It’s good to chat, but who to? The role of chatbots in digital transformation
Summary
The volume of helpful and/or important information, from third-party applications and services, to industry and government edicts, as well as changing organisational policies and procedures, is high, varied and rapidly evolving. Innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) continues to drive the chatbot space, and there has been a lot of attention focused on the external user experience, such as gathering leads and coping with customer service demands. While chatbot and machine-learning innovation and investment continues apace to build empathy and engagement, with companies such as Mindmeld, Nuance, Ubisend, Next IT and many others taking part, wouldn’t some of the perhaps mundane aspects of intelligent data ingestion would be really useful too? If this can help direct users to useful existing, but hard to discover, insights to self-solve internal information issues and smooth cultural transitions, it might aid the shift to new ways of working without significantly affecting the hard-pressed and otherwise fully engaged IT team. It might not be the glitzy sales-boosting side of exploiting new AI and ML technology, but there is nothing wrong with finding ways to reduce internal friction and frustration, and it may ultimately prove more beneficial to the long-term health of any digitally transforming organisation.