Priscill Orue
Forget apps. Now, given the possibility to interact using natural language, and the power of computer processing in their backend, conversational interfaces (chatbots) are the trend. Chatbots can be applied in a myriad of areas such as medical, financial, customer services, user assistance and the list goes on. From all these prospects, discover 15 chatbot use cases that have been selected for this post.
Case 1: Personal assistants, the breakthrough in chatbots
The increased popularity of chatbots began with personal assistants such as Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant. These bots can organize your calendar, locate fashionable restaurants, find recipes, and countless tasks. They also assist you with business-related activities like scheduling meetings, collect performance reviews or send information required by teams.
Case 2: Financial bots
You can have a personal finance assistant to help you go from basics like finding a good mortgage to get notifications about stock market trends, and check your financial movements. Conversational banking now is the top notch of financial entities such as Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and Capital One. Are you into cryptocurrencies? Perhaps you may want to take a look at Gunbot.
Case 3: Support of conversational abilities
Chatbots can also provide support for people whose conversational interactions are in decline due to diseases like Alzheimer. It can be frustrating to see your beloved one lose interactive abilities and feel their shame to undertake routine everyday talks. For these reasons, Russian technology company developed a companion chatbot.
Case 4: Insomnia? Just talk!
The notion of knowing everybody around is having a nice rest while you have insomnia is exasperating. Your mind betrays you with endless worries and doubts, so probably, you might need some entertaining conversation to fall asleep. For this goal, Casper has developed Insomnobot3000. This is a service based on a friendly bot designed to provide you with company when you cannot fall asleep.
Case 5: A bot for the first days at college
Those first days at an educational institution can be quite stressful: so many doubts, so many names, addresses, policies and an ocean of information in which you are simply lost. Pounce, the bot that helps new Georgia State University students successfully transition to college. Pounce has personalized interactions with incoming Georgia State students to guide them through key steps, such as applying for housing, and registering for classes.
Case 6: Virtual assistant for insurance companies
Quite similar to customer services, chatbots are available for insurance companies. ABI, from The Allstate Corporation, helps to reduce call center traffic and supports potential clients during quoting processes. Another example of this increasingly popular area for chatbots is Spixii. which works with renowned insurance companies to develop conversational interfaces.
Case 7: 24/7 customer service
Unless your company has a huge number of employees in Customer Support, chances are that you might miss the chance to provide a good and timely service to your clients’ enquiries and complaints. So, companies like Airbnb, HomeAway, VRBO and other vacation rental marketplaces rely on Hostbot.
Case 8: No more endless hours trying to find the right apparel
H&M has begun taking advantages of bots within the fashion industry. The official chatbot of H&M (no name specified at the time of writing this post) navigates your search, based on your sex and style, through different options to direct you to the specific site area to buy those items you like. Moreover, it suggests related items you might be interested in.
Case 9: Conversational commerce for your next trip
Instead of a going to a travel agency and explore options for your next vacations, now you can interact directly with a bot for travel services such as TaylorBot. TaylorBot integrates with Telegram messenger and is a “Travel Assistant Powered by Artificial Intelligence.” This means you can ask Taylor anything from where in the world you should go on your next vacation to what good restaurants are nearby.
Case 10: Chatbots for productivity
Who said that chatting implies low productivity? With Slack’s conversational interfaces, you and your team can boost your productivity. Slack is a real-time messaging service for teams. They’ve grown to over 2 million daily active users, raised $340 million, and are even investing $80 million into companies that build chatbots on top of their Slack API that they distribute via their Slack app directory.
Case 11: Smart home with bots
You can rely on voice-controlled platforms such as Siri and Apple’s HomeKit, an Amazon Echo device, Alexa, Google Home and now with Facebook Messenger. However, with chatbots you can engage in natural conversation to control devices at home with Netatmo, based on Facebook Messenger. Just introduced in CES 2018, users can type specific commands such as “turn off the light in the bathroom”,” play the next track” or even ask to adjust the temperature in the room.
Case 12: Medical consultations
DrCHAT.ai offers the chance for patients to have medical consultations prior to initial doctor’s visits, or a second opinion afterwards. Features like free usage and the ubiquitous availability of DrCHAT allows patients to continue consultation at every stage of treatment. The backend relies on machine learning built from medical doctor’s expertise through the knowledge-driven machine learning method.
Case 13: Language learning
How many times you wanted to practice those new expressions you’d learned in a foreign language but couldn’t do it? Again, chatbots in the rescue. For this need, Duolingo is a language learning platform and service which helps people learn new languages and connect with other learners and speakers. Duolingo bots improve over time as users chat with them. Right now, they are far from some of the best AI available but give them some time, and they will likely get there.
Case 14: Follow an exercise plan
Tracking down the details of an exercise plan can become cumbersome. With Gymbot, a Facebook Messenger bot you can send your training statistics, and it will keep a personalized training journal for you. If you are new to this, Gymbot explains it’s usage. You may track your stats with simple commands like ‘Butterfly 30/15/3’.
Case 15: Finding a time suitable for everybody
Meekan scheduling robot for Slack is another tool for productivity or simply to find a time convenient for that meeting being postponed for a while. According to the official site, it “matches everyone’s calendars in seconds” by just asking for a new meeting in plain English. Another feature is that it also knows about time zones, making it a convenient organizer for those teams distributed around the globe.
In synthesis, the possibilities with chatbots are limitless, in terms of areas of application. The power of natural-language-based interaction combined with computer-based concepts such as machine learning and data-driven processes are already making a great impact in the way people interact for medical, commercial, and even domestic reasons. Furthermore, the boost of conversational interfaces also implies in the evolution of traditional jobs such as customer service. However, this topic can be discussed in an upcoming post.
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