Category: Chat

Teaching is an incredibly rewarding profession. Watching students grow and learn, not just academically, but also as human beings is a beautiful thing to behold.

However, it’s also a very stressful job. Research has shown that teachers are prone to stress and burnout,  especially at the beginning of their careers(due in no small part to the many tasks they have to juggle).

Self driving cars, also known as autonomous automobiles, can drive themselves with little or no human intervention. Self-driving vehicles have gotten a lot of attention recently, thanks to autonomous AI. In just a few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has gone from being almost ignored to being the most significant R&D expenditure of several corporations worldwide.

Self-driving car computer vision engineers use massive amounts of training data from image recognition systems and AI and neural networks to build self-driving car frameworks. The neural networks recognize patterns in the data, then feed them into the AI algorithms. Images from self-driving car cameras are among the data. The neural networks learn to detect traffic lights, trees, checks, pedestrians, road signs, and other elements in any given driving environment.

Many autonomous AI company have begun to produce self driving cars. These businesses put their vehicles through a series of testing to guarantee that they are safe to drive on the road through several autonomous AI technologies like computer vision. To be considered entirely autonomous, a car must travel paths to a predetermined destination without the need for computer vision human interaction through computer vision.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being made practical in various disciplines thanks to sensor-based technology. LiDAR is a sensor-based technology for autonomous vehicles or self-driving cars. It has become critical for such machines to become aware of their surroundings and drive safely without colliding.

Autonomous cars currently utilize a variety of sensors, including LiDAR, which aids in the detection of things in greater detail. Below is the list of free LiDAR datasets that can be used in self driving cars.

Astyx Dataset HiRes2019

For deep learning-based 3D object recognition, the Astyx Dataset HiRes2019 is a prominent automobile radar dataset. The goal of making this dataset open-source is to make high-resolution radar data available to the research community, supporting and inspiring research on algorithms that use radar sensor data.

Landmarks

This dataset for recognizing man-built and natural landmarks was made public by Google. In 2018, the dataset will be distributed as part of the Kaggle competitions for Landmark Recognition and Landmark Retrieval. It comprises over 2 million photos displaying 30 thousand distinct landmarks from around the world (their geographic distribution is shown below), with several classes 30x more extensive than what is ordinarily accessible in datasets.

Seasonal Ford Multi-AV Dataset

During 2017–18, a fleet of Ford autonomous cars gathered the multi-agent seasonal dataset on various days and times. The vehicles were manually driven on a route in Michigan that encompassed the Detroit Airport, highways, metropolitan centres, a university campus, and a suburban area, among other operating scenarios. Seasonal variations in weather, illumination, construction and traffic conditions in dynamic metropolitan contexts are included in the dataset.

PandaSet

PandaSet combines the best-in-class LiDAR sensors from Hesai with the high-quality data annotation from Scale AI. PandaSet includes data from both a forward-facing LiDAR with image-like resolution (PandarGT) and a mechanical rotating LiDAR (Pandar) (Pandar64). A mix of cuboid and segmentation annotations was used to annotate the gathered data (Scale 3D Sensor Fusion Segmentation).

Level 5

The Level 5 dataset was made public by Lyft, a ride-sharing startup. Level 5 is a large-scale dataset containing raw sensor camera and LiDAR inputs as seen by a fleet of numerous high-end autonomous cars in a particular geographic area. A high-quality, human-labelled 3D bounding box of traffic agents and an underlying HD spatial semantic map are included in the collection.

Conclusion

It is necessary to train the AI model with a large number of annotated images generated by the LiDARs sensor in order for the LiDARs sensors detector to recognize the objects.

LIDAR point cloud segmentation is the most exact way to classify things with an additional property that a perception model can notice for learning.

The LiDAR data annotation aids in detecting the road lane and tracking the object with a multi-frame, allowing the self-driving car to recognize the street more precisely and comprehend real-world scenarios.

Several autonomous AI companies like Cogito Tech LLC, Anolytics.AI and others provide high-quality training data for self-driving cars.

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Free Datasets for Self-Driving Cars with Autonomous AI was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

SMS Vs Whatsapp — SMS is dying, WhatsApp is taking over

Last Updated on May 13, 2022

It took almost a century for voice communication to upgrade to text messaging. It took hardly a decade for instant messaging to trump text messaging a.k.a SMS and become the primary mode of communication.

Think about it. Who sends an SMS any more than service providers sending one-time-passwords or the customary birthday wishes. SMS has taken a step back as a communication channel is an understatement. They merely exist as a backup plan when instant messaging is not available, which enjoys a staggering 99.99% uptime.

Why is WhatsApp winning over SMS?

Every now and then a new-age technology comes around and topples the pole position that its predecessor has been occupying. In telecommunication, it is WhatsApp dethroning SMS. There are several reasons why WhatsApp is winning over SMS.

WhatsApp is literally free. No carrier costs attached to instant messaging

You need a working data connection or WiFi connectivity to send and receive messages through WhatsApp. The bandwidth of WhatsApp messaging is minimal and does not cost a bomb in terms of carrier charges.

SMS charges, on the other hand, continue to be exorbitant in most parts of the world. It is only for specific carrier plans that SMS are cheaper or offered as a free utility. When compared side by side, WhatsApp is literally free. The cost factor is what is drawing millions of users to the app and making them send billions of messages on a daily basis.

One account for everything — voice and video calling

Until instant messengers like WhatsApp came over, users had to install multiple apps for multiple purposes. SMS was handled by the default app provided by OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). For video calling one had to resort to Skype, Zoom, Viber, and similar apps.

All those efforts seem like belonging to another time in history. WhatsApp has integrated text messaging, voice calling, video calling, and even sending voice notes all into one chat interface. Also, users do not need multiple accounts to use these features. A single user account created with a phone number is sufficient for video and voice calling. As icing on the cake, there is no need for recharging or maintaining call credits.

Facility to send multimedia attachments

WhatsApp lets users send multimedia attachments just like how email lets you send attachments. One can send images, documents, map location, contacts, audio files, or even snap a picture straight from the app and share it without hopping from one application to another.

Recently, WhatsApp also integrated the option to send and receive money through the app. In other words, WhatsApp is like a Swiss Army knife for the digital world. With the single app, you can do everything from communication to even basic-level collaboration to get work done. It is no surprise that businesses are turning to WhatsApp to maintain and nurture relationships with customers.

Provision for chat backup on a regular basis

One of the downsides of SMS was that every time you swapped sims or even changed phones, all text threads were lost. There was no provision to take a backup, except with the help of the carrier. However, with WhatsApp, there is no such hassle in taking chat backups.

You can schedule chat backups on Whatsapp on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. The backups are stored in the Google Drive folder chosen by the user. Whenever the WhatsApp account is reset or moved to another phone, the conversations are restored instantly. There is no loss of data compared to SMS where all data is lost without hope of recovery.

Gives message delivery indicators

With SMS, there is no option of knowing whether the message has been delivered to the recipient or it has been lost in transmission. Duplicate messages being delivered or messages getting truncated due to network issues or character limits were rampant when SMS communication was ruling the roost.

WhatsApp eliminated all such ambiguity in text communication by introducing delivery indicators. Although it created some ruckus when it was first introduced, today, it has become accepted as a definite means to determine the deliverability of a message. In fact, delivery indicators are also available for voice messages taking two-way communication to its completion.

Allows personalization and privacy of profile

Although not necessary for an instant messenger app, WhatsApp gives users the provision to create their personalized profile complete with profile pictures, short bio (with text and emojis). Businesses can even add their alternate contact information as well as map location. The profile personalization can be rightly used as a virtual visiting card when it is time to share contact information.

Further, WhatsApp also gives advanced features for protecting the data privacy of the user. Users can choose to show their profile information only to contacts, or to all. Further, they can also determine who can see their statuses, their display picture, and also their read receipts.

Business-friendly features

SMS marketing has been the staple marketing channel for most businesses. However, it had several downsides that left businesses in the lurch. To begin with, SMS allowed businesses only to send textual content, there was no possibility to share multimedia content. Further, SMS used a phone number that cannot be customized to appear business-like.

Compared to SMS, WhatsApp gives countless business features that make outreach, prospecting, lead generation, and customer support a breeze. It allows businesses to communicate as an entity and not as an individual as is the case with SMS. further, it can be used to send product catalogues, canned responses for FAQs, etc. WhatsApp makes customer communication effortless and interactive compared to SMS which often ends up as a one-way communication channel. It is even possible to create a WhatsApp chatbot with which businesses can deliver a top-notch customer experience.

Why is SMS still used for?

Currently, a small population of businesses is using SMS largely for marketing purposes. Further, it is also used for specific purposes that are best suited. Despite its paucity in features, SMS does assure data security as it cannot be intercepted easily like messages sent across data networks. For that reason, SMS communication is still used for:

• OTPs — Banks and financial institutions use SMS to deliver one-time passwords forming part of two-factor authentication.
• Account recovery — Recovery codes for emails and similar accounts are shared via SMS. it ensures that it is the account holder with the same phone number who is requesting for a change in the password or is attempting to recover it.
• SMS marketing — To send bulk SMSes carrying a business offer, request for sign-ups, demos, walk-ins, etc.

Why ‘NOW’ is the best time to switch to WhatsApp for business

Despite its benefits, does SMS have a place in the future where WhatsApp is headed? Turns out, not much. As mentioned earlier, SMS might be used as an alternative or as a temporary fix when WhatsApp cannot be used (for example, when there is no data connection).

Bonus: How to Get a WhatsApp Business API account in an Easy Way

Real-time communication

Millennials are the social generation. They are always hooked in real-time to one social media channel or another. As a result, they expect communication to be synchronous and happening in real-time. Especially when they are communicating with businesses for inquiries or for post-sales customer support.

WhatsApp fits the bill perfectly as real-time communication is its default offering. Businesses can engage in real-time communication with customers enabling them to dole out information that customers are seeking or in providing assistance in solving customer support queries.

Most popular means of communication

WhatsApp is the leading global mobile messenger with a whopping 2,000 Million monthly active users. Others like Facebook Messenger, WeChat, QQ, Telegram, etc. fall back severely in user numbers.

As the most popular means of communication, WhatsApp has become a must-have for business communication. Also, it does force users to install a new app. Customers can use their personal WhatsApp account to communicate with businesses thus removing all friction that exists in customer communication.

Canned responses for FAQs

One of the difficulties of providing customer support is handling a large volume of repeating queries. FAQs on the website might provide some respite, however, most customers may not bother visiting the website to find the solution.

With WhatsApp, businesses can quickly provide canned responses to frequently asked questions of customers. It gives customers immediate feedback while sparing support agents from having to respond to every basic customer question, expending their valuable time and energy.

Built-in product catalog

WhatsApp can work as a mini-portal where customers can view product catalogues. WhatsApp for business allows businesses to upload their product catalogue complete with images, descriptions, and pricing. This helps drive specific contextual conversations with customers and can also maximize lead generation.

24/7/365 customer support

WhatsApp for business lets you set up auto-replies or away messages that will respond to incoming messages with default replies. Further, WhatsApp chatbots can also be configured to converse with customers like a human agent would using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to understand user sentiments, queries and provide contextually relevant responses. The good news is, they can work round the clock, 24/7/365 without any break. This makes them a perfect companion for businesses that work across multiple time zones.

Affordable customer communication

Setting up a WhatsApp account for business communication doesn’t cost a bomb. It does not require any additional app development or integrations. Of course, you can add to the app’s functionality through integrations, however, to perform basic functions these are not essential. As a result, the cost involved in using WhatsApp for customer support or lead generation is minimal.

In a nutshell

By now you must have understood that the days of SMS are over and WhatsApp is here to stay. Even the competition from other instant messaging apps has not affected WhatsApp as it continues to grow in user base as the default instant messenger.

For businesses, WhatsApp offers a simple and intuitive mode of communication. It does not require a new app or any additional investment. It offers maximum value for the time and resources spent.

Why ‘NOW’ is the best time to switch to WhatsApp for business.

At Kommunicate, we are envisioning a world-beating customer support solution to empower the new era of customer support. We would love to have you on board to have a first-hand experience of Kommunicate. You can signup here and start delighting your customers right away.

Originally published at https://www.kommunicate.io on March 4, 2022.

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SMS Vs Whatsapp — SMS is dying, WhatsApp is taking over was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

They say ‘Action speaks louder than Words’. Yet, in some cases, words (precisely deciphered) can determine the entire course of action relevant to highly intelligent machines and models. This approach to making the words more meaningful to the machines is NLP or Natural Language Processing.

For the unversed, NLP is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence capable of breaking down human language and feeding the tenets of the same to the intelligent models. NLP, paired with NLU (Natural Language Understanding) and NLG (Natural Language Generation), aims at developing highly intelligent and proactive search engines, grammar checkers, translates, voice assistants, and more.

Simply put, NLP breaks down the language complexities, presents the same to machines as data sets to take reference from, and also extracts the intent and context to develop them further. Yet, implementing them comes with its share of challenges.

What is NLP: From a Startup’s Perspective?

It is hard for humans to learn a new language, let alone machines. However, if we need machines to help us out across the day, they need to understand and respond to the human-type of parlance. Natural Language Processing makes it easy by breaking down the human language into machine-understandable bits, used to train models to perfection.

Also, NLP has support from NLU, which aims at breaking down the words and sentences from a contextual point of view. Finally, there is NLG to help machines respond by generating their own version of human language for two-way communication.

Startups planning to design and develop chatbots, voice assistants, and other interactive tools need to rely on NLP services and solutions to develop the machines with accurate language and intent deciphering capabilities.

NLP Challenges to Consider

Words can have different meanings. Slangs can be harder to put out contextual. And certain languages are just hard to feed in, owing to the lack of resources. Despite being one of the more sought-after technologies, NLP comes with the following rooted and implementation AI challenges.

Lack of Context for Homographs, Homophones, and Homonyms

A ‘Bat’ can be a sporting tool and even a tree-hanging, winged mammal. Despite the spelling being the same, they differ when meaning and context are concerned. Similarly, ‘There’ and ‘Their’ sound the same yet have different spellings and meanings to them.

Even humans at times find it hard to understand the subtle differences in usage. Therefore, despite NLP being considered one of the more reliable options to train machines in the language-specific domain, words with similar spellings, sounds, and pronunciations can throw the context off rather significantly.

Ambiguity

If you think mere words can be confusing, here are is an ambiguous sentence with unclear interpretations.

“I snapped a kid in the mall with my camera”- If the spoken to, it can be the case that the machine gets confused as to whether the kid was snapped using the camera or when the kid was snapped, he had your camera.

This form of confusion or ambiguity is quite common if you rely on non-credible NLP solutions. As far as categorization is concerned, ambiguities can be segregated as Syntactic (meaning-based), Lexical (word-based), and Semantic (context-based).

Errors relevant to Speed and Text

Machines relying on semantic feed cannot be trained if the speech and text bits are erroneous. This issue is analogous to the involvement of misused or even misspelled words, which can make the model act up over time. Even though evolved grammar correction tools are good enough to weed out sentence-specific mistakes, the training data needs to be error-free to facilitate accurate development in the first place.

Inability to Fit in Slangs and Colloquialisms

Even if the NLP services try and scale beyond ambiguities, errors, and homonyms, fitting in slags or culture-specific verbatim isn’t easy. There are words that lack standard dictionary references but might still be relevant to a specific audience set. If you plan to design a custom AI-powered voice assistant or model, it is important to fit in relevant references to make the resource perceptive enough.

One example would be a ‘Big Bang Theory-specific ‘chatbot that understands ‘Buzzinga’ and even responds to the same.

Apathy towards Vertical-Specific Lingo

Like the culture-specific parlance, certain businesses use highly technical and vertical-specific terminologies that might not agree with a standard NLP-powered model. Therefore, if you plan on developing field-specific modes with speech recognition capabilities, the process of entity extraction, training, and data procurement needs to be highly curated and specific.

Lack of Usable Data

NLP hinges on the concepts of sentimental and linguistic analysis of the language, followed by data procurement, cleansing, labeling, and training. Yet, some languages do not have a lot of usable data or historical context for the NLP solutions to work around with.

Lack of R&D

NLP implementation isn’t one-dimensional. Instead, it requires assistive technologies like neural networking and deep learning to evolve into something path-breaking. Adding customized algorithms to specific NLP implementations is a great way to design custom models-a hack that is often shot down due to the lack of adequate research and development tools.

Scale Above These Problems, Today: How to Choose the Right Vendor?

From fixing ambiguity to errors to issues with data collection, it is important to have the right vendor at your disposal to train and develop the envisioned NLP Model. And while several factors need to be considered, here are some of the more desirable features to consider while connecting:

• Sizable, domain-specific database (audio, speech, and video), regardless of the language.
• Capability to implement Part-of-Speech tagging for cutting out ambiguities.
• Support for custom assistive technologies like Mulingual Sentence Embeddings to improve the quality of interpretation.
• Seamless data annotation to label data sets as per the requirements.
• Multi-lingual database with off-the-shelf picks to work with.

Vendors offering most or even some of these features can be considered for designing your NLP models.

Wrap-Up

Needless to say, NLP has evolved into one of the more widely accepted and hailed Artificial Intelligence-powered technologies. If you are into specifics, the NLP market is expected to grow by almost 1400% by 2025, as compared to that in 2017. As per expectations and extrapolations, the NLP market will be valued at almost 43 billion by the end of 2025 — Statista

Despite the benefits, Natural Language Processing comes with a few limitations-something that you can address upon connecting with a reliable AI vendor.

Vatsal Ghiya, founder of Shaip, is an entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in healthcare AI software and services.

Originally published at https://thinkml.ai on June 1, 2022.

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What are the Natural Language Processing Challenges, and How to Fix? was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In an era of post-pandemic changes, organizations face challenges in creating exceptional service experiences for their customers. The pandemic has pressed the greater urge among industries for the creation of human-tech symbiosis to make the personalized customer experience as flexible as possible. So, what’s the next frontier in evolving employee-customer relationships?

The Answer lies in Conversational AI.

You might think voice interfaces are nothing new, but with the technology evolution, these voice interfaces have become better listeners and conversationalists. According to PwC, “ “around 27% of customers were unable to comprehend whether they interacted with a bot or human agents. And Conversational AI chatbot has made this possible.

Conversational AI uses technologies like Machine Learning and NLP to make human-machine communication possible. These AI technologies recognize the pattern in text and speech and translate their meaning across human and computer languages.

As per a report, “Around 57% of customers agree that Conversational AI bots can deliver a large return on investment for minimal effort.

On top of that Conversational AI constantly learns from previous experiences using machine learning datasets to offer real-time insight and excellent customer service. Also, Conversational AI not only manually understands and responds to our queries but also can be connected to other AI technologies such as search and vision to fast-track the process.

Technologies Inclusion In Conversational AI

1. Natural Language Processing

Although machines are quick and efficient, they are not experts in understanding human context, speech, or intent. But, Natural Language Processing with its capabilities such as text modeling, text categorization, text clustering, information extraction, and entity recognition understands the intent behind the text and speech and extracts meaning from the natural sentence to offer a personalized experience to customers.

2. Intent Detection

In general, intent defines what action should be triggered based on conversational inputs. And it becomes more typical when you have to find intent from voice instead of text due to our natural proclivity for telling stories. Using a combination of machine learning & NLP capabilities, the Conversational AI bot automatically associates words or expressions with a particular intent. And to make it one step further, intent detection can be combined with data extraction to identify specific datasets such as locations, dates, companies, names and etc.

3. Speech-to-Text

Once an information input is received from a human, machines can’t translate speech into text. To make the sense of what is spoken and asked, enterprises can leverage OCR technology integrated with a Conversational AI bot. By converting speech-to-text, Conversational AI bot enable enterprises to deliver better response for every interaction.

4. Value Extraction

Every company is data, but if your enterprises can’t make out what’s relevant, it’s challenging to scale. Value extraction is the model through which AI agents extract the relevant information from customer queries and store them against the relevant chatbot. Conversational AI reduces the manual effort by automating the slot labeling techniques and identifying the key specification from the user’s spoken instructions to a voice assistant autonomously. For example- a banking assistant has to extract the cash value and recipient in order to make a transaction on the user’s behalf.

5. Text-to-Speech

Manually processed conversion of text into speech require constant manual effort and cost to Text-to-speech process in Conversational AI involves the translation of the text into speech automatically. By using a pre-defined workflow with text records and identification Conversational AI bot can offer a faster response to natural text and speech.

How Conversational AI can be used for customer service?

Needless to say, Conversational AI is the best asset to offer a personalized and real-time customer experience. From resolving queries on time to understating user intent autonomously, Conversational AI has a lot to offer on its plate to customers. Conversation AI use cases for customer service include:

You might have heard of the statement that “Data is the new oil”. And enterprises have a huge amount of data collected from customer transaction history, past interactions, transcripted calls, and chat sessions. This invaluable information can be leveraged to create a hyper-personalized customer experience and quick service ticket resolution. Conversational AI monitors all the conversations that happened with customers and makes data of their requirements, and creates a powerful ecosystem for predicting customers’ next actions.

Regardless of industries, support agents need a vast amount of information to process resolution and answer FAQs. Conversational AI could be a great help in assisting the agents. By monitoring the conversations agents are having with customers, Conversational AI can extract the information and customer intent and transfer the required information to support agents at the appropriate time. This saves both customer and support agents time. That’s how Conversational AI offers superior customer experience, lowered support costs, and high employee satisfaction.

Conversational AI bots can be easily integrated with reservation and booking systems to fully automate the reservation process. This automated reduce the manual effort required in processing booking and reservation and sending confirmation to the customer. Also, this Conversational AI chatbot can offer a personalized experience to customers by learning from the customer’s past interactions.

Conclusion

No matter the type of organization you rule, small or big, customer service plays a key role in scaling the business and getting higher ROI. And Conversational AI is a helping hand not only to optimize the customer service game but also to rule in the competitive market. The Conversational AI moment is now, and it’s high time to paddle for better customer service with AI capabilities.

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/ Shaip, 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://technewsgather.com on May 30, 2022.

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Re-imagining Customer Service with Conversational AI was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Hosting virtual events is not only a nicety, it has increasingly become a necessity. From staff meetings, to conferences, concerts and online schools, the creation of virtual spaces has proven to be crucial in keeping people and entire livelihoods alive.

Even as the world ushers back to ‘normal’, we see the need for online spaces rising especially amid the development of the metaverse . The metaverse promises to be a decentralized 3D ecosystem, where people can live, work, learn, shop, play and so much more.

To this end, businesses are building the infrastructure to facilitate this integrated 3D reality.

Bot Libre is a free open source platform that enables influencers, gamers, and businesses to engage the Metaverse by integrating true artificial intelligence and chatbots. Bot Libre bots can interact with users and navigate 3D spaces, Bot Libre provides an extensive API, integrations, and SDKs for popular 3D platforms like Mozilla Hubs.

Mozilla Hubs is a platform that allows users to create their own private 3D virtual spaces. These spaces can be used for events like conferences, virtual storefronts and online classes. By adding a Bot Libre chatbot to your 3D space, you will provide ease of access to all attendees and prevent any customer from being overlooked.

Bot Libre Benefits for Your 3D Space

· Provides a fully immersive virtual experience

· Quickly respond to questions from guests and customers

· Provide information on products and services

· Upsell products and services

· Provides tutoring through animated chatbots to online learners in an exciting virtual space

Setting Up Your Chatbot to Mozilla Hubs

1. Create a new Discord server on https://discord.com/.

2. Follow the “Set Up” section from

https://hubs.mozilla.com/docs/hubs-discord-bot.html#set-up to add a Hubs

Discord bot to your new server.

3. Create a new Hubs room to link with Discord by entering the message

“!hubs create” in the Discord channel.

4. Create a new discord application on

https://discord.com/developers/applications .

5. Add a bot to the discord application under the “Bot” tab.

6. Connect the Discord bot to the Bot Libre platform by pasting its token in the

admin console of a Bot Libre bot under the Discord tab.

7. After connecting the Discord bot to the Bot Libre platform, click th

link to add the bot to your discord server.

8. Change the new bot’s permissions on Discord so it can read and send messages.

Note: The Hubs room that is created uses Discord for authentication when attempting to join the room.

Customizing Your Chatbots

Bot Libre allows you to customize your avatar, chat style and button style among many other cool features, free of cost. For additional information see useful guides below or contact support@botlibre.com.

Quick Guide to Training/Customizing Your Chatbot

https://www.botlibre.com/forum-post?id=483549

In addition to adding a Bot Libre chatbot to your 3D virtual event, you can add a chatbot to your website, Facebook messenger, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram among others.

If you’re busy building your 3D space on Mozilla Hubs, but you recognize the importance of having seamless representation, we can build a bot for you. For additional information, contact us at sales@botlibre.biz .

Be sure to like, leave a comment and follow us for more up-to-date information on metaverse trends and chatbots.

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Bot Libre Integrates With Mozilla Hubs: How To Add Chatbots To Virtual Events was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Expand your NLP portfolio using BERT and Haystack to answer all your questions!

If you’re trying to learn Natural Language Processing (NLP), make a Discord Bot, or are just interested to play around with Transformers for a bit, this is the project for you!

In this example, we will create a Chatbot that knows everything about Dragon Ball, but you can do about anything you want! It can be a chatbot that answers questions about another series, a university course, the laws of a country, etc. Firstly, let’s see how that is possible with BERT.

How a BERT works as a Chatbot

BERT is a Machine Learning technique for NLP created and published by Google in 2018. In the first phase, the model is pre-trained on a large language dataset in a semi-supervised way.

In this phase, the model cannot answer questions yet, but it learned contextual embeddings for words.

In the second phase, BERT is then finetuned for a specific task. Because we are trying to build a Chatbot, we need a model that is finetuned on a Question Answering task.

After the model is finetuned for Question Answering, we have to provide the Input Dataset for the model to know where to extract its answers from. Finally, the user can then input a question. The model will extract the answer from the input dataset.

As such, first of all, we need to get an Input Dataset from where the model will extract its answer from.

Fetching the Data

In this example, our chatbot will be a Dragon Ball Master, so we will fetch the data from the Dragon Ball Wiki with BeautifulSoup. Scraping isn’t the focus of this post, so we are just going to brute force it a little bit to get all the data we need.

We fetch the data of the chapters and also of the different series (Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, etc). The most important information that we will take is what actually happens in each chapter and, through the pages of the different series, we also have other types of information (creator, production company, dates of airing, etc).

After getting all the summaries of each episode, Haystack needs the data to be formatted as a list of dictionaries, which have two major keys. One of the keys is called “content”, where the model will extract all the information needed to answer all questions. The other key is called “meta” and has a nested dictionary with all the metadata you need. In this example, I passed a dictionary with the title and number from the episode which the summary was extracted from.

Now that we have all the information about what happens in the series, we need to initialize our model!

Initiating BERT

For this part, I will use Google Collab because of two reasons:

• it is much easier to setup Haystack: Haystack is a library for NLP which has a lot of dependencies and sometimes making it work on your personal computer is not very smooth, especially for beginners who are not used to set up environments;
• we will use a BERT model, which is a big model that works much faster with a GPU — which Google Colab provides for free!

We need to choose a Retriever and a Reader to use. The Retriever is a lightweight filter that goes through our whole database of documents and chooses an X number of documents that might answer the question the user is posing. In this case, we will ask the Retriever to return 10 documents.

The Retriever passes these 10 documents to the Reader. In this case, we will use a BERT as our Reader. More specifically, we will use an English BERT model that is already finetuned for Extractive Question Answering. In essence, that means that the model was pre-trained in the English language and then was trained for Extractive QA in the last layer of training. Because the Dragon Ball data is already in English, the model is already prepared out of the box for answering our questions!

PS: If you have data in another language, you can search for a model that is trained in that language in HuggingFace.

We will ask the model to return the 5 most probable right answers from the 10 documents most probably to have the answer! Remember: the Retriever finds the right documents and the Reader finds the exact answer (in this case, our reader is roberta-base-squad2)! This is the output of the model after inputting a simple question about Dragon Ball:

The model got the answer right! The mentors of Goku were Master Roshi and King Kai!

Again, this is right out of the box, we didn’t have to train any model on our data!

Testing our Chatbot

After creating a function that lets our output be prettier, let’s see the results!

Let’s ask it who Vegeta is married to:

It got it right! Its first answer was Bulma! Let’s try other questions and see the results:

The model is answering quite well to a lot of the questions!

But if we add some variation in the way we ask some questions, it starts being not quite right…

These are just some examples of how the model is still not perfect.

No worries, because we can train it further on our data if we want! Haystack has a simple tutorial on how to do this also. However, that could be its entire new post. If you would find it useful, you can send me a message or a comment and I will try to create a post explaining it step by step.

Further Work

The Haystack library has very nice documentation and this post was actually based on one of their tutorial notebooks. We can try to add more data about other series and try to see if the model retains its performance. Here is the link to the Github Repository of the project if you want to access the notebooks used.

I hope you enjoyed creating your first-ever chatbot with BERT 🙂

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Build a Chatbot about your favorite series in 30 minutes was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

WhatsApp is a messaging service, but you already knew that. But have you met the side to WhatsApp that can be used for more than just sending funny cat GIFs to your cousins? We are talking about WhatsApp for Business, which allows you to stay connected to your customers via the famous messaging service.

According to a Zendesk report, 48% of the people in the world have a smartphone, and with a user base of more than 2.5 billion people, WhatsApp as a marketing channel has a lot of potentials.

In this blog post, we will teach you how to use WhatsApp as a powerful business tool, and get WhatsApp API access so that you can provide support to a large customer base.

We will also teach you how to integrate WhatsApp through our partner 360 Dialog,

Before proceeding with that let’s first know about what is WhatsApp API and why we need WhatsApp API

WhatsApp API is an application programming interface, which means it has no front end interface or app. It is designed for mid-size to large companies that want to use WhatsApp with a large number of users at the same time. Large businesses are more complex, with hundreds of messages coming in at the same time that need to be handled by business software. WhatsApp Business API helps connect your business software, such as a chatbot, to your WhatsApp account.

But there are a few things about WhatsApp Business API that you need to know. For starters, WhatsApp Business API is not free. You need to apply for an API account through one of WhatsApp’s designated business partners, and then go through an approval process.

Every time a customer sends a message to your WhatsApp inbox, WhatsApp API has a messaging window that gets activated. This is a 24-hour window, within which the business can respond freely to the customer. After 24 hours, customers can only send WhatsApp Template Messages, which are pre-approved messages that have Placeholders, along with Quick Reply and CTA buttons.

Now you have understood what Whatsapp API is and why we need WhatsApp API let’s understand the difference between Whatsapp Business and WhatsApp Business API to get more clarity.

Difference between WhatsApp Business App and WhatsApp Business API

Whatsapp Business App

People often confuse WhatsApp Business App with WhatsApp Business API, thinking they are one and the same thing, but the answer is far from the truth. WhatsApp Business App is a separate application that can be downloaded from the Play Store or the App Store. It is designed for small businesses that need to handle only a finite number of customer queries. Only one user on one device can use the WhatsApp Business app, and it is the best solution for small mom and pop establishments that don’t get hundreds of customer queries in a day.

Whatsapp Business API:

WhatsApp Business has an Application Programming Interface (API) that is designed to help businesses cope with the plethora of customer support requests they get in a day. Support teams can use WhatsApp alongside other channels so that all the customer interactions are in one place and there is no loss of data. You will need a WhatsApp API to connect WhatsApp Business App to your company’s software, which can be obtained from a WhatsApp partner.

WhatsApp Business allows you to send unlimited messages to your customers, in any content format you wish. WhatsApp Business API account, however, bifurcates your messages into two types — Session messages and Template messages. Respond to a message within 24 hours, and that is a session message. Take longer than that to send a message, and you will have to send out a template message, which has to be pre-approved by WhatsApp.

The WhatsApp Business App has built-in features that help you in automating some of the common greeting messages and away messages. If you need advanced automation options, you will have to use a WhatsApp business API account and connect it to your business logic. Another key difference between WhatsApp Business App and WhatsApp Business API is that you can only broadcast a message to 256 contacts at a time on the WhatsApp Business app, but with the API, you can reach unlimited users, as long as the message content is not promotional.

Why get your WhatsApp Business API from a business partner

You cannot get a WhatsApp API directly, and usually have to rely on one of the several business partners that WhatsApp has teamed up with. Why has WhatsApp done this?

• To avoid spammers: When last counted, WhatsApp had close to 2 billion users on its platform, and with a user base this large, WhatsApp knew that it had to fight an uphill battle against spammers. To have greater control over the companies that have access to its API, WhatsApp decided to provide access only through select partners.
• Less resource-intensive: Outsourcing the API application process to partners means WhatsApp doesn’t have to hire additional resources to oversee this process, which also helps reduce costs.
• Leveraging partner’s strength: Partners have the resources that will help them vet which companies are allowed on the WhatsApp platform. Many of these partners are also SMS providers, which means they have the access to high-volume clients.

Here is a link to all the partners that WhatsApp has teamed up with to provide its API access.

One such partner is 360Dialog, with whom Kommunicate has teamed up to provide you with WhatsApp API access. 360Dialog provides a developer-friendly API, and the company does not carry out any modification around WhatsApp Rich messages. 360Dialog also does not charge the user per message, which works out quite economically for the business owner.

360 Dialog: How to get a WhatsApp API account on 360 Dialog

There are 4 steps in getting a WhatsApp API Account.

Step 1: Port or Buy a phone number

You need a phone number to set up your WhatsApp Business API account. Partners such as Dialog 360 allow you to port an existing phone number, as long as you can receive calls or SMS. You have to make sure that the number is not connected to another WhatsApp Business account or WhatsApp API account, to avoid any conflict.

Step 2: Verify the Business name and meet WhatsApp Commerce Policy

WhatsApp has a Commerce policy, which you will need to adhere to before you apply for a WhatsApp API. WhatsApp will review your application, as well as your Display Name, which should ideally match the legal name under which your business is registered.

Step 3: Verify Facebook Business and Number

This step is different from the Facebook Page Verification. Here, you need to provide a few documents and complete your Business verification in the Facebook Business Manager. This process usually takes a few working days.

Step 4: Generating an API key

Once you have a WhatsApp API account, you need to obtain a WhatsApp API key and connect it to a business software of your choice. You can use different API providers to get your API Account setup. 360Dialog is one such API provider.

How to connect Kommunicate and Dialog360 for WhatsApp integration

There are 2 ways you can connect Kommunicate and 360Dialog

First, you need to login into your Kommunicate dashboard. If you do not have a Kommunicate account, you can sign up for free.

And then Go to integrations > WhatsApp and then Request Access on your Kommunicate Dashboard.

Here, you will see 2 methods of getting your WhatsApp Integration:

Request Access and Sandbox.

In Request Access, you have to specify the expected number of monthly messages that your business will get through WhatsApp, and then click “Request Whatsapp Access”.

You then have to follow the following steps:

If you want help generating your App_ID, click here.

Once the Kommunicate support team receives the requisite information, we will assist in connecting your WhatsApp number to your Kommunicate account.

If you want to test your WhatsApp API, you can also use the Sandbox option.

Click on the Sandbox tab after you click on the Request Access button.

Follow the instructions on the screen, which involves sending a WhatsApp message from your phone to a predestined number.

You can also use a link provided in the tab to get your Test API key. Once you receive the API key, you can set up your Sandbox and test the WhatsApp API.

And there you go!! You have successfully integrated WhatsApp into your Kommunicate dashboard. Now, any message you send to the 360 Dialog WhatsApp number will be available in the Kommunicate dashboard.

As you can see, setting up WhatsApp API for your business need not be a hard ordeal. With tools like Kommunicate doing the heavy lifting, you can sit back, relax and do what you do best — provide a superior customer experience.

Key takeaway:

Why would you consider using all the features of 360Dialog WhatsApp API through Kommunicate? Well, there is the cost advantage, for starters. Any user does not have to pay 99 Euros to 360 Dialog since the pricing is already covered in the Kommunicate subscription.

If you want to integrate Kommunicate to Dialog 360, you can use the Grow plan. You can integrate 360 dialog at no additional cost since the price is already included in the Grow plan is $100.

And that’s just not all that you get with Kommunicate’s Grow plan. You also get:

• Integration with WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, Line along with AgileCRM and Pipedrive.
• Quick replies and Ready to use bot templates.
• Advanced Widget customization.
• 1-year chat history

For a detailed list of all the features in our various pricing plans, check out our pricing page here.

That’s WhatsApp API Access under 100 dollars. If that is not a killer deal, we don’t know what is. So, what are you waiting for? Partner with Kommunicate and get access to your WhatsApp Business API today!!

Originally published at https://www.kommunicate.io on February 14, 2022.

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How to Get a Business WhatsApp API account in an Easy Way was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Businesses have been quick to jump on the WhatsApp Business API bandwagon since the company’s Business API launch. And rightly so, who would want to miss an opportunity to connect with 2 billion active users and engage with them?

That’s why today, WhatsApp Business API has become a powerful communication tool for businesses. It helps them create a superior Customer Experience and drive better Commerce & Customer Care opportunities. WhatsApp Message Templates are an important aspect while designing your WhatsApp chatbot journey.

Download Report: How is WhatsApp Shaping Commerce?

Initiating communication through WhatsApp may look challenging to many with the stringent messaging guidelines that brands need to adhere to. One of the guidelines’ critical aspects is the creation of the WhatsApp Message Templates. And that’s what we are going to talk about in this blog. Let’s dive right in!

So what are WhatsApp Message Templates?

WhatsApp Business API offers two types of messages for companies to communicate. If a business wants to initiate a chat with its customers, it needs to do it via Message Templates. WhatsApp Message Templates are specific message formats that companies can use to send standardized notifications. These are also called Highly Structured Messages(HSM), which can be sent to customers if they have opted to receive them.

Earlier, businesses were only allowed to send transactional notifications like order updates, appointment reminders, and account information. But recently, WhatsApp has allowed brands to send marketing notifications, in other words, non-transactional messages. These include product recommendations, helpful informational alerts, relevant offers, and newsletters. This move has been a game-changer and is helping brands to boost their customer engagement.

The other type of message is session messages, where if the customer starts a conversation, the brands can respond within a 24hr window. Brands don’t have to get any approval from WhatsApp if they reply within the time duration. But if the brand wants to re-engage with customers post the 24hr bracket, they need to do it through business templates.

Creating a WhatsApp Message template is a straightforward process, but let us see some critical pointers and best practices that everyone should be aware of before structuring their messages to avoid rejection from WhatsApp.

Template Name: While naming the templates, only alphanumeric lowercases and underscores are allowed; special characters and spaces are not acceptable. You can delete a template but cannot edit a template once submitted.

Template Content: WhatsApp template message can be text-based, media-based, or interactive. The text content cannot contain newlines, tabs, or more than four consecutive spaces. While sending media content like audio, images, videos, or stickers, you have to specify the media type and upload the media to the WhatsApp server or share an HTTPS link. Businesses can also employ interactive elements like a call-to-action or a quick reply button to get prompt responses from customers.

The template content can also have placeholder values that are called variables. Variables give brands the flexibility to personalize their message content and are shown as { {…} } in the WhatsApp templates. It is essential to use the proper formatting while using the variables. Here in the below WhatsApp message template example: { {Customer First Name} }, your package has been delivered!; the customer name is the placeholder value, which is Smeetha.

Language: WhatsApp Business API doesn’t support auto translation; brands have to provide translations for each template element. Message templates for a particular language are stored together and called language packs. And a collection of the language packs is referred to as a message template namespace.

Now that we have understood what a WhatsApp Message Template is and what it consists of, we will move to one of the most crucial parts, the categories under which these templates get created. So, let’s dive in and look at the various types with some sample WhatsApp templates that everyone must use.

Read: 3 Reasons Why WhatsApp is the Future of Commerce

Categories of WhatsApp Message Templates

Brands can engage with their customers by creating WhatsApp Templates under the following categories:

1. Account update
2. Issue resolution
3. Payment update
4. Appointment update
5. Ticket update
6. Shipping update
7. Transportation update
8. Reservation update
9. Personal finance update
10. Alert update

1. Account update

E.g #1: Dear { {1} } the password for your { {company name} } account has been reset recently. If you did not initiate this action, please get in touch with us on { {2} }.

E.g #2: Hey { {1} }, Thanks for registering with us. Your account is verified and ready to go. You can now access all the premium content. Happy learning!

2. Issue resolution:

Companies are always striving hard to give their customers the best service, but malfunctions are bound to happen. That’s where businesses need to proactively inform their customers about any problems and impacts to avoid getting them alarmed.

1. E.g #1: Hey { {2} }, the { {name of the issue} } issue has been resolved. You can access your account. If you still face the problem. Please get in touch with us on the below number.
2. E.g #2: Hey { {1} }, we are currently undergoing restoration work. We apologize for the inconvenience. The network will resume by midnight; we appreciate your patience.

3. Payment update:

This category of WhatsApp templates notify customers about their payments for the purchases made, provides reminders for their upcoming pending bills, and sends updates on the refund status.

E.g #1: Hey { {1} }, refund for your order { {order number} } has been initiated. It should reflect in your account by the next 7 days.

E.g #2: Hey { {1} }, your bill for the month of { {2} } is generated. Please pay the bill before { {date} } to avoid any late fees.

E.g #3: Hey { {1} }, the payment for your order { {order number} } has failed. If any amount got debited from your account. It will get refunded in the next 48 hours.

E.g #4: Hey { {1} }, thank you for shopping with us! 🤗 We have received your payment for { {product name} }. Here is your order no. { {order number} }. We will send you an update as soon as we dispatch the product.

4. Appointment update:

Customers are sent confirmation, reminders, and other information regarding their appointments by using this category.

E.g: Hey { {1} }, unfortunately, due to some urgent personal commitment, Dr.{ {name of the doctor} } won’t be available today. We are sorry for the inconvenience. We would want to know your availability to reschedule the appointment. You can hit the below button to contact us. Insert <button> Contact us.

5. Ticket update:

Whenever a complaint is registered, a corresponding ticket gets raised. Brands can keep their customers informed about the status of their tickets with the help of the ticketing message template. Customers need to get regular updates on the steps taken to resolve their complaints to give them a sense of security.

E.g: Hey { {2} }, this is in response to your complaint raised on your order of { {prodcut name} }. We are sorry to hear that you face issues with its functioning.🙏We have informed our Technical Team, they will be contacting you within the next 24 hours. We appreciate your patience.

6. Shipping update:

As the name suggests, businesses notify customers when they can expect to receive their orders with the following WhatsApp template.

E.g #1: Hey { {1} }, we are excited to tell you that we have shipped your order { {order number} }. It will reach you in the following { {number of days} } days. You can track your order here { {tracking link} }. We hope you love using our products! 💓

E.g #2: Hey { {1} }, your order is out for delivery.📦 { {agent name} } will deliver your package before { {time} } today. You can contact the agent on { {agent number} } for further details.

7. Transportation update:

Travel-based companies can majorly use these templates to share all the information related to a customer’s transit. Like changes in travel schedule, luggage restrictions. Etc.

E.g: Hey { {1} }, Due to some maintenance work, terminal one has been shut. Now the boarding for your flight { {flight no} } is scheduled from terminal three. Make sure to reach the airport 45 mins before boarding to avoid any inconvenience. See you soon!

8. Reservation update:

These templates are beneficial for brands working in the Hospitality sector to keep their customers up to date on their reservations.

E.g #1: Hey { {1} },your stay with us has been booked for the { {date} }. We are looking forward to hosting you. To know about the check-in and check-out timings and other policies. Please visit the below link. In case of any queries, please reach us at 90xxxxxx. Insert button with website link <Know More>

E.g #2: Hey { {1} }, thank you for choosing to dine with us.🥂 Your table is reserved for { {date} } at { {time} }.

9. Personal finance update:

Financial brands can utilize these messages to notify their customers about their transactions, like account balance, claim status, etc.

E.g #1: Congratulations { {1} }, your loan application has been approved.

E.g #2: Hey { {1} }, your account { {2} }, has been debited with { {3} }. Your current balance is { {4} }.

E.g #3: Hey { {1} }, your claim id { {the number} } is under process and will be settled within the next seven days.

10. Alert update:

Companies can use this template to share general information, like product updates, delivery updates, etc., with their customers.

E.g #1: Hey { {1} }, thank you for registering for our webinar on { {name of the webinar} }. Please check your email for your login details. We hope you find the session resourceful.

E.g #2: Hey { {2} }, we have delivered your products.😍 We hope you are enjoying using it. Thanks for choosing us.🤗 Would you like to fill out our feedback form? It will really help us serve you better.

Promotional Marketing Notifications

As mentioned earlier, WhatsApp has now allowed brands to send promotional marketing notifications. And it’s a no-brainer for brands to jump on this opportunity. Businesses can leverage the benefits of this rollout by simply creating message templates under the alert category.

1. Discount Offers

Hey { {1} }, Who doesn’t deserve some shopping therapy.😍 That’s why we have a great offer just for you. You can get a flat { {% discount} } on your next purchase. Offer valid till { {date} }.

2. Abandoned cart message

{ {1} }, Insert <image of the product> Did you still want to get our { {product name} }? Tap the left button to be taken to your basket- check out to receive your mug within 48 hours, tap the right button if you prefer not to receive this type of message from us.
Insert <quick reply button> Take to basket
Insert <quick reply button> Stop messages

3. Immediate follow-up message

Hello { {1} }, Thanks for calling us about your stolen card. Your new card is now available for use in your digital wallets. Let us know if you have any more questions. We would also appreciate your feedback on our service.Insert <quick reply button> Rate your service

Insert <quick reply button> Need help

4. Dormant customer message

Hi { {1} }! How have you been? You haven’t placed an order in a while.😒Is there anything we can do to improve our service for you? (Give options)

5. Feedback message

Hello! Insert <Image> Thank you for calling Telecom Wireless customer support line. We hope that your issue is resolved. Care to share your feedback? Would you recommend me to your friends and family?
Insert <quick reply> Sure!
Insert <quick reply> Probably not

Read: How JioMart handles 40% Customer Support on WhatsAppTo sum up

To Sum Up

Notifications play an important role to nudge the customers ahead in the buying journey. WhatsApp is committed to providing a top-notch user experience to its customers, hence these guidelines are to be strictly adhered to. With its pre-defined categories and rich media capabilities, the WhatsApp Business API is helping businesses drive deeper engagement with help of Message Templates.

Haptik, with its WhatsApp chatbot solution, is assisting brands to automate their communication and get the most out of the WhatsApp platform. With 350+ live solutions and 1B+ interactions, Haptik is leading the WhatsApp chatbot revolution. India’s prominent brands such as Jio, TATA, HDFC, Dream11, OLA, Kotak Mahindra, etc.

Originally published at https://www.haptik.ai on January 28, 2022.

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Best WhatsApp Message Templates to use in 2022 was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Nowadays, chatbots are everywhere. They are our digital assistants who are ready to help. Businesses love to use chatbots for customer support. They’re never sick and always on the job, 24/7.

It’s a very efficient way for a business to help customers, but only when done correctly. You’ve probably experienced annoying chatbots yourself when you’re looking for customer support. The ones that keep repeating and are not answering your question. Why is this? And why are some chatbots really capable of having a human-like conversation while others are just annoying? More importantly, as a small business owner, how to make sure you select the right type of chatbot that fits your business and the needs of your customers?

Scripted vs non-scripted chatbots, what is the difference?

Generally, you can make a difference between scripted vs non-scripted chatbots. A scripted chatbot is a chatbot that uses a predefined conversation flow. When you start a conversation with such a chatbot, it gives you a set of options to choose from. Based on the option you select, it guides you to the right answer. It’s similar to how IVR or Interactive Voice Response works with a phone. You know, the voice recordings saying “Press 1 if you have a question about your invoice”, “Press 2 to…”

These types of chatbots are easy to set up for a business. Often they work with a drag and drop builder so you can create a flow within minutes. However, as you probably already felt with the IVR example, these chatbots can be very annoying. Especially when you’re having a question that falls outside of the regular flow, it can be a nightmare to get some decent support.

Alternatively, you have non-scripted chatbots. These types of chatbots use technologies like AI and NLP to have more human-like, flexible conversations. NLP stands for Natural Language Processing and it is a technology to recognize text.With NLP, basically a chatbot understands human language so you can chat with it and ask a question like you would do with a real human being.

The way it works is that the chatbot analyses every incoming sentence. Based on training it received, it tries to recognize the intent of a sentence and replies. For example, if you say “Hi, I received my order but it got damaged”, the chatbot understands “Hi” as a greeting or welcome and says “Hi” back. The next part of the sentence is about “my order” and “damage” so the chatbot guesses that the customer is asking about how to return a product and get refunded. It will reply with something like “So sorry to hear that, here you can ask for a refund”, with the link to the refund page.

Setting up scripted chatbots requires time and effort

Non-scripted chatbots sound like a dream come true in chatbot land. They can be actually very good due to the underlying technology of AI and NLP and the rapid improvement of that technology. However, setting up a properly working, non-scripted chatbot is a massive job. These types of chatbots require hours and hours of training and it needs correction to improve itself. As you can imagine, this can be very time consuming and requires particular knowledge and skills about non-scripted chatbots.

There is hope though. At Table Duck for example, we’ve done the hard work for you with our pre-trained intents on a non-scripted chatbot. You can easily turn on the questions you want to get answered and fill in the answer specific to your business.

It works especially well for smaller types of businesses that want to use chatbot technology, but don’t have the time or money to invest in custom made, fully trained chatbots.

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The difference between scripted chatbots and AI driven chatbots was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.