Whats the difference between a Chatbot, a Voicebot and a Virtual Assistant? by Chiara Martino

A chatbot is a computer program that emulates human conversations with users through artificial intelligence (AI). Our customer service solutions powered by conversational AI can help you deliver an efficient, 24/7 experience  to your customers. Get in touch with one of our specialists to further discuss how they can help your business.

• Conversational AI is the technology that can essentially make chatbots smarter.
• We are highly skilled and knowledgeable experts in AI, data science, strategy, and software.
• Chatbots are frequently utilized in customer service, commerce, and other industries where they can organically and intuitively communicate with people using text, voice, or even video.
• This means less time spent on hold, faster resolution for problems, and even the ability to intelligently gather and display information if things finally go through to customer service personnel.
• Conversational AI describes a suite of technologies that, used independently, or together, allow software applications to have more natural, more sophisticated or more complex conversations with users.
• You can even use our visual flow builder to design complex conversation scenarios.

Chatbots, conversation AI and virtual assistants tend to be bandied around under the same definition, i.e. a robot that can help customers with their issues. But each category has a difference in not only their primary functions, but their level of sophistication. So, let’s get into some definitions, and then a comparison between the three.

Digital Experience

However, even without direct sales directives, the Insomnobot-3000 has been extremely successful as it was able to improve brand image and reach hundreds of thousands of new customers through its unique approach. That said, this chatbot did bring thousands of valuable warm leads to the business for retargeting. AI chatbots can also pick out entities, like dates, and can tap into real-time data using

API integration. And to make the conversations ever more meaningful, the bots are continually growing using Machine Learning.

They use pre-defined rules that depend on a conditional if/then at each step. However, the limited responses make it impossible to answer the kinds of multi-part questions that are standard in the leasing process—such as pet policies or neighborhood specifics. This often leaves prospects with more questions than when they started and demands that they go through more steps to connect with your support team.

Grow your Business,

In addition, any type of confusion (known as error handling) must be accounted for. With a goal-oriented agent, generally the confusion will only go at most two levels deep, providing a message to the end user that the goal-oriented agent can only handle certain types of workflows. Whether you are building a conversational agent from the ground up or using a platform, it is very important to distinguish what you are trying to accomplish.

In order to determine the appropriate platform for your business, you should first determine the purpose of using either the virtual assistant or chatbot platforms. Chatbots have a conversational user interface (CUI) which is a chat-like interface that enables customers to interact with the chatbot via messages. The new age eCommerce culture demands real-time, 24/7 customer support and Q&A channels. Conversational AI may be a more feasible solution than relying on human labor, as they are more readily accessible, on company terms.

Summary About Conversational AGents and Chatbots

Chatbots based on conversational AI use various technologies, which include NLP, dialog management, and machine learning (ML). First of all, the application receives input in the form of a written query from the user, such as “Help, I can’t remember my username”. The application has to decipher what the user actually means and the intent behind their query. For this, it uses Natural Language Understanding (or NLU), a subset of NLP that enables machines to gauge intent and convert it into structured data that they can interpret. Based on its understanding of the intent behind the query, the application then forms a response using dialog management.

Take your customer engagement to the next level with conversational AI chatbots and deliver delightful experiences. With the Conversational Cloud, they can oversee conversational chatbots and even label misunderstood intents with AI Annotator. Earlier we mentioned the different technologies that power conversational AI, one of which is natural language processing (NLP). NLP isn’t different from conversational AI; rather it’s one of the components that enables it. Because AI doesn’t rely on manually written scripts, it enables companies to automate highly personalized customer service resolutions at scale. This makes every interaction feel unique and relevant, while also reducing effort and resolution time.

Chatbots vs Conversational AI vs Virtual Assistants: What’s the Difference?

About 47% of them are worried that bots cannot yet adequately understand human input. Setting the “AI or not AI” question aside, there are many other ways to categorize chatbots. It’s a good idea to focus on your chatbot’s purpose before deciding on the right path. Each type requires a unique approach when it comes to its design and development. Customer service teams handling 20,000 support requests on a monthly basis can save more than 240 hours per month by using chatbots.

AI makes it possible to message back in 5-10 minutes, 24hours a day, via email or SMS, underscoring that ‘round-the-clock connections via multiple touch points are just as crucial as the content of the conversations. People use these bots to find information, simply their routines and automate routine tasks. According to a report from National Public Media, 24% of people over 18 (around 60 million people) own at least one smart speaker, and there are around 157 million smart speakers in US households. “The pairing of intelligent conversational journeys with a fine-tuned AI application allows for smarter, smoother choices for customers when they reach out to connect with companies,” Carrasquilla suggested.

The Value of Using Conversational AI Chatbots

Whether you use rule-based chatbots or some conversational AI, automated messaging technology goes a long way in helping brands offer quick customer support. Maryville University, Chargebee, Bank of America, and several other major companies are leading the way in using this tech to resolve customer requests efficiently and effectively. That’s why chatbots are so popular – they improve customer experience and reduce company operational costs. As businesses get more and more support requests, chatbots have and will become an even more invaluable tool for customer service. Most businesses now realize the value of delivering improved experiences to customers. They also understand the huge role played by technologies like chatbots and conversational AI in achieving that goal.

• However, Conversational AI is the only way to provide real value to customers.
• Over time, and with the help of ML and AI tools, companies learn and can anticipate what customers want.
• AI Chatbot – handles a large amount of data from clients at a faster pace.
• Businesses utilize conversational AI in a variety of communication channels, including email, voice, chat, social media, and messaging.
• Conversational AI can handle immense loads from customers, which means they can functionally automate high-volume interactions and standard processes.
• Before a customer speaks to a human agent, a chatbot can get important information from them.

However, not all chatbots use AI, and not all AI is used for the purpose of powering chatbots. Machine learning technology and artificial intelligence program chatbots to work like human beings 24/7. Conversational AI personalizes the conversations and makes for smoother interactions.

Why Conversational AI Is So Much More Than a Chatbot

Thanks to chatbots, customers can now order food without making a phone call. Domino’s messenger bot is a good example of how to make the best of chatbot technology and ensure amazing service to customers. Since this chatbot lives in Facebook Messenger, customers will have the flexibility to order from different devices.

Their core value is to enhance customer experience through automated conversations. However, you might have reached the stage where you think conversational AI could be an interesting addition to your customer experience. The team at MindTitan has experience implementing conversational AI and would be happy to discuss your specific use case in order to identify the best options for your company. While there are some goal-oriented chatbots that were able to implement some mixed context-switching, there isn’t a lot of flexibility for the user to direct which way the conversation goes. Appy Pie Chatbot helps you design a wide range of conversational chatbots with a no-code builder.

Chatbots vs. Virtual Assistants

There are very high chances that what you are interacting with is indeed a non-conversational AI powered chatbot. Armored with the knowledge of why and in what mood a customer is contacting a business can help them proactively plan out the solution to not just acquire new customers but also retain the existing ones. They can either push metadialog.com visitors through the sales funnel or apply customer retention strategies – all at the back of the information they gather from the conversational AI platform. Conversational AI bots should learn and improve with each customer conversation. As your business expands, it should also be able to integrate with third-party tools easily.