Bots. Table of Contents

Transcription

1 Bots 101 Table of Contents What is a bot? How are bots different than apps?... 2 What makes a bot intelligent?... 3 How do I engage with a bot? How can bots help my business? Bot benefits Bots vs. mobile apps Reports... 7 Direct actions Alerts... 9 Flows... 9 Bot security and compliance

2 Bot Basics What is a bot? A bot, or sometimes called a chatbot is basically a computer program that s designed to talk to you and collect information from your conversation. Depending on how it's developed or how intelligently it s been built, a bot can use that information to do things for you, such as book you a flight, suggest personalized offers or promotions, and trigger alerts that you can immediately respond to, based on how you d like the bot to help. And for businesses, similarly, bots can activate any number of tasks - ranging from routine to complex - or workflows across people, channel partners, applications, and systems. It helps to imagine bots as the messengers of actionable data from business critical systems in real time. How are bots different than apps? Apps are great. They ve changed our lives in so many ways. But apps, for the most part, are not communicative, and they re not intelligent. Bots essentially give apps a brain and a voice. The purpose of the app you re using doesn t necessarily change, but the way you interact with it does. Additionally, for enterprises, adding new cloud-based applications increases cost, application management cycles, data security 2

3 threats and vendor management challenges. Developing mobile apps only simplifies a user s experience with one app. Mobile apps also can t reduce the application overload issue for employees. More applications whether cloud or mobile ultimately create more difficulty with employee onboarding, support, and daily productivity. Bots present a huge opportunity for businesses, retailers, healthcare organizations, financial institutions, and basically any company to make their current technologies smarter and more useful. Instead of powering an app at the touch of a button, you can now ask it a question, give it a command, and create a real dialogue that helps you get what you need faster. A bot is not a mobile app for a few reasons: The difference between bots and mobile apps is not only time to value and cost, but also the true change that bots can bring to the way your employees, customers, and systems communicate with each other. Mobile apps are downloadable and installed, so they use resources from your OS. What they don t necessarily do is change the interaction with your backend systems, but they do let you access the information you want from different devices. Bots on the other hand, are something you talk to. They are the endpoint that makes calls to application APIs and the Natural Language Processing (NLP) engine while having a conversation with the end user. What makes a bot intelligent? Bots have the power to multi-task and process complex requests via the confluence of a few different components. Kore.ai s platform specifically leverages a three pronged approach which can be broken down into input, understanding, and memory. Artificial intelligence continues to get better, which means bots are also getting smarter. Remember when you could easily stump Siri? Or when you first found she out couldn t really do much? Those days are numbered 3

4 Auto Natural Language Processing - This is the input component, it s as intuitive as it sounds. It means that with Kore.ai s award winning NLP engine, bots can communicate with a user via speech and text using natural language like what s the weather? instead of programming language. NLP allows the bot to process semantics, syntax, and grammar from a user s request and turn it into an action or alert. Machine Learning and Fundamental Meaning - This is the understanding component and the process by which computer systems can learn without being explicitly programmed. We add fundamental meaning to our machine learning approach for a consistent UX, and better understanding of what users want. For example, you name your intent using a command like show lead and our NLP engine automatically understands the action, and the synonyms of the verb like display, tell, get, etc. It handles all the obvious synonyms (and even non-obvious ones). Here are a couple more things you ll want your bot to be able to do with regard to intelligence: Bots must carry the history of a conversation with them across channels, enabling users to start a conversation in one place and continue it in another. They should carry a living record of the conversation history with them, allowing a person or an organization to search through past dialogs just like they would look through s or other communication interactions between humans. This enables bots to presuppose actions or alerts based on a user s past context and actions These higher-value bots leverage greater machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities. Our ML approach also helps trim extra words from requests. If a user inputs, please display to me my leads, a Kore.ai bot will process it as show lead. This results in a bot that learns faster, avoids confusion, and interprets input correctly to take action immediately. Artificial Intelligence - AI really comes down to two questions: What does the bot understand and what does it remember? We explained how our bots comprehend input, but once they receive the data they can use it to recognize patterns and contextualize it either in the short term or long term to take more valuable action for the user. For instance, if you pay your bill on the 5th of every month, a bot can remember it and alert you to pay your bill at that time. 4

5 How do I engage with a bot? This depends on the bot vendor. Facebook bots only live in Messenger, Slack bots live in Slack. That said, if a solution like Kore.ai is used, bots are channel agnostic, meaning users can communicate with bots on a website, in SMS, , Skype, Slack, or in the channel of choice, and the enterprise can deploy bots in the channels that work best for them. Choosing channel deployment not only presents tremendous value from an experience perspective to the user, but it also presents big time monetary value to the enterprise. Companies like Message.io aren t even bot building platforms, they re simply vendors that help deploy your bot to channels like Slack, HipChat or Skype. With Kore.ai you can build your bot once, without having to build separate bots for separate channels, and without having to add an outside vendor to get omni-channel capability - which saves you money and streamlines process. To ensure information can be received and acted upon, bots must be omnipresent. They must exist across channels and devices. They should be able to live wherever a business decides to put them. Place a bot within a mobile app, on an enterprise Intranet for all employees to see, within a team social collaboration tool and more. Determine if your bots can be more than just a new UI for your enterprise applications. The most robust bots can also be the face of your customer interactions or website to engage with your customers. They can transform the experience a consumer or business has when they interact with your company. They can be the core of your internal information network and transform the experience customers have with your company. 5

6 How can bots help my business? Big enterprises, especially in industries such as s in the retail, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, travel, and hospitality spaces should seriously consider bots. Trends like digital transformation and mobile are driving customers to expect more. If they ultimately can t get the customer service they expect from you, they will go somewhere else. Bot Benefits Reduce app fatigue Solve for people having too many apps and interfaces by syncing brands and systems with communication channels they already use. Add a conversational UX The Kore.ai SDK integrates bots within your websites and apps so customers can enjoy unique, branded, assisted experiences in real time. Have optimized UX for every channel Kore.ai s Bot Builder enables developers to leverage the native UX aspects of their desired communication channels, such as structured templates in Facebook Messenger, dialogue handling in Skype and more. That means bots get even more capability as they cross channels and function in same landscape the user will expect. 6

7 Can be added to channels as easy as point, click, done Simply navigate to Kore.ai s or your enterprise s bot store, select a bot, add to a channel, authenticate, and you re done. No need to source an outside vendor for deployment. Remember history and context across channels No matter which channels you use, or where your conversation starts and ends, your bots can refer back to stored contextual data to assist you with future tasks. This results in smarter, and highly accurate responses from your bots. Bots vs. Mobile Apps Bots have several functional advantages over apps such as with: Reports Bots deliver detailed information on-demand or on a schedule, so people don t have to jump from screen-to-screen to get the information they need. On-demand: Need information? Tell your bot, and they ll deliver it instantly. On a schedule: Want that report every Monday at 9AM? No problem. 7

8 vacation! Take 8 hrs of PTO on 12/1/2016. Long-form requests: Include multiple tasks in a single message and bots will process each task individually. Guided assistance: Even when bots don t immediately recognize your request, they ll continue to ask task-related questions until they get all the required info to complete it. Machine learning: Bots perceive context and remember preferences, which simplifies and accelerates the task at hand. Sorting: Sort by highest amount or closest date. Your wish is the bot's command. Formatting: Get information formatted in easyto-read tables or cards Direct Actions Direct requests can come in several varieties, but they can always be verbalized in natural language. Asking a bot to complete a task can be as simple as, Please transfer $500 to my savings account, Show me the cars with the best safety ratings under 25K or I need a 8

9 Alerts Bots deliver content-rich notifications based on system events you define, such as bank account below $500 or PTO request submitted for approval. Scheduling: Bots send notifications according to the days, times, and frequencies users specify Filtering: Customize complex alerts by including filters like amount is greater than, text matches, date is equal to and more. Flows Bots can use details within alerts to automatically populate data fields of related tasks, thereby eliminating redundancies and accelerating processes. Cross-system workflows: Alert details can be used to automatically populate task fields in unrelated systems Enterprise workflows: Actions from one person can trigger alerts and subsequent actions for others within an enterprise Consumer workflows: Bots can use the details in transaction confirmations to purchase related goods and services easily Bot Security and Compliance A fully functional bots platform means nothing if it s not fortified. Rest easy knowing that Kore. ai follows the strictest guidelines for security and compliance regardless of industry. From personally identifiable customer information to proprietary business data, we put a premium on protection with security features such as: 9

10 Securely Connect to Cloud and On-Premise Systems The Kore.ai Connector agent unlocks your legacy systems while allowing you to maintain compliance. It runs behind your enterprise firewall and facilitates a secure data exchange between on-premise systems and Kore.ai s cloud-based infrastructure. Kore.ai Connector Features: Streamlined installation Persistent TLS Connection Automatic re-connectivity Comprehensive audit logging Scalable load-request handling X.509-based authentication Flexible access control support No firewall changes Multiple layers of authentication The Kore.ai Bots Platform provides a variety of ways to authenticate users. Build the combination that fits the needs of your enterprise and users. Single sign-on Leverage OpenID Connect, SAML, or WS- Federation to grant users access to your enterprise bot store. Custom password policies Define attributes like password length, inclusion of special characters, and password expiration policies. Integrated system authentication Leverage basic auth, oauth, or API keys for user authentication before bots can deliver alerts or take actions against integrated systems. Secure bot messaging Kore.ai leverages the maximum encryption available when transmitting bot-based data to destination deployment channels. Enterprise control - encryption keys Administrators have access to the encryption key store of domain-based bot messages. Kore. ai also allows for integration with third-party key management systems. Enterprise-grade visibility Retain, monitor, and manage bot-based messages with built-in tools for data retention, archiving/exporting, ediscovery/on-hold management, and auditing. Data retention Maintain compliance by retaining bot messages automatically. Archiving/exporting Leverage 3rd-party solutions to manage and export audit logs. ediscovery/on-hold Management Monitor suspicious activity and provide secure custodian access to bot messages. Our commitment to compliance Kore.ai is committed to providing a platform that facilitates compliance with federal regulations for HIPAA, PCI, FINRA, and others. We make it a point to regularly map Kore. ai s technical, administrative and physical safeguards against requirements to ensure strict adherence. 10