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Conversational AI Where are we now, where are we heading and what should you do tomorrow?
Bart van der Mark, AI Europe
24 April 2018
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Bart van der Mark
Head of AI Venture Europe
Runs the Cognizant Conversational AI Venture in Europe.
This venture identifies, nurtures and grows promising
concepts, technologies and business models around
Robotic Process Automation, Cognitive Agents, Artificial
Intelligence and Machine Learning. He is a frequent
publisher and key-note speaker on these topics.
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Where are we?
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Chatbots have evolved from dumb to fairly intelligent…
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• 100% scripted
• Stand-alone
• System-driven
• Narrow scope
• Dumb
• Scripted + AI
• Integrated
• User-driven
• Narrow scope
• More intelligent
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…quite a few serious examples exist…
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Created a ‘bot designed to
be a ‘Personal Stylist in
your pocket’.
Integrated Amazon Alexa in its
newer cars, allowing drivers to do
nifty things like check tire
pressure, maintenance
requirements, gas, etc. right from
their homes.
Unveiled ‘My
Starbucks Barista’—
AI-based app for
mobile orders.
Launched an AI based ‘bot called
‘Luvo’, to help customers with
responses to financial services
questions.
Launched a Facebook
Messenger chatbot for ordering
pizzas.
Use a successful
chatbot for fuel- and
oil-related customer
queries
Enable clients to find
and book tickets
through natural
conversation
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…delivering clear business value…
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1. Increase sales across digital
commerce channels with personalized,
24x7 human-like “bots”
2. Lower costs of customer service, and
improve customer satisfaction and
loyalty
3. Increase employee productivity and
satisfaction by automating high
frequency and routine service desk
interactions
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…research show a promising future (and some areas of attention)…
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Source: LivePerson
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…research show a promising future (and some areas of attention)…
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Source: LivePerson
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…research show a promising future (and some areas of attention)…
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Source: LivePerson
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… and this is what we see reflected in our day-to-day business:
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1. Organisations see / expect value but are uncertain what to do and where to start
2. Unsurpassed demand from organisations to learn more
3. High demand for PoC’s and pilots
4. Moderate demand for production-ready bots
5. Still somewhat limited but growing demand for usage at scale
6. Initiatives are still too often stand-alone
7. Fast evolving technology landscape, but not perfect yet
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Where are we
going?
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All AI, including Conversational, follows a exponential curve
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Exponential growth of chatbots is fuelled by 3 key elements
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Characteristics for future bots at scale
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• Primarily AI driven
• Integrated with front- and back-end
and other AI
• User-driven
• Broader scope
• Intelligent but by far not at human
level
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Key recommendations!
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Put the customer and business outcomes in the centre,
not tools & technology…
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…position chatbots in the context of the overall engagement strategy…
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…and ensue that your end-to-end landscape supports
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And remember: it’s all about bots and humans working together
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Ensure you have a chatbot plan and roadmap beyond pilots / PoC’s
1. Discover
&
Experiment
2. Plan &
Lay
Foundation
4. Maintain & Expand
3a. Build CoE & In-
house Skills
External In-house
• Learn
• Quick scan assessments
• PoC’s
• …
• Technology choice / reconfirmation
• Roadmap / business case
• C-level commitment
• Governance & Compliance
• Methodologies
• Partners
• Infrastructure
• …
3. Implement &
Scale
Typically our clients would be enabled to:
• Manage demand and priorities
• Execute low and medium complexity
changes
• L1 and potentially L2 support
• Build low complexity chatbots
• …
Build and implement the chatbot
based on the agreed:
• Roadmap
• Technology & Infrastructure
• Methodologies
• …
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Start NOW and start with NARROW use cases
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Don’t get lost in the tool-jungle; get help
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For this we built a global Conversational AI capability ahead of the curve
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In
Summary
1. Chatbots deliver value today and
will develop exponentially
2. It’s not about replacing humans
but working together
3. Focus on business outcomes, not
tools
4. Think end-to-end
5. Start small but think big =>
roadmap
6. Do a great job on narrow use
cases and not vice versa
7. Do not re-invent the wheel; get
help