Month: May 2022

As learning is no longer defined by the four walls of a classroom, virtual educational tools have increased in popularity. For example, data from statista.com shows that in the first quarter of 2020 Google Play saw 466 million downloads of educational apps. That number continues to grow especially amid various social changes.

To help bridge the gap between eager learners and accessible education, Bot Libre has launched its latest mobile app — Virtual English Tutor. The app has features that have been proven by experts to increase memory and learning outcomes and are currently being developed to meet individual user needs.

Features:

• Conversational English Lessons
• Different learning categories — greetings, job interviews, and dating.
• Chat segment for conversational practice

Virtual English Tutor is meant to offer English lessons to persons interested in learning English as a second language or to sharpen their current English skills. The app is also designed as a virtual tool for English tutors to engage with students in the environments they spend most of their time, on the phone, and online. Since English is recognized as one of the universal languages, the need for educational tools like Virtual English Tutor is of utmost importance.

“The app is a good demonstration of how the Bot Libre platform can be used in education. We will continue to create more lessons and with the active engagement of English teachers, the app can facilitate curriculum-based content.”, said CEO and expert software architect of Bot Libre, James Sutherland.

Benefits of Learning A New Language

• Heightens creativity
• Develops good communication skills
• Improves memory and other cognitive functions

Benefits of the Virtual English Tutor App

• Offers 24.7 learning availability
• Provides new and exciting learning techniques
• Creates a marketplace for English teachers
• Self-paced

To access these benefits and more, users can download the app for free on Google Play, where they will be provided with free lessons and a chance to be first in line when new and exciting features are added.

Bot Libre is an open-source platform for chatbot development and artificial intelligence solutions fit for the metaverse.

For additional information, contact:

sales@botlibre.com or visit the website https://www.botlibre.com/

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Learning English Made Easy- Bot Libre’s Mobile App was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Artificial Intelligence doesn’t need to be a grim topic to discuss. Replete with possibilities to become the most transformative tool in the years to come, AI is fast shaping into an assistive resource instead of staying on course as an overwhelming tech. Clubbed with Machine Learning algorithms and principles of Data Mining, AI is rapidly moving towards a summit way too steep for human contemplation.

But then, AI and Machine Learning discussions need not be as complex as the tech itself. AI, in its entirety, is expected to be an industry and business commonplace in the next few months to come, and therefore, it is important to check out some era-altering current trends in AI that might gain a lot of traction moving into 2022.

What is The Basis for Enlisting Recent Trends in AI in 2022?

Tech trends are perceptive stepping stones that give us a sneak peek into the future. For enlisting AI and ML trends in 2022, it is therefore important to understand that global firms are already contemplating AI-driven projects over the course of the next year, and riding on these positive speculations, the AI and ML market seems to be riding rapidly towards the $9 billion market valuation.

And for a tech space as big as this, it is only appropriate to know some of the raging trends in advance to pre-empt innovation faster than most.

6 Future AI Trends that Require Detailing

The concept of machines evolving beyond contemplation and being able to think independently is already huge. But then, trends are better descriptions of how machine learning and thinking abilities can actually make their presence felt in the real world.

Also read: Top 10 IoT Mobile App Development Trends to Expect in 2021

Trend 1: Augmented Workforce and Intelligence

Have you ever come across a thought that what would happen if machines become intelligent enough to replace humans, especially when the focus is on amplifying workforce productivity? Well, that might be a thing to worry about in the future. For now, at least in 2022, we might see the evolution of augmented workforces, a space where humans and intelligent machines will coexist.

Unsure about how an augmented workforce would pan out! Here are the key pointers relevant to the same:

• Cohesive cognitive functionality, with machines helping humans grasp the concepts better
• Quicker and more accurate lead generation
• Pre-emptive maintenance schedule for industrial components
• Faster information procurement
• Generation of smarter tools for eliminating errors
• Better business forecasting
• NLP-powered fraud detection systems
• Better aggregated financials

Trend 2: Improved Healthcare

Also, the following benefits of an augmented workforce might vary depending on the industry you plan on influencing with AI and ML insights. On digging deeper, we would see that augmented workforce and augmented intelligence also have roles to play in Healthcare AI, with doctors benefiting significantly from faster threat detection and intelligent imaging resources.

One such use case has to be the insanely accurate CT scanning space, where AI can be an instrumental resource to improve speed and lower overall costs. However, efficient data annotation services are important to consider for this trend to hold.

Also, with virtual healthcare getting a more persistent nod in the post-covid era, virtual monitoring and crowd detection technologies are expected to work hand-in-hand with the realigned healthcare domain.

Trend 3: Conversational AI and Hyper Automation

As 2021 draws to an eventful end, 2022 might just see companies focusing way more on data quality. While the approach to training AI and ML models still primarily hinges on data quantity, with credible data collection and annotation firms coming into the picture, quality will also be a factor.

And if a company plans on launching conversational AI models like Siri and Bixby, it would be important to strike the perfect balance between volume and quality to make the models successful.

And is Hyper Automation even a word? Well, it would be, in 2022, courtesy of the AI and Data Science confluence. And if you aren’t privy to the more technical terms, Hyper Automation is more about seamless task automation with advanced technologies put to use, more so with Conversational AI models to assist.

Coming to the tech stack forcing the Hyper Automation revolution, it all boils down to RPA (Robotic Process Automation), ML, Cognitive learning, and obviously, AI. Also, if you are into specifics, this intelligent form of automation is expected to be an asset in:

• Driving faster system integrations
• Improving employee productivity
• Amplifying the entire customer support setup with the integration of intelligent chatbots
• Facilitating conversation and intent analysis to understand customer sentiments better

Trend 4: AR, VR, and the Metaverse

The concept of Metaverse and its connection to Web 3.0 is making companies reinvent the wheel. And with 2022 already knocking at the doors, the focus will initially be on developing the best Augmented and Virtual Reality offerings to be more Metaverse-relevant.

And what’s heartening to see is that even today, almost 90% of the top brands are stoked enough to incorporate AR & VR tech for pushing marketing campaigns. With experienced service providers offering better AR & VR data collection and annotation services, Augmented and Virtual Realities will soon rival the reality we are currently inhabiting.

Trend 5: Improved Focus on Data Annotation

Did we just say data annotation? Yes, we certainly did, as data labelling will hold the key to better AI and ML models in the months to come. But that’s not it. Data annotation, despite being very much there, is still a sluggish and time-consuming process. In 2022, riding on the innovations adopted by leading data annotation firms, the process of labelling will shift towards a more automated format.

The focus, therefore, will be on speed labelling, smart validation of data sets, and pre-labelling to make the sequencing and clustering faster than ever.

Also read: How to Start An E-commerce Business From Scratch in 2021

Trend 6: Autonomous Vehicles

Wait, aren’t autonomous vehicles already around? Yes, they are, but 2022 will see a massive rise in their global adoption, courtesy of AI-powered tech and the inclusion of improved self-driving capabilities. With Computer Vision is slowly moving up the ranks to improve the perceptive abilities of machines, experienced data annotation firms are progressively trying to make self-driven cars more intelligent. And moving into 2022, the primary focal points would include:

• Improved on-road categorization
• Better object detection and localization
• Semantic segmentation for better object understanding, and more

And that’s not it. We are expecting the first-ever Autonomous Ship to surface in 2022. Now that’s as big as it can get.

Wrap-Up

But wait! Are these the only future AI trends that we need to watch out for going into 2022. Not exactly as you should even keep your eyes open for the likes of Creative AI, improved Conversational AI, and Explainable AI in the future. However, these tech trends might take some time to settle down, and if you are only interested in the immediate future, i.e., the next few months, these six trends might see increased global adoption, riding on the able shoulders of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

And if you are an organization looking to strengthen offerings with new AI-drive resources whilst making good use of any of the relevant trends, it is important to connect with credible and experienced data collection, data annotation, and data cleansing firms to get the data sets prepared, well in advance. As in the end, it all boils down to the quality of data fed into these intelligent AI and ML setups.

Originally published at https://www.the-next-tech.com on February 4, 2022.

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6 Era Altering AI and ML Trends to Watch Out for in 2022 was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As a Google assistant owner you must have wanted a feature like incognito mode or something like that to search for a surprise gift on your partner’s birthday. So Google now made your wish true. With this new ‘Guest Mode’ on Google Home and Google Nest smart speakers any of your conversations with Google assistants won’t get saved.

However, Google doesn’t state the fact they save your ‘ok Google’ recordings by default and you can view or delete data anytime but still we wanted something more prominent and for that ‘Guest Mode’ is here to do that job. It will automatically delete all the recordings and conversations you had with Google assistant and nothing will be stored on your history.

So now let’s get straight to how you can enable Guest mode on your Google Home speaker

The best part of this feature is you don’t have play tricky to get this feature on. Just command “hey! Google, Enable/turn on Guest Mode” and boom you are ready to use it.

And when you are done with your private conversation with Google just command “hey Google, turn the guest mode off”.

And in case, if you forget whether it’s on or off just ask “hey Google, is the ‘Guest mode’ on ?”.

However, there are some limitations such as while having ‘Guest Mode’ on you can’t update of your events from Google Calendar or access any personal contact. But otherwise you can do plenty of things.

Well, this ‘Guest mode’ feature is now only available in English speaking regions.

Don’t forget to give us your 👏 !

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Guide to How you can use Google Assistant Guest Mode on your Google Home smart speaker was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Well, the very first question that might end up troubling you would be ‘WHAT IS ROUTINES HERE?’. We know well, but don’t worry pal it’s one of those things again which offers you comfort.

Routines have to do with how gadgets respond to your commands rather than simply turning them on and off, which has long been a characteristic of Groups within the Alexa app. That could mean dimming some lights, changing the color of others, or turning up the heat to a specific setting.

Alexa Routines allows you to regulate your smart home with a unified command, allowing you to get the functionalities you desire from your smart house. Amazon has further incorporated music, podcasts, and radio into the mix. It has also recently made it easier to connect Routines with friends and family by providing URLs found in the Alexa app.

Who wouldn’t want restful nights of sleep? If you count yourself in then I bet you wouldn’t want to miss out on any of the following steps:

To begin an Alexa Routine, simply open the Alexa app, select More, and then Routines.

A list of your prevailing Routines will be displayed, and Amazon will suggest a few to get you started under Featured. To start a new one, either click one of these or strike the + in the top-right corner.

The screen is straightforward, with only two options:

This is primarily the brief command you’ll give Alexa when this occurs. To insert one, click the + button and select from a variety of options.

If you select Voice, then the Alexa voice command will be used to start the Routine. All you have to do now is individually type it in. Maintain a natural and clear tone with whatever you say.

ALEXA CLEVER HOME ACTIONS

Smart Home Technology Smart sensors and device status are used in routines to initiate an action. After you’ve chosen the conditions for your routine, you’ll need to append all of the actions. Simply click the + icon beside Add action to do so.

The components and smart home devices that will be operated when you speak your selected command are the actions you incorporate into your Routine.

We’ll run through some of the options briefly below, but it’s important to note that you might not have to start from the ground. You can use the shortest route to operate specific Groups or Scenes that you’ve set up in the Alexa app.

Lights-You can append savvy lights to your Routine for more than just on/off control. Compatible wise bulbs can have their illumination, tonality, and color adjusted.

Thermostats and smart heating-You can regulate thermal spots in your home with an on/off setting that refers to the standard temperature in the Smart Home listing, or by choosing customized temperatures for the Routine if your smart heating brand endorses it.

Smart plugs — You can switch on/off smart plugs from your Routine, which is good for tasks like lamps (without smart bulbs), gaming systems, kettles, and more.

Music/speakers — You can now include tunes, podcasts, and radio in your Routine. That’s an important part of creating better wake-up and nap time recipes.

Robot vacuum cleaners — With a good late-night routine, your robot vacuum cleaner may be able to do its job while you stay in bed.

Another excellent suggestion is to use a smart humidity sensor to activate the system for air-conditioning.

Alexa Routines can include features such as the ones listed below, in addition to activating smart home devices.

News — Alexa can interpret your flash to debrief, which is comprised of media abilities. It’s like getting a customized news broadcast tailored to your preferences.

Weather — Have Alexa read you the weather report, ideally as part of a morning routine. Keep in mind that these can be set to go off at the same time as your alarm.

Calendar — Whether it’s today or the future, Alexa would go over your calendar. You can also have it notify you of the upcoming occasion on your calendar.

Want to share your routine with your close ones?

To have the easily accessible URL, open the Alexa app, go to Routines, click the preferred Routine, and choose whether to share by message, mailing, or social networks.

When your loved ones receive the URL, they will be guided through some on-screen guidelines in the Alexa app and should see some fields in the yellow text where they must select which device a step of the Routine should be performed on.

Don’t forget to give us your 👏 !

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For a better home, know how to set up and use Alexa Routines. was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Wenn Unternehmen den Einsatz von Voice Bots und Chatbots erwägen, steht in der Regel diese Frage im Raum: 

Wollen unsere Kund:innen überhaupt einen virtuellen Assistenten benutzen? 

Laut dem Report “The New Rules of Customer Engagement” ist die Antwort auf die Frage ein klares Ja. 69 % der Kunden sind bereit, mit einem Chatbot zu interagieren. Allerdings möchten sie das nur bei einfachen Problemen. Offensichtlich ist die Antwort eben doch nicht ganz so simpel. 

Daher wollen wir in diesem Blog Beitrag einmal genauer betrachten, wann Personen bereit sind, mit virtuellen Assistenten zu interagieren und wofür sie Chatbots nutzen möchten.

In welchen Situationen sind Personen bereit, mit virtuellen Assistenten zu sprechen?

Wenn man die Ergebnisse verschiedener Chatbot-Studien betrachtet, fällt vor allem eins auf: Die Nutzer:innen möchten schnell eine Antwort. 

So gaben 69% der Befragten bei der Chatbot Survey 2017 an, dass sie lieber einen Bot anstelle eines menschlichen Agenten kontaktieren, wenn sie dadurch ihre Antwort sofort erhalten. 

Bei der 2021 erhobenen Chatbot Studie antworteten 75% der Befragten auf die Frage “Was hat Ihnen an der Interaktion mit einem Chatbot besonders gut gefallen?”, dass ihnen die Geschwindigkeit, mit der sie ihre Antwort bekommen haben, am besten gefallen hat.

Des Weiteren möchte die Mehrheit der Personen ihr Problem selbstständig lösen. Bei dem Report CX Trends 2022 gaben 76% der Personen an, dass sie es vorziehen, mit einer Self-Service Solution ihr Problem selbst in Angriff zu nehmen, bevor sie den Kundensupport kontaktieren. Gerade einmal 24% der Personen gaben an, dass sie sofort den Kundenservice kontaktieren würden. 

Virtuelle Assistenten sind also besonders gut geeignet für unkomplizierte Anfragen, bei den die Nutzer:innen schnell eine Antwort haben wollen oder etwas eigenständig lösen möchten.

In diesen Studien wurde die Bereitschaft von Kund:innen, mit einem Chatbot zu interagieren, untersucht. Die Ergebnisse lassen sich aber gut auf Chatbots für die interne Kommunikation übertragen. Auch hier möchten die Mitarbeiter:innen ihre Probleme schnell gelöst bekommen und brauchen dafür nicht immer den direkten Austausch mit der IT-Abteilung oder HR.

Wann ziehen Kund:innen es vor, mit menschlichen Mitarbeiter:innen zu sprechen?

Bei komplexeren Anliegen bevorzugen Personen jedoch den Kontakt mit menschlichen Mitarbeiter:innen. Das Gleiche gilt, wenn sie aufgebracht, wütend oder in einer anderen emotionalen Verfassung sind, in der Empathie und Fingerspitzengefühl erforderlich ist.

Für solche Fälle ist es unabdingbar, dass der Chatbot in der Lage ist, Nutzer:innen unkompliziert an einen menschlichen Mitarbeiter weiterzuleiten. Dies geschieht über ein Human Handover. Wenn die Wortwahl der Nutzer:innen nahelegt, dass eine Übernahme durch menschliche Mitarbeiter sinnvoll ist, wird die Konversation von dem Chatbot an einen Menschen weitergegeben. Hierfür wird die Sentiment Analyse verwendet. Bei der Sentiment-Analyse werden bestimmte Wörter als positiv oder negativ klassifiziert. Der Chatbot analysiert die von den Nutzer:innen verwendeten Worte. Wenn die von den Nutzer:innen verwendeten Wörter einen gewissen Prozentsatz an negativ kategorisierten Begriffen übersteigt, wird die Konversation an einen menschlichen Mitarbeiter weitergegeben.

Es ist aber auch möglich, dass die Nutzer:innen selber den Human Handover auslösen, in dem sie den virtuellen Assistenten darum bitten an einen Mitarbeiter weitergeleitet zu werden.

Virtuelle Assistenten können also eine große Unterstützung für Kund:innen und auch Mitarbeiter sein. Sie müssen nur für die richtigen Situationen eingesetzt werden. Dann werden sie auch gerne genutzt.

Akzeptanz von Chatbots – Wollen meine Kunden überhaupt einen virtuellen Assistenten benutzen?

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Der Beitrag Akzeptanz von Chatbots – Wollen meine Kunden überhaupt einen virtuellen Assistenten benutzen? erschien zuerst auf BOTfriends.

Assessments are common in almost all situations including sports, art, and health, but it’s most prevalent in educational bodies as there are countless education and student assessments throughout the year.

Just think of all your online assessments, in-class tests, pop quizzes, quarterly exams, annual exams, and major leaving examinations.

So, what’s the problem with assessments? Is there even a problem? And should we try to change it when nothing seems awry? This is why..

Companies are forever seeking opportunities to save time, increase efficiency, promote positive customer relationships and boost their revenues. To achieve this, many businesses readily invest in hiring customer service agents. A 2017 article by Forbes shows that the customer service industry is a booming market, at the time valuing $350 Billion.

So customer service is key to your business’s success, but what of companies with limited resources like a startup? Or organizations whose employees are already stretched thin?

A virtual agent provides a welcome solution.

A virtual agent is a term typically used to describe a type of chatbot for businesses.

Virtual agents offer help with websites, give information about their companies products or services, answer users’ questions, and provide support, sales, and customer service. They are an automated version of a human customer service agent made up of artificial intelligence applications that have come to seamlessly interact with human intelligence.

Bot Libre makes it EASY for you to create your chatbot or virtual agent for your business.

For free, and with no programming required, you can create your bot, and embed it on your website, mobile app, or social media. You can create bots for website help, technical support, sales, marketing, customer service, or to automate social media, thus improving your online presence.

Training Your Chatbot

Chatbots can be trained using one of several simple options.

• Import FAQs, scripts, and chat logs
• Review and edit responses from Admin Console’s Training & Chat Logs page
• Have conversations with yourself and others
• Listening in on the chatbot during a live chat

Bot Libre bots support advanced artificial intelligence that can be enabled to let bots learn and comprehend language. Bots can also be scripted and programmed using AIML, and the Self (a dialect of JavaScript).

To create your very own free chatbot, see How to create your chatbot in 10 clicks You can also watch this video on How to Add a Virtual Agent to your website

Once you have created your chatbot, you can begin to train it using the steps above. Then you can personalize it to suit your website. You can change your bot’s picture or choose an animated avatar from the Bot Libre Avatar page in its Admin Console. You can also connect your bot to Twitter, Facebook, Skype, Telegram, Kik, WeChat, email, or SMS. You can import chat logs, words from Wiktionary, or data from WikiData. You can browse the internal structure of your bot’s memory. If you’re an advanced user, you can program or script your bot using AIML or Self. You can view your bot’s log.

Embedding Your Chatbot Onto Your Website

The Embed page generates the HTML/JavaScript code required to embed your bot on your website. Simply copy the code in the top text area, and paste it into the page on your website you want the bot to appear on.

The Embed page provides several different types of embedding, and many embedding options to control the look of the bot on your page. The “Box” embedding option is the most common for a virtual agent and gives you a “Chat Now” button on your page.

The embed page also lets you enter a CSS styles sheet to customize the look and feel of your bot’s popup. You can also customize the style settings in the generated code.

The embedding code uses JavaScript and the open-source Bot Libre JavaScript SDK. You can customize the JavaScript however you wish. There are also more embedding options available in the JavaScript object, such as prompting the user for their contact information.

Styles

Bot Libre supports several different types of button and chat styles to enhance user experience.

Button Styles

Here are just 5 of the 11 Bot Libre button styles for the embedding page. Simply select any button style from the button style drop down menu.

Chat Styles

Bot Libre now supports five chat styles. Pick one of the five different chat styles for your embedding by selecting a specific stylesheet option from Style Sheet drop down menu.

Custom Styles

Bot Libre also supports custom style sheets. Simply select “Custom Style” from the style sheet drop down menu. Enter the URL pointing to your custom style sheet in the custom style sheet input field, and press the “Generate Code” button. You can copy the code from any of the existing style sheets to make your own custom style. You will need to host your custom style sheet on your own website, or in the Bot Libre script library.

If you also want to add live chat to your website, you can do that by creating a Live Chat Channel, and getting its embed code from its embed page.

That’s it, good luck creating your bots! If you have any questions, encountered any issues or would like help setting up your bot, you can contact support@botlibre.com , or chat with the Help Bot or upgrade to our Platinum service where we can build your bot for you, contact sales@botlibre.biz .

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Easy Guide To Having A Virtual Agent For Your Website was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ally McBeal, an American drama that was popular in the 2000s, has an episode about a woman who chooses euthanasia because of her “dream” family. The story starts with a woman with an absurd demand of living her life in a dream with her “dream” family through euthanasia instead of her reality where she is alone. Usually, dreams are not continuous, but the woman can continue the same dream when she sleeps and live a totally different life. This episode is especially memorable because the story is very relatable to the element of “Metaverse” in the 21st century. New technologies are shifting our imagination closer to reality.

Metaverse has become a buzzword in the IT industry recently. The Metaverse is a 3-dimensional virtual world where social, economic, and cultural activity takes place. Virtual reality has become more popular in the last few years, so many companies are working on making the Metaverse a reality. Facebook, Microsoft and NVIDIA are all working on a version of the Metaverse. Facebook has changed their company name to Meta, Microsoft is working on “enterprise Metaverse,” and NVIDIA is working on a project they’ve named Omnibus.

Why Is the Metaverse So Popular?

Metaverse is the next step in virtual reality (VR). While VR allows you to immerse yourself in gameplay through an avatar, the Metaverse will allow you to engage in a range of social and cultural activities.

Millennials will remember a popular online chat room, Habbo Hotel, that allowed users to create rooms, personalize their avatar, and engage in conversations and games with other users. Habbo Hotel and chat rooms of the early 2000s like Club Penguin were the predecessors of the Metaverse. They allowed a certain amount of personalization and social activities, but the Metaverse promises an immersive experience through the use of VR technology.

The Metaverse that tech giants like Meta (formerly Facebook) envision is like an online world where users can work in virtual offices, attend virtual concerts, and even walk virtual pets with their friends. The Metaverse is so popular because it represents breaking down the final barrier in globalization, location. Location will no longer be an issue in catching up with friends or attending events. You can do all of those things from the comfort of your own home.

Not just for gamers, the Metaverse provides more freedom in communication and life.

A lot of dystopian sci-fi books and movies have examined this concept of a “second-life.” Think about the Matrix movies, Ready Player One, or Snow Crash, where the term the Metaverse originated. Virtual reality gaming allows players to immerse themselves in gameplay, but the Metaverse will allow people to conduct life in a virtual environment. Many experts believe that Covid-19 was a catalyst to the sudden interest in the Metaverse. Since reality was restricted due to the pandemic, communication moved largely online.

To look at where it all began, we need to look at online gaming. Two great examples of this are Zepetto and Roblox.

Zepetto

Zepetto is an AR avatar-based service created by Naver Snow. It was derived from their camera application Snow, which allows users to turn selfies into avatars. Zepetto was launched in 2018 and has grown exponentially since then, surpassing 200 million users in 2021. In 2019, Zepetto even ranked first in the app stores of 37 countries.

The functionality of Snow allows users to create 3D avatars by taking photos of their faces. Deep learning-based facial recognition software creates an avatar that they can then customize with skin, eye, and hair color. Once the avatar has been created, users play games and communicate on social media through Zepetto.

Zepetto has a circular structure that allows users to create anything they can imagine. Avatars function as if they were real people with personalities and can participate in activities like in real life. In Zepetto, users can:

• Travel
• Participate in dance competitions
• Cook for friends
• Tour a house

Users can record their activities and share them on their social media feeds within Zepetto. This has been done over 1 billion times to date.

Roblox

Roblox differs from Zepetto in that it concentrates on games rather than social functions. Roblox boasts 43 million daily active users and is particularly popular with teenagers in the US. It was released in 2006 and now operates in over 180 countries, and over half of American teenagers under the age of 16 use Roblox.

The driving force behind Roblox is “openness.” Unlike other gaming platforms, users can create and distribute their own games on the Roblox platform. The Roblox environment makes it easy for people to create games using simple coding, and elementary school students in particular use this feature with gusto. There are as many as 50 million games on Roblox, and more than 10 million games are played every month.

While the most popular games are provided by game companies, the individual users also create games and earn money through contributions.

The Metaverse: Removing Daily Commutes

The Covid-19 pandemic’s remote work requirements identified another use of the Metaverse. While technology makes it easier to work from home and to communicate with colleagues, the work environment was lacking. A major benefit of working from an office is the ability to collaborate and network with colleagues. Remote work adds barriers to those activities, and many people who started new roles in the pandemic reported that they didn’t know any of their colleagues.

It seems that flexible work arrangements are popular, with many workers wanting the option of working from home in order to reduce the cost and time of a daily commute. However, the Metaverse will be able to bridge the gap and allow more connection throughout the workday.

Virtual workplaces are already in use across the world. eXP Realty, a US real estate broker, has been using a virtual office since 2009. They needed to cut costs after the housing crisis but didn’t want to lose the benefit of sharing knowledge around the office. While it took a little while to adjust to moving around in a virtual space, realtors quickly took to the platform. eXP Realty has even implemented office etiquette guidelines for their virtual office like respect closed office doors. Open office doors in their virtual workspace mean colleagues can enter freely to collaborate.

How Will the Metaverse Look in the Future?

So far, it is hard to tell because the Metaverse is in very early stages. Currently, users explore virtual spaces through an avatar and can use text or voice chat to communicate with other avatars. When tech leaders speak about the Metaverse, they talk about creating realistic experiences such as virtual concerts and product launches. But so far, it is hard to see how that can be achieved in a realistic way.

The one thing we do know is that a lot of investment is going into creating the Metaverse and there is a lot of interest from people and companies in creating this virtual world. We predict that the Metaverse will bring wide scale change and that people will spend increasing amounts of time in the Metaverse, both professionally and in their personal time. The Software Policy Research Institute predicted that Metaverse platform B2C games and social networking would gain mainstream attention in 2020 and 2021, and from that point, adoption would spread to B2B and B2G areas. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) predicted that the Metaverse will be worth 300 trillion in the next five years as companies are discussing Metaverse real estate and corporate opportunities.

We believe that a growth focus in the Metaverse will improve the realism of the content. This is something that tech companies are already working on as a marketing differentiator. So far, the Metaverse will combine AR, VR, and MR (Mixed Reality) technology to allow users to move around the virtual world, seeing through an HMD (head-mounted display.) There has been talk of incorporating other senses such as touch and smell that will relate to the visual content. Another prediction is that companies can create avatars for AI technology, called MetaHumans, who can interact with the virtual world and avatars as a human-controlled avatar would.

All we can say for sure is that we are excited about the possibilities the Metaverse will bring to the world both in terms of personal and business impact. We advise companies to watch out for new developments so they can be quick to jump onboard trends and adapt to the virtual world.

Communicating Knowledge, Saltlux.

1. Before Meta, there was Habbo: How social games laid the framework for the metaverse
2. The virtual office of the future might look a lot like your favorite video game

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The Arrival of the Metaverse was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What is OCR? How does it work, and what are its use cases? — Tech Zimo

You might be familiar with OCR technology if you have been in the race of making automated document processing workflows. Moreover, with increasing digital advancement

Enterprises across the world are transitioning from paper-based documents to digital data processing. But, what is OCR? How does it work? And in which business process can it be utilized to leverage its benefits? Let’s dig into this article into what benefits OCR brings to the table.

An OCR system is a combination of hardware and software. The main goal of this technology is to scan the textual data and images from the physical document and translate the character within document and then utilize it for processing data or information. Organizations can use OCR to Fastrack data access and processing, from gathering to analyzing data.

For instance, let’s say the scanner identified the invoice total as $800, but in reality, it has to be $8000. A human might make mistake if they have to handle high volume invoices. But OCR with AI can identify the mistake automatically correct it in real-time without manual intervention.

OCR system works in three processes-

Image Pre-Processing

This step involves the processing of documents into images for analyzing data and light areas and categorizing them into separate elements.

Intelligent Character Recognition

The second step involves the identification of characters and converting them into ASCII code for further manipulations.

Post-Processing-

The final step includes the error correction by using Artificial intelligence. Also, artificial intelligence can be trained on the specific lexicon of words that will be found in the document.

However, using NLP, machine learning algorithm, and computer vision method offers an advanced version of OCR that is not limited to character recognition only. Using this combination of technology correct errors using probabilistic approaches and recognize patterns in training samples.

Legal Documentation

Regardless of industries, sensitive data is everywhere. Whether it’s a financial institution or IT organization, service desk agents have to go through legal documents for claims processing and others. Considering the time involved in extracting data for processing further operations, OCR is the savior. OCR limits the paperwork and extracts data from multiple systems with an easy view and sharing options. Also, OCR helps enterprises gain to create an in-house search engine to search information directly from the database.

Banking

Banking service desk agents often struggle with the humongous task of accessing data for loan processing, KYC, credit-debit card approval, money transfer, and others. Without OCR, manually verifying high volume data take a toll on employee productivity. Using OCR can benefit banking organizations by automatically reviewing the information and matching the details. In addition, combining AI with OCR reduces error, increases analyzing capability, enhances employee productivity altogether.

Retail

From processing invoices to inventory management, the retail service team is encumbered with the task of extracting data from multiple resources in multiple formats. Considering the manual intervention involved in extracting and analyzing data makes a perfect case for OCR. OCR technology can efficiently go through the keywords presented on the document, analyze them, and verify them without manual intervention. Also, retailers use serial numbers encoded with barcodes for their product descriptions. By using OCR, retailers can fast scan the barcode to get the serial number to track stock.

Health Records

Having one’s entire medical history direct on the table is all a patient wants from the organization. Rather than maintaining past medical records, X-rays, and other reports, having a digital record system could be a great help. Using OCR, healthcare organizations can digitally store past medical reports, data, and prescriptions altogether in a unified place. Along with enhancing data accessibility, OCR also helps maintain healthcare legislation and compliance policy.

The benefits of OCR go beyond digitizing documents and scanning the information. Combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other cognitive capabilities, OCR can get the best deal for your business, manage and audit the mismatch at a much faster pace than humans. Also, who doesn’t want easy and efficient data processing and access? So what are you waiting for? OCR is an opportunity to lead in the digital transformation era; embracing is all you need.

Author Bio Vatsal Ghiya is a serial entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in healthcare AI software and services. He is the CEO and co-founder of
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vatsal-ghiya-4191855/ , which enables the on-demand scaling of our platform, processes, and people for companies with the most demanding machine learning and artificial intelligence initiatives.

Originally published at https://www.techzimo.com on April 27, 2022.

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What is OCR? How does it work, and what are its use cases? — Tech Zimo was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Essential Chatbot Terminology That Beginners Must Know — EmpathyBots

Reading something about chatbots and having no clue about what the author is talking about, that technical jargon?

And because of that, you have to Google them frequently!

I can feel that mate!

Because it is quite normal especially when you’re a beginner in the space and doesn’t have any idea about the technical chatbot terminology.

But, guess what?

In this guide, I’m going to solve your problem by assembling all of this chatbot terminology in one place and giving them out to you.

So that you don’t need to open a new tab and google them again.

So, let’s dive in!

48 Essential Chatbot Terminology

Here is the list of 48 chatbot terminology sorted in alphabetical order so that you could easily find out the specific one you are looking for.

Actions

Actions are nothing but the logical action your chatbot takes.

It can be sending notifications, split traffic, setting message delay, etc.

AI-Powered Chatbot

An AI-powered chatbot is a chatbot built by using artificial intelligence (AI) functions such as machine learning (ML) and natural language understanding & processing (NLU&P).

API

Well, the meaning of API is the same in chatbots as well that is the Application Programming Interface which allows two different applications to communicate and share features with each other.

Attributes/Fields

Attributes are nothing but the user information fields such as first name, last name, email, phone number, etc.

There are two different types of attributes as Custom Attributes and System Attributes.

The custom attributes are attributes created by us (a chatbot developer).

And, the system attributes are nothing but the already available or defined attributes by the chatbot development tool.

Auto-Responder

Auto-responder contains the pre-defined responses to be sent to users when they perform certain actions while interacting with your chatbot.

Bot Subscribers

Bot subscribers are the same as email subscribers.

The chatbot users automatically get opt-in as bot subscribers when they first interact or reply to your chatbot.

Broadcasting

Broadcasting is an outbound message to be sent to multiple bot subscribers at the same time.

This message is sent proactively rather than as a response to the user’s message.

Chat Widget

A chat widget is nothing but a chat window that is used to add a chatbot to a website or app. It let users communicate with your chatbot from a website or app.

Chatbot

Well, you’re here means you might know it but still it deserves to be on a list.

A chatbot is an automated conversational flow that simulates human conversation, either via voice or text-based communication.

Chatbot Builder/Development Tool

Chatbot builder is nothing but a tool to build a chatbot.

It can be a no-code development tool like ManyChat or an NLP-based development framework like Dialogflow.

Classifier

A classifier is a feature to categorize users or user inputs into different groups.

This feature is also known as Split Traffic on some development platforms.

Compulsory/Mandatory Input

It’s an easy one!

It is like those mandatory fields we have to fill on the forms. Similarly, in chatbot also there could be some mandatory input that is needed to perform future processes.

Content Blocks

A content block is a feature to create responses that contain content in the form of text, images, video, audio, buttons, quick replies, and more.

Conversation Ender

A conversation ender is a process to end the conversation.

It could be a message or set of messages that is used to conclude the conversation.

Conversation Failure

Conversation failure is a possible situation that can occur in a chatbot when the chatbot fails to respond to user input.

Conversation Repair

Conversation repair is a process to handle the situation of conversation failure.

The chatbot can be programmed to handle such situations by redirecting the users.

Conversation Starter

A conversation starter is a process to start a conversation.

It could be a greeting message or a set of different messages that are used to start the conversation.

Conversational AI

Conversational AI uses the technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and natural language understanding & processing (NLU&P) to build interactive applications like chatbots, virtual agents, and interactive games.

Conversational Flow

The conversational flow is nothing but a flowchart that represents an effortless progression of responses that happens in a chatbot based on conditions or values.

Conversational Script

The conversational script is nothing but the dialogues which are the combination of words, sentences, images, GIFs, and many other things used to give direction to a conversation.

Conversational UI

Conversational UI is an interface created for users to communicate with other users or computer technologies like chatbots.

Decision Tree

A decision tree is the same as the conversational flow that shows how conversation happens based on the decisions made.

Default Reply

Default reply is an automatic reply triggered when the chatbot doesn’t understand and cannot reply to particular user input.

Deployment/Conversational Channel

A conversational channel is a place where a chatbot is deployed after development.

It could be a website, app, or social messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, etc.

Entity

An entity is similar to a variable in a chatbot that is used to store and extract users’ input/data.

Entry Points

Entry points are nothing but a place from where users launched a chatbot and start interacting with it.

It could be a simple link, chat widget, or social messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Instagram, etc.

Fallback

Fallback is the same as the default reply that is triggered when the chatbot doesn’t recognize a user’s input.

Flows

Flows are the sequence of conversational steps in the chatbot.

Hybrid Chat

Hybrid chat means a chatbot and human work together to make conversations more effective and smoother.

This kind of chatbot is called a human/agent assistant.

Integrations

Integrations are the third-part apps that can be used in your chatbot to enhance its abilities.

Intent

The intent is a feature to define the motive behind a conversation and program a chatbot specific to that particular intent.

Keywords

Keywords are the words that are used to trigger a particular action in a chatbot.

It is mostly used in AI-powered chatbots.

Live Chat

Live chat is a feature that pauses a chatbot for some time and lets you chat with users.

You can also program your chatbot to automatically transfer users to a live chat.

Machine Learning (ML)

Machine learning is a branch of AI that identifies patterns from past conversations and train a chatbot to improve its performance.

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Natural language processing (NLP) is a branch of AI that enables chatbots to read, understand, and process human language.

Optional Input

Optional input is the same as those optional fields in the form that can be left blank.

Quick Reply

A quick reply is a short message in a bubble-kind button that shows the possible options to users and allows them to make a decision quickly.

Re-engagement

Re-engagement is a feature to re-engage with existing users by using organic as well as paid methods.

Rule-based Chatbot

A rule-based chatbot is built with the pre-set rules, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and very little Machine Learning (ML).

It is precisely programmed using conditional loops to generate automated responses to users’ messages.

Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment analysis is a technique to measure the sentiment and tone of voice or text messages by using machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) models.

It is used to analyze the user’s attitude/mood during the conversation.

Sequences

A sequence is nothing but a series of automated messages.

Templates

Templates are nothing but pre-designed chatbots/flows that can be used to fasten your chatbot development process.

Trigger

A trigger causes a particular action in a chatbot to get executed.

Typing Delay

Typing delay is a feature that enables you to set up the time delay between two responses to mimic the natural flow of the conversation.

Voicebot

Voicebot is a kind of chatbot that simulates the voice-based interactions between the human and a machine.

The best example of it would be Siri and Google Assistant.

Webhooks

Webhooks are the automated API responses that are used to retrieve information like emails, phone numbers, etc. from the conversation and send it to the web services like CRM, Google Sheets, or any other software.

Welcome/Greeting Message

A welcome message is the first message that your chatbot sends to a user to greet them.

Wrapping Up

So, we’ve just seen the list of 48 essential chatbot terminology that you should know and be familiar with.

Now, I want a little help from your side, by telling me the chatbot terminology that I have missed in this list to make this guide the ultimate resource of chatbot terminology.

Let me know in the comments!

Suggested Guides:

• 11 Chatbot Best Practices You Should Follow to Create a Powerful Chatbot
• How to Build a Simple FAQ Chatbot with ManyChat (No-Code) in 2022

Liked this story? Consider following me to read more stories like this.

You can also follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Originally published at https://empathybots.com by Pratik Bhangire.

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The Essential Chatbot Terminology That Beginners Must Know — EmpathyBots was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.