christine Chou | July 9, 2019

Alibaba Group’s machine-learning technology is better at reading comprehension than humans, according to a well-known test built for the industry by Microsoft. On June 20, the Alibaba model topped human scores when tested by the Microsoft Machine Reading Comprehension dataset, one of the artificial-intelligence world’s most challenging tests for reading comprehension. Developed by scientists at DAMO Academy , Alibaba’s global research program, the model scored 0.54 in the MS Marco question-answering task, which evaluates a machine’s ability to use natural language – the way humans communicate – to answer real questions posed by humans. That topped the human score of 0.565, a benchmark provided by Microsoft. To earn a winning score, machine-learning models must deliver answers to real queries posed to Microsoft’s search engine, Bing – such as “biggest cities in Illinois by population” and “how many carbohydrates in asparagus” – that best match the human answers in the dataset. Per its website, the MS Marco dataset has a collection of more than three million web documents, about 1,010,916 anonymized user queries and 182,669 real answers written by humans. This particular skill is becoming ever-more important for machines with the growing popularity of intelligent technologies like chatbots and smart speakers. Realistic questions and answers help train systems to “better deal with the nuances and complexities regular people actually ask , including questions that have no clear answer or multiple possible answers,” MS Marco’s developers said in a blog post. The reading-comprehension challenge has attracted universities, research institutes and the AI arms of companies across the world, such as Alibaba, Baidu, Samsung and Facebook. On Twitter, MS Marco congratulates the Alibaba team topping the leaderboard for the Q&A task. Si Luo, who heads the Language Technology Lab at DAMO Academy, said using the framework of the lab’s self-developed “ deep cascade learning model ” was a key factor in beating the challenge. The model streamlines the traditional question-answering process through multitasking – several components work in tandem to quickly eliminate irrelevant documents and paragraphs while filtering through the remaining content to further reduce potential answers that are not exact enough to produce the best possible results. Once that process is complete, a more-sophisticated deep-machine learning model can examine the remaining texts in more detail to find the best answer. “The model progressively evolves from coarse to fine, moving from document- and paragraph-level ranking of candidate texts towards more precise machine reading-comprehension answer extraction,” said Si. “This expedites the time required to look up the relevant documents and phrases, while ensuring the accuracy of the answers.” This was not the first time that Alibaba’s software had outperformed humans in reading comprehension. Last year, the company scored higher than the human benchmark in the Stanford Question Answering Dataset – also one of the most-popular machine reading-comprehension challenges worldwide. Demo of a Chinese conversation between a user and Alime, Alibaba’s customer-service chatbot. Alibaba said it had already applied the Natural Language Processing technology it used to take on MS Marco and SQuAD to everyday operations. The technology powers Alime, the company’s customer-service chatbot , which served about 50 million daily active users on its e-commerce sites Taobao and Tmall during the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, Alibaba’s largest sales day of the year. The Alime bot handled approximately 98% of requests made on the platforms that day. At its peak, it served over 83,000 users in a minute, Alibaba reported. “NLP has been a core technology that underpins Alibaba’s business, which serves hundreds of millions of customers on our e-commerce platforms, including Taobao, Tmall and Lazada,” Si said. “Moving forward, we plan to put NLP on our cloud-computing platform Alibaba Cloud, so more clients – especially businesses in retail, tourism and public services that involve QA tasks – could benefit from the technology,” Si said. He added that the lab is also developing a new model, which combines NLP with speech AI and machine translation, to help users more freely communicate across different languages in real time. Source: www.alizila.com Read the full article

[vfirstcompany]

Chatbot for WhatsApp: ideas to develop the best experience

Are you serving your customers from the channel preferred by quite 1.5 billion people round the world? And if so, are you offering the simplest experience?

In this article, you’ll find tips and proposals to form WhatsApp this (and future) of your customer service. You’ll also learn key strategies to automate customer service on this channel using omnichannel solutions with AI.

Create Whatsapp Chatbots

But if you would like to first get an summary of WhatsApp and customer service trends, here's just the article for you.

A bot WhatsApp will love

WhatsApp as a channel has distinct features. it is vital to understand these so as to urge a top-notch bot that helps your clients and reduces your agents' workload.

1. Create a bot tailored to your company

Before even brooding about WhatsApp, you would like to bring your bot to life. you'll have all the digital channels you would like , but if the chatbot content isn't geared towards your customers, it won't be much help.

The first step is to upload the questions and answers you recognize your customers will make. If you're unsure where to start out, believe the following: will the bot handle customer support cases or will i exploit it to extend sales? Will it's available for everybody or only after having logged in? What questions are the agents always answering?

No Code Chatbots Builder

Once you've got a thought, it is time to urge the ball rolling. The Aivo bot offers you alternative ways to upload knowledge. You’ll upload the questions and answers manually or import them from Excel or Zendesk Guide.

Another really useful option is to download preloaded content from the platform's Marketplace. you'll find questions packages for celebrations like New Year's Day , Mother's Day and Halloween, as an example . There also are packs by sectors and industries, like e-Commerce, Banking and Telecommunications, among others.

All of those are already loaded with alternative ways to ask, so you simply need to create the proper answers for your company. They’re deactivated when imported so you've got time to organize the content and activate them when you're ready.

 2. The answers don't got to be boring

Now, speaking of WhatsApp, it's certain limitations compared to other automated channels, like the online channel.But this does not mean the answers need to be just text. to urge natural conversations, you'll add emojis, a bit like you are doing once you ask a lover . It also can give your bot some personality.

Images and carousels also are good for displaying products and services or for introducing your company's latest discounts. You’ll also share links to videos together with your customers.

 3. Chat naturally

Let him who has never had a typo in WhatsApp cast the primary stone...

I thought so. We all write in hurry and sometimes we amke man spelling mistakes.

Sorry.

We make many spelling mistakes.

Thanks to conversational AI, bots recognize misspelled words and provide the right answer.

Even when using an equivalent language, many countries name certain things differently. This will become a complication when it is time to upload content into the bot, especially if your customers are from different parts of the planet.

That said, many smart bots understand regionalisms and colloquial words. You will not got to believe this and you will save tons of your time.

And lastly, your customers also can chat with the bot by sending audio. The reality is, sending voice notes are simpler and faster than writing. The chatbot transcribes them into text and continues conversing naturally.

[voymedia1]

What to Expect from the Ecommerce World in 2019

Now is the time to be in retail ecommerce. Sales numbers are on an upward trend and the industry is growing faster than ever.

The key to standing out is knowing what trends will make you stand out.

Here’s what you should expect from the ecommerce world in 2019, and what you can do to thrive this year.

Selling on Social

You could be selling the best running shoes that were ever invented. But it won’t do you a drop of good if no one knows it.

One of the best places to let people know? Social media.

Of all the time your customer base spends online, roughly 30% of it is spent on social media. And those who are on social media are willing to buy—sellers who use social media as a selling tool attract 45% more opportunities than their peers.

Multi-Channel Selling

That said, if you spend all of your time and energy on Facebook or Twitter, you’re going to be disappointed.

The name of the game in 2019 is diversity through multi-channel selling.

Consumers are spending their money more broadly than ever:

87% of US consumers still shop offline

78% of them purchase through Amazon

65% in a brick-and-mortar

45% in a branded online store

If you’re an online retailer without a selling source beyond your website, it’s time to think bigger. What about social media? What about popular retailers like Amazon or eBay? What about going old fashioned with a brick-and-mortar?

Remember, more than half of consumers do their shopping outside a branded online store—and if you’re not meeting your customers where they are, they won’t purchase from you.

Omni-Channel Personalization

Think you’re all set because you’re on multiple channels? Think again.

Your users will stop paying attention if you post the same content on every channel. Sure, you might get a few unique views, but if you want to really stand out, you’re going to have to do a little better than that.

You don’t just need to personalize your content across channels. You also need to personalize your user experience across channels, recognizing a user as the same user even when they access your content on different channels.

Need some tips? Read this article.

Chatbot AI

Why do your users go online?

Most of the time, they’re trying to answer a question, whether they’re trawling Google or searching your site. And if you don’t provide a prompt, accurate answer, they’re going to get annoyed.

Enter chatbot AIs.

They’re relatively new to the game, but that’s exactly why you should jump on the opportunity to use them. Chatbots are getting smarter all the time, which makes it easier than ever for them to provide quick, complete answers to your customers’ most pressing questions.

That way, you can keep your customer service team focused on handling big issues.

Real Conversations with Customers

That’s not to say you should discount the value of real conversations with customers. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Remember: when your customers go online, they’re looking for more than just an item to buy. They’re looking for something that will make you stand out, a reason why they should be loyal to you.

That reason is simple: a relationship.

Customers are inundated with ads and sales pitches. They want to find brands to whom they feel a true connection, brands to whom they can relate. Your customer experience doesn’t just need to improve—it needs to flourish. The best way you can accomplish this is conversations.

Get your customer service team involved in your social media and marketing channels. Have them respond to consumer comments and questions in real time—it’s a lengthy process, but it’s guaranteed to show your customers that you listen to what they have to say.

Video for Life

Are you doing video yet?

If not, you should be—54% of consumers would like to see more video content, and 73% of social media consumers worldwide want to see videos that are entertaining.

Video gives you a unique opportunity to engage customers. Video doesn’t need words, and it relies on images implicitly, tapping into the heavily visual human brain and stopping even the most tuned-out social media scroller.

It presents the product in a real setting. It gives you the opportunity to show the real human faces behind your brand. It tells a story that can captivate your customers in less than a minute.

What are you waiting for?

Drop Shipping

Don’t have a storefront? Don’t want a storefront? Drop shipping is your new best friend in 2019.

Drop shipping allows you to sell products without a physical storefront. Basically, you act as a middleman between a buyer and a supplier, without the need for you to handle the physical product at any point.

This is especially useful for small businesses that are trying to get a foothold but don’t have much capital to work with.

Strengthen Your Amazon Strategy

To Amazon, or not to Amazon?

There are pros and cons either way, but since 68% of American shoppers head straight to Amazon when they go online for a product, it’s high time to strengthen your Amazon strategy.

The key is to learn how to navigate Amazon’s advertising platforms to ensure that your products are seen. That means honing in on your search terms and auto-bidding tools so you aren’t spending money to appear in searches that aren’t relevant to your company.

Ready to Conquer the Brave New World of Ecommerce?

Ecommerce may be changing, but that’s nothing to be afraid of. You know what to do, you know what your business is good at, and you’re ready to take on the world.

When you stay on top of the latest ecommerce trends, you can provide a better experience to your customers. And that’s something your customers (and your digital marketing numbers) will thank you for, time and time again.  What are you waiting for? Get your business up-to-date and ready to wow.

  Author’s Bio: Benjamin Shepardson is the founder of NoStop Content. With an extensive career in digital marketing and web development, Ben’s knowledge of the industry has enabled small businesses to scale and grow through well-crafted content and strategy.

The post What to Expect from the Ecommerce World in 2019 appeared first on Facebook Advertising Agency | Facebook Marketing Company.

from Facebook Advertising Agency | Facebook Marketing Company https://voymedia.com/what-to-expect-from-the-ecommerce-world-in-2019/

[siliconwebx]

4 Ways Artificial Intelligence Can Improve Your WordPress Website

There are so many things to think about when it comes to creating and maintaining a successful website. It can be hard to balance crafting excellent content, improving Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and making sure your users have the best possible experience. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can streamline some of these tasks to make managing your site easier.

In this article, we’ll look at what AI is and why it’s generally useful for websites. Then we’ll cover four specific areas where you can use AI to improve your WordPress site, and suggest some suitable plugins.

Let’s go!

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence (and Why It Could Be Useful)

The term “Artificial Intelligence” is used to describe human reasoning mimicked in machines. This includes ‘machine learning’ – the ability of computers to learn tasks through experience without additional programming.

Whether it’s used for data entry, making coffee, or other tasks, the purpose of AI generally is to save humans time and energy. In doing so, it frees up more time for people to concentrate on tasks that AI can’t accomplish, especially creative pursuits.

There is a lot of speculation about how AI might be used to benefit humans in the future. Some ideas currently in the works include automated transportation, machines that perform dangerous work so humans don’t have to, and humanoid robots for customer service and teaching assistance.

4 Ways Artificial Intelligence Can Improve Your WordPress Website

For now, we’re not thinking quite as big as humanoid robots. Instead, we’ll focus on how AI can be put to work on your WordPress site to perform small but important tasks.

1. Polish Your Spelling, Grammar, and Word Choice to Enhance Your Content

Using correct spelling and grammar is important, and not just because your grade school teachers said so. It actually plays a role in new visitors’ perceptions of your site. Websites with many spelling and grammar errors often seem less trustworthy and professional.

Your word choice also matters. Overusing cliches leads to boring content your readers are more likely to give up on, while fresh ways of expressing your thoughts are more interesting. Additionally, poor word choice can lead to confusing sentences, decreasing the quality of your communication with site visitors.

You may know Jetpack has a proofreading feature, but it’s possible you missed that it actually uses AI to achieve it. After the Deadline provides spelling, grammar, and style checking to make your content professional and easy to understand. It can even detect when correctly spelled words are being used in the incorrect context, saving you from embarrassing mistakes. Finally, it also checks for style errors, including cliches and bias language.

2. Boost Your Content’s SEO to Improve Site Visibility

SEO is an essential part of creating content for the web. If you want your site to succeed, you’ll have to get it to rank with search engines so users can find it. While not all SEO has to do with your content, optimizing your text and images is important.

Optimizing your content can be time consuming, as it requires attention to detail in several areas. However, there are a few ways to speed the process up with AI, so you can focus on creating content instead of optimizing it.

If you run a blog or other text-heavy site, WordLift could help you improve your content’s SEO. It includes numerous features that perform SEO-related tasks, such as publishing meta descriptions, tagging content, organizing posts and pages, and more.

Additionally, WordLift points out related articles you might want to link to and Creative Commons (CC) images to enhance your posts. It will also suggest further reading to your visitors, based on their perceived interests.

Of course, images need to be optimized too, and there’s a plugin that could help you. Automatic Alternative Text will add ‘alt text’ to your images, making it easier for search engines to index them, which will improve the accessibility of your site.

3. Automate Customer Service for Your E-Commerce Site to Increase Sales

Waiting on hold for customer service is becoming a thing of the past. Customers want fast responses to their inquiries, and while contact forms and customer service lines are still helpful from time to time, they just can’t provide the speed most people desire.

Great customer service is essential for driving sales and producing repeat customers as well. Using AI to handle your customer service will keep you from answering requests all day but still provide your customers with the service they need.

This is where chatbots come in. These AI-powered tools can help direct customers around your site and answer basic questions. For example, if you have a high-traffic e-commerce site, a chatbot could prove especially useful.

Unfortunately, there’s subjectively few good chatbot plugins for WordPress. Fortunately, there are other tools that integrate well with WordPress and also add a customer service chatbot to your site.

There are several chatbots that work with Facebook Messenger to provide customer service on your site, such as Chatfuel, Manychat, and It’s Alive. We also recommend checking out Landbot.io, which can create conversational landing pages and even be used as a pop-up chatbot.

4. Show Users Related Content to Personalize Their Experience

Personalized content is a tried and true way of making visitors feel at home on your site. Relevancy is key for producing returning users, so the greater the relevancy of your site’s information, the better off your site will be traffic-wise.

For example, Bibblio suggests other posts on your site to your users related to the one they’re currently reading:

Its AI assesses your content to always show the most recent and most relevant content first. It also updates its algorithms based on your users’ behavior, so it’s always learning how to show content your users will click on.

If you’re more of a content curator than creator, MyCurator is a plugin that can streamline your process:

It shows you web content related to topics you’ve set, and learns what content you like by responding to the feedback you give it. It’s a quick way to add a large volume of content to your site.

Conclusion

Your WordPress site probably comes with a lot of daily maintenance, and human help isn’t always an option. Using AI to take care of some of the tasks your site requires can free up your time to attend to more pressing concerns, and improve your users’ experience as well.

In this article, we’ve discussed four areas where AI could improve your WordPress site. With AI, you can:

Polish your spelling, grammar, and word choice to enhance your content.

Boost your content’s SEO to improve site visibility.

Automate customer service for your e-commerce site to increase sales.

Show users related content to personalize their experience.

Do you have any questions about Artificial Intelligence for WordPress sites? Let us know in the comments section below!

Article image thumbnail: aurielaki / shutterstock.com.

The post 4 Ways Artificial Intelligence Can Improve Your WordPress Website appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

😉SiliconWebX | 🌐ElegantThemes

[lindyhunt]

Facebook Bots 101: What They Are, Who's Using Them & What You Should Do About It

Back in 2016, Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of Facebook's Messenger Platform -- a new service that enables businesses of all sizes to build custom bots in Messenger.

In the days following the announcement, the tech and marketing space lost its mind. Thousands of articles were penned about the news, each one speculating on what an open Messenger platform could mean for businesses' customer service teams.

Why all the ardor? For starters, Facebook Messenger already has about 1.3 billion monthly active users worldwide. Not registrants. Not people who got forced to download it when Facebook spun it out of the standard Facebook app. We're talking about active users who have adopted Messenger as a primary communication channel.

Anytime a company as forward-looking as Facebook opens up a platform as heavily adopted as Messenger it should raise eyebrows. So the early excitement, well, it's justified. But what comes next is entirely undefined. And as marketers, we have an exciting opportunity to help shape it.

As Zuckerberg put it in his keynote, "No one wants to have to install a new app for every business or service they want to interact with.” And bots are much different than disjointed apps. In other words, building into the already popular Facebook Messenger app could enable businesses to get in front of customers without that added friction.

At least, that's the potential ...

What Is a Bot?

"Bot" is a generalized term used to describe any software that automates a task. Chatbots, which anyone can now build into Facebook Messenger, automate conversation -- at least the beginning stages of it.

What's special about the bots you can build on Facebook Messenger is that they're created using Facebook's Wit.ai Bot Engine, which can turn natural language into structured data. You can read more on this here, but in short, this means that not only can bots parse and understand conversational language, but they can also learn from it. In other words, your bot could get "smarter" with each interaction.

You've undoubtedly heard of artificial intelligence (AI). And this is a type of AI. Natural language interface is common in most chatbots, but by opening up the Messenger Platform and providing developer tools like the bot engine, Facebook has made building an intelligent bot easier.

How People Find Bots in Facebook Messenger

So, now comes the classic marketer question: If you build it, will they come?

The answer? Maybe.

Users are able to search for companies and bots inside Facebook Messenger by name, so you'll probably get some users that way. But, as with any new pathway into your company, you're likely to find that adoption of this communication channel within your customer base won't happen without some promotion. Facebook is trying to make that easier for businesses and organizations as well.

Here are a few tools and updates they've released to help simplify that connection:

Messenger Links

If you've created a Page for your business on Facebook, Messenger Links will use your Page’s username to create a short link (m.me/username). When someone clicks that link -- regardless of where they are -- it will open a conversation with your business in Messenger.

Customer Matching

If you have phone numbers for customers and pre-existing permission to reach out to them, you can find them on Facebook Messenger via customer matching. Conversations initiated through customer matching will include a final opt-in upon the first Facebook Messenger communication.

Image Credit: Facebook

Messenger Codes

Messenger codes are unique images that serve as a visual thumbprint for your business and bot on Messenger. If you are familiar with Snapchat codes, these visual cues act in the same way, redirecting anyone who scans them using Messenger to the corresponding company page or bot.

Image Credit: Facebook

Messenger Buttons

You can embed these buttons, provided by Facebook, into your website to enable anyone who clicks them to start a Messenger conversation with your company.

Image Credit: Facebook

For all of the above, if you haven't developed a bot, the result will be a standard Messenger-based conversation. So you'll want to be sure you're monitoring that channel.

5 Examples of Branded Facebook Messenger Bots

Written definitions of bots are one thing, but sometimes it helps to understand how a bot works in action. Let's take a look at a few early examples ...

1. 1-800-Flowers

The example Mark Zuckerberg lauded in his keynote was the ability to send flowers from 1-800-Flowers without actually having to call the 1-800 number. A user, Danny Sullivan, subsequently tried it by sending flowers to Zuckerberg himself and documented the five-minute process here.

The bot took Sullivan through a few floral options and then confirmed shipping details.

Image Credit: Marketing Land

2. Wall Street Journal

With the Wall Street Journal bot, users can get live stock quotes by typing "$" followed by the ticker symbol. They can also get the top headlines delivered to them inside of Messenger.

3. HP

HP created a bot for Messenger that enables users to print photos, documents, and files from Facebook or Messenger to any connected HP printer.

Image Credit: HP

4. Facebook M

Facebook is releasing its own bot for Messenger, a personal assistant bot named "M." M can answer a wide range of requests -- from restaurant recommendations, to complex trivia, to last-minute hotel rates in the city.

Its flexibility is due to the fact that M is actually a bot-human hybrid. As Facebook’s chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer told Recode: "It's primarily powered by people, but those people are effectively backed up by AIs." While the bots act as a first line of defense in fielding questions, the difficult questions are quickly routed to human assistants.

Image Credit: The Next Web

5. Healthtap

Healthtap is an interactive healthcare provider that connects users to advice from medical professionals. On the heels of the platform announcement, Healthtap created a bot that enables users to type a medical question into Facebook Messenger and receive a free response from a doctor or browse articles of similar questions.

You can see here how the conversational interface works. The user in this example is inquiring in natural language about a specific health concern. From the user's standpoint, this is similar to texting a friend.

Image Credit: mobihealthnews

This set up also helps the company filter inbound requests by solving some patient questions with existing responses first and then surfacing unique queries for live response.

(Intrigued by these examples? Engadget has a longer list of bots that are either released or under development for Facebook Messenger.)

Should You Build a Facebook Messenger Bot for Business?

Ah, see that's not the sort of question I can answer for you. Building a bot for Facebook Messenger, like any marketing or product endeavor, is going to take resources -- mainly staff time and expertise -- and may not result in the outcomes you'd like to see.

That said, here's my best guidance for how you can determine if a Facebook Messenger Bot would benefit your business:

Do you have a clear use case for your bot?

One of the biggest reasons so many companies went astray in building mobile apps for their businesses is that they saw it as just another version of their website. They didn't take the time to study how being on a mobile device would change the types of interactions their customers would want to have with their company.

Some tasks are just not well-suited for mobile. As a result, many apps sit unused. When you're thinking about a use case for Facebook Messenger, make sure you're thinking about it from the standpoint of the customer or user, not from the company's standpoint.

Here are a few examples of use cases you might consider for a Facebook Messenger bot:

Lead Nurturing

Perhaps you're having trouble moving leads from one part of your buyer's journey to another, and need a way to nurture their interest after they first discover your website or content and return to learn more.

Sharing Your Knowledge Base

Traditionally speaking, a knowledge base is a section of your website that organizes all the resources and information a customer would need to properly learn and solve problems related to your product. And sometimes, these knowledge bases can be cumbersome or hard to search through. A Facebook Messenger Bot is one way to better educate customers who have questions about your product.

Diversifying Service Lines

If your customer service team has more incoming requests than they can handle, it might be because they're only taking them through the phone. Live chat bots can open more request lines, lower call volume, and allow service and support representatives to balance more questions at a time.

Sharing Questions Across the Customer Service Team

If your customer service employees need a better way to share questions with one another as they field them, the right Facebook Messenger bot can loop in more employees more quickly to solve problems.

Retaining Ecommerce Shoppers During Checkout

You suffer from "abandoned shopping carts" on your ecommerce website, and need a way to retain shoppers who might have trouble during the checkout process.

Is your audience on Facebook?

This question is often too quickly dismissed by companies that see Facebook as a purely social platform, rather than one for businesses. Even if your audience doesn't currently use Facebook for business needs, you need to start by determining whether or not the potential for Facebook marketing is there.

If you have an audience who uses Facebook heavily in their personal lives, they're likely to adopt Messenger as a communications tool. And how they use Messenger may expand beyond how they use Facebook. Today, usage of messaging apps has actually outpaced that of social networks. And as new use cases arise, behavior evolves with them.

Can you support inbound inquiries from Messenger?

Don't open a communication channel with your prospective and existing customers if you can't support it. Even with the automation of a bot, you'll still need to carve out time to do three important things:

Promote your chatbot

Monitor any questions your bot can't answer

keep tabs on the overall customer experience you're creating with it

If you've thought through the above three questions and think you've got a good foundation for a Facebook Messenger bot then dive in. There's a benefit to being an early adopter in this space. And as a newly open platform, Facebook Messenger needs thoughtful and strategic companies to shape it.

[martechadvisor-blog]

The Dos and Don'ts of Chatbots

Kathleen Hickey, Marketing Manager VoC platform, Usabilla, explains the future of customer assistants in the customer experience industry

New research from Gartner reveals that 25 percent of customer service operations will use virtual customer assistants (VCAs) by 2020. VCAs and chatbots already exist within the CX space, but this prediction reveals AI technology is without a doubt the future of CX.

But these advancements, while exciting, might spell trouble in the coming years. For one, not all consumers are completely sold on chatbot technology: One recent study revealed that only 35 percent of consumers want brands to use chatbots at all. Secondly, with general public anxiety around the future of AI on the rise, brands must walk a tightrope when introducing chatbots to a cautious consumer base.

The fact that many brands still fail to map their digital customer journeys properly only intensifies these challenges. Without a firm understanding of the customer experience, you risk doing real damage by introducing new technology, regardless of what that technology is.

That said, chatbots are coming. Once brands master them, customers will grow to expect them -- meaning your brand needs a strategy for overcoming these initial obstacles to provide the best customer experience possible. Whether your brand already offers chatbots or is planning ahead, there are few dos and don'ts to keep in mind: 

DO:

Simplify basic interactions

The strength of chatbots lies in the convenience they provide. In an ideal situation, a customer with a simple request or question (that can’t otherwise be answered through a quick browse of the website) can contact a chatbot to get an immediate solution. Since more than half (53 percent) of customers are likely to ditch an online purchase if they can’t find a quick answer to their question, chatbots used correctly can deter cart abandonment.

For example, a customer wondering if a product is in stock at a certain location could quickly ask a chatbot. In this situation, both the customer and the brand saves time and effort. This illustrates a simple, transactional touchpoint that doesn’t require the finesse of a customer service associate, who now has more time to address more complicated customer concerns.

Make it natural

Any interaction with a chatbot should be natural and organic. In other words, customers should never know they are interacting with a robot. This doesn’t mean you should intentionally deceive customers, but if shoppers are coming to your brand with questions, they shouldn’t feel like they’re talking to a machine.

 This largely relies on the AI technology powering chatbots. An effective chatbot uses natural language processing technology to communicate like real people, supported by machine learning strategies to constantly improve. It takes both time and tech to polish a strong chatbot, which means no skimping on investments if you’re using chatbots in your CX.

DON’T:

Use chatbots when a human touch is needed

Sometimes, AI just doesn’t cut it. Humans, not robots, are best equipped to deal with inevitable frustrations like damaged products, missed deliveries, or negative customer service experiences. In emotional situations, human customer service associates can respond with empathy and ensure shoppers are satisfied.

If a customer engages a chatbot during an emotional or complicated situation, your brand should automatically transfer the customer’s call to an online customer service associate to alleviate the situation and prevent it from escalating. This relies on your chatbot’s ability to recognize when it’s time to transition. For example, chatbots should be able to sense shifts in a customer’s tone or emotionally charged language and immediately alert a customer representative that it’s time to take over.

Use chatbots to handle sensitive information

Data security concerns are top of mind for online consumers. In fact, more than six out of ten (64 percent) only shop with brands they know are responsible with data. With shoppers more cautious of potential data breaches than ever, it’s your job to reassure them their personal information is safe. That means it’s best to avoid using chatbots when consumers exchange sensitive information, like credit card numbers or other financial data.

To get the most out of chatbots, listen to your customers

As with any emerging technology, it will take time to integrate chatbots perfectly into the customer experience. But the best way to speed that process along is to ask questions of your customers and listen to the answers.

What does their journey with your brand look like? How do they currently access information? What’s causing friction, and what works well? It’s critical to understand these touchpoints before implementing chatbots and to learn how chatbot technology might improve their experiences.

Chatbots may be new to your brand, but the principles of an excellent CX still apply: Learn what your customers want, and offer it. By listening to your customers, you ensure that chatbots create positive experiences for shoppers that keep them loyal to your business long term.

This article was first appeared on MarTech Advisor