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“Hi Sofia. I need your help.”

sofia-chatbotHaving a conversation online with some sort of digital application is not uncommon. In fact, there are most certainly occasions that we are talking to a computer without even realizing it! The use of chatbots or virtual assistants is the new norm in providing a higher level of service to consumers. There’s a reason. 

Need answers stat

More than 22% of Millennials expect a response within 10 minutes of reaching out to a consumer brand. Service centers only have so much capacity and a real person needs to take a break every now and then. So it’s no surprise that companies are turning to intelligent applications to help meet this need for consumers and provide information quickly day and night.

And you can bet that percentage for response will continue to increase in an age of expected convenience and digital shopping experiences. In fact, some experts believe that by 2020, 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human to meet that need.

Bots follow the rules

But not all chatbots are equal. There are several types of chatbots out there and as you think about the application that could potentially interact with your employees, it’s important to understand that difference.

A rules-based chatbot is limited in what information they can offer, using similar logic to your old IVR phone systems (press 1 for billing, 2 for technical services). At their core, they offer simple, hard-coded options that provide the end user with limited conclusions.

Adaptive responses from machine learning

Meanwhile, a chatbot or virtual assistant based in machine learning is much more robust in the service it will offer your employees. The application grows smarter over time by learning through its interactions with users. It understands multiple ways to ask the same question and doesn’t require hard-coded rules to drive its response.

AI is a hot topic in HR right now and you are going to see more and more applications pop up every day. When considering which of these applications is right for your employee population, dig into the model being used and how the chatbot or virtual assistant is programmed to deliver customer service.

The difference in practice

At Businessolver, we built our personal benefits assistant, Sofia, through machine learning and natural language processing. Our most recent infographic displays just how Sofia differs from your ordinary chatbot in ensuring we deliver delight to users on our Benefitsolverplatform.

In addition to her backend programming, Sofia goes a step further by:

  • Recognizing user’s emotional state based on the context of their interaction. This allows her to provide quick resolution to the appropriate outlet.
  • Going beyond just text-to-text chats by recognizing images and spoken language.

As HR professionals, AI is going to disrupt” your workforce in one way or another as intelligent applications continue to gain momentum. But along with that growth there will be a need for more education and research as to which applications will best serve your employee population and their unique needs.

Download this infographic to learn more about the important ways that AI-enabled Sofia is different than your everyday chatbot.

View the Full Infographic

View all Posts by Sony SungChu