Conversational AI

Conversational AI projects must start with the use case

Before looking at which technology to use, the first step should always be to understand the customer and business requirements. This involves researching and understanding the project goals and desired outcomes, internal stakeholder needs and requirements, and customer/end-user needs and expectations.

These insights are often not readily available, but can be obtained through internal & external stakeholder requirement sessions, and/or customer research, such as:

• Online customer surveys
• In-depth interviews
• Analysis of existing customer data
• Focus groups with user segments
• Customer journey mapping & analysis

Customer intents and decision flows must be mapped to provide the conversational logic

A conversational interface requires the application of human principles to machines, allowing the customer to engage in an informational conversation that replicates a human-to-human interaction.

To ensure this is the case, it is necessary to map out the decision flows, based on the intents that the customer is likely to come to the bot with. This involves mapping the conversational architecture for each key intent in a logical schematic workflow.

The dialogue must be strategically crafted to suit conversational interfaces

Conversation-friendly content is very different from traditional web content. Content delivered through conversational AI interfaces must consist of short, individual utterances that replicate a human interaction.

Chat-based platforms offer limited screen real-estate, meaning that content must be short, engaging, and effectively facilitate the conversation. Designing content for audio conversational platforms requires further special consideration, as with audio there is no physical interface.

Building out the conversational content for your automated chatbot or assistant is a critical step before building and launching the customer-facing interface.

Select the technology solution that best matches your requirements

Once the logic and dialogue are adequately scoped out, you can then select the best conversational AI platform that will enable the functionalities that your business requires, to deliver an exceptional customer experience.

There are many technology solutions available and being tied to a single platform may limit the capabilities and experience you’re able to provide customers. Matching the tech to the use-case always leads to the best results.