04 April What is an Intelligent Virtual Agent?
Designed in several forms: chatbot, voicebot , callbot, etc., the intelligent virtual agent finds itself at the crossroads of process automation within organizations that use it as a fundamental instrument for their omnichannel communication strategy.
An Intelligent Virtual Agent (AVI) is actually one of the breakthrough tools that most businesses are using today to improve customer satisfaction and increase profitability.
However, it is not uncommon to still hear many people asking themselves the question: what is an intelligent virtual agent and what is it used for?
We give you all the explanations on AVI.
What does the term Intelligent Virtual Agent mean?
An intelligent virtual agent is a program that combines animation and artificial intelligence in order to respond to the concerns of Internet users.
In other words, it is a contact center whose objective is to chat with the customers for all the problems relating to a product or a service of the company.
In reality, the intelligent virtual agent is a robot that works like an employee of a company, acting as an automated customer service.
It should not be confused with the term virtual assistant.
What nuance between Intelligent Virtual Agent (AVI) and virtual assistant?
In the world of bots, it is common to find that the terminologies "virtual agent" and "virtual assistant" are used interchangeably.
However, although these two terms refer to identical concepts, there are a few subtle nuances that are important to be aware of.
When we speak of a virtual assistant, we refer to programs and systems that rely on the Internet to carry out research on behalf of their user.
For example, you can ask a virtual assistant to tell you what time it is, to inform you of the weather forecast for the day, etc.
Other more advanced techniques such as home automation use virtual assistants to automate certain tasks within homes and buildings.
Thanks to the virtual assistant, the user can control the lighting of his house, the alarm system, the opening/closing of his roller shutters, etc.
On the other hand, when we talk about a virtual agent, it is much more about the integration of artificial intelligence into the organizational functioning of the company with the aim of making life easier for customers.
A virtual agent answers questions, provides information, assists the consumer with transactions, etc.
What are the predominant sectors of use of Intelligent Virtual Agents?
Having the essential role of helping and supporting users to quickly obtain the necessary information they need in real time, the use of voicebots is popular with a multitude of companies operating in several sectors of activity.
What is the interest of a voicebot in the field of e-commerce?
Very often, you will encounter different types of AVI (Audiovisual Information) when you connect to the e -commerce sector . In fact, to order from an online store, consumers need a range of information that can help them make an appropriate choice.
These questions concern, among other things: the types of products available in the online store, the prices applied, the delivery times, the items that are covered by promotional offers, the means of payment accepted by the platform, etc.
This series of repetitive questions comes up every time a new customer connects to the platform.
This is where the voicebot comes in which, having a database provided for all these types of questions, manages to inform consumers dynamically.
Another use of voicebots in the e-commerce sector is to connect businesses with each other (in the case of Business to Business marketing ) in order to establish business relationships with professionals from other fields.
For example, a company specializing in the sale of construction materials can integrate a voicebot into its website in order to connect several construction industry players with each other for a commercial partnership (architect, painter, interior designer, insulation, etc).
What is the interest of a voicebot for travel companies?
There are a multitude of examples of voicebots adopted by companies operating in the transport sector that have online booking sites, travel platforms, etc.
Many tourist site developers are also starting to take advantage of AVIs.
The need to have recourse to an AVI in this sector is multiple. First of all, the conversational robot is an excellent channel for travel companies to offer different destinations to their customers without sending them to catalogs or to other platforms where they will have to compare several elements (price of the trip, destination , proposed offers, etc.).
The voicebot summarizes all this information that it provides to the customer in order to help him decide.
Another essential criterion that gives importance to the use of AVI in the field of travel is the possibility for the voicebot to propose a personalized offer to the Internet user according to specific criteria.
Indeed, travel sites integrate automatic simulators into their voicebots, which allows the robot to satisfy each customer in a specific way as soon as the latter provides a series of information preselected by the robot.
What is the technical mode of operation of an Intelligent Virtual Agent?
Three (3) major principles enable AVIs to establish fluid communication with their users: natural language transformation, comprehension and generation.
How does AVI natural language transformation work?
At this stage, the voicebot or chatbot proceeds to understand the language used by the Internet user.
With this in mind, during the conversation with the user, the algorithms of the intelligent virtual agent decipher the syntactic constructions of the Internet user: the words used, the sentences, etc.
When the AVI detects grammatical or spelling errors, it corrects them while trying to link the sentence (or the user's query) to an adequate answer in relation to its database.
Some more sophisticated bots try to sense the user's emotions at this level.
How does AVI natural language understanding work?
After the natural language transformation, the intelligent virtual agent initiates the phase of understanding the user's request.
At this stage, the objective of the bot is to identify the user's intention and understand the entirety of his request. To achieve this, once again, the AVI relies on its algorithms (statistics, probabilities, neural networks, etc.).
How does AVI natural language generation work?
In this last phase, the robot schedules all the information collected and assigns the corresponding response to it.
Thanks to its algorithms, the construction of words is done in such a way as to render a response similar to what a human agent would provide.
Some more complex bots can pick up on the user's emotion and respond with a tone that matches it.
What are the functions of an Intelligent Virtual Agent?
Although it is possible to use an AVI in almost all fields of activity, it must be recognized that the operation of a voicebot differs according to the level of complexity.
What are the basic functions of an intelligent virtual agent?
Generally, the most widespread functions of AVIs are to respond to the concerns of Internet users by gradually guiding them through a grid of questions.
If, for example, a customer wishes to obtain information on his account, he can get help from the AVI.
Most AVIs also have the necessary features to help users make changes to their account (password, username, profile, etc.).
In certain sectors such as online sales, services, travel etc., intelligent virtual agents are designed to make recommendations to customers in relation to certain offers offered by the company.
In this context, the AVI is used as a real marketing tool capable of converting prospects into customers and inciting consumers to action.
What are the advanced functions of an intelligent virtual agent?
In certain sectors of activity, AVIs constitute veritable statistical tools which make it possible to have a bank of information relating to consumer habits, sales opportunities, customer segmentation, etc.
Thanks to the chatbot or the voicebot, the company can draw up a weekly report of its turnover and put in place strategies to increase its income.
What are the benefits of an Intelligent Virtual Agent?
The adoption of a chatbot and its online integration provides many advantages for companies that have made this choice.
A permanent availability of the AVI
The advantage of chatbots over human customer service is that the AVI is available anytime, anywhere.
It operates 24 hours a day, 24 days a week including public holidays, weekends when the human staff is often at rest and regardless of the traffic of the requests received.
This permanent availability allows the company to be in contact with its customers at all times, wherever they are.
An economy for businesses
The deployment of an intelligent virtual agent allows the company to realize savings by reducing the cost of additional personnel.
In addition, if a continuous presence is required to solve customer problems, the company will have to employ several agents who take turns 24 hours a day in order to allow the continuity of the service provided.
However, with the adoption of a conversational robot, the staff can be assigned to other more important tasks, which constitutes a considerable financial gain for the company.
Better learning ability
Compared to human intervention, the probability is rare that an intelligent virtual agent makes many errors (especially when it has understood the user's request).
Indeed, the system is planned in such a way as to identify any error or malfunction reported by the customer and to respond to it in a certain way.
Also, some very advanced bots are designed to continuously improve based on solutions to user problems.
This adaptability increases the performance of the intelligent virtual agent, which improves customer satisfaction.
What are the limits of an Intelligent Virtual Agent?
There are not only good points related to chatbots. Some limitations can be noted in their operation.
What are the disadvantages of query processing?
A conversational robot is above all a program equipped with a database and which interacts with the Internet user according to the information stored in this knowledge base.
It is not uncommon for the bot to be unable to respond accurately to certain requests based on its reduced field of knowledge.
Moreover, faced with certain questions that are not in its database, the chatbot will not be able to provide an adequate answer to the user.
To solve this problem, most chatbots have a feature that allows the conversation to be escalated to a human agent or an expert advisor who takes care of the customer by providing all the additional details in relation to the previous answers provided. by the robot.
What are the disadvantages compared to the dialogue field?
Even when most AVIs are equipped with a semantic dictionary that allows them to express themselves in the technical language of the sector of activity in which they are deployed, it is important to point out that their level of improvisation is limited.
Some constructions in the answers reveal a lack of intuition of the AVI as well as the absence of certain human qualities (understanding, empathy, etc.).
To fill this gap, some bots collect customer information to personalize communication.
It is common to see, for example, a voicebot call the name of its user, or use time indicators (night, day, sunny weather, etc.) in its communication with the user.
How can Vocabase help you choose the best Intelligent Virtual Agent?
Adopting an intelligent virtual agent raises several questions for companies that manifest this desire: what is the best intelligent virtual agent?
How to deploy an AVI that meets the needs of the company? Where can you find a publisher that offers good value for money?
Vocabase helps you easily address all these concerns by providing experienced professionals in AVI deployment.
By opting for the Vocabase solution , you have the opportunity to enjoy several advantages: implementation of voicebots or chatbots capable of adapting to multiple channels, improvement of your customer service through the integration of high-performance AVIs, etc.
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