Intelligent Assistants Becoming Mainstream


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It was great to attend Opus Research’s first Intelligent Assistants Conference in London last week, with the event clearly signifying the growing importance of intelligent assistants in supporting self-service.

The event particularly showcased how conversational user interfaces are now starting to leverage a mix of technologies, including interactive voice response, natural language processing, knowledge management, speech analytics, machine learning and AI. Perhaps, even more importantly, the event also provided an opportunity for attendees to think about how these technologies need to come together to deliver value in terms of real-time customer care.

It was also interesting to learn more from Opus Research Lead Analyst & Founder Dan Miller about the broader Intelligence Assistance Landscape. This illustrates how conversational technologies and intelligent assistance technologies are combining with a broad range of mobile, personal, virtual agent, customer assistant and employee assistant solutions to create a more coherent proposition. Interestingly, it’s the technologies such as speech analytics, natural language processing and knowledge management disciplines where Sabio already brings acknowledged solutions expertise that can provide effective entry points in the world of intelligent assistants.

There’s a danger when discussions turn to topics such as AI chatbots, virtual agents and machine learning that people assume that we’re talking about technologies that are still some way off. That’s definitely not the case. Indeed, Shell’s Technology Manager reported at the conference that around 15% of Fortune 500 organisations were already using some form of virtual assistant technology.

It was also good to hear how businesses are already putting intelligent assistant technology to work. Martin Kedback, who’s responsible for the Nuance Nina Web deployment at Swedish bank Swedbank, is already seeing an average 30,000 conversations via Nina in its first three months as well as a 78% first contact resolution. Nina is also being used to support contact centre agents directly as a training tool. Martin also talked about how technologies such as Nina Web are allowing Swedbank to differentiate – particularly against more disruptive market entrants. His view was that the best way to fight back was to out-disrupt the disruptors!

The results already achieved by organisations such as Swedbank are clearly encouraging, and they also confirm how important it is for businesses to take control of their Digital Front Doors. It’s only by capturing what people are actually asking and talking about that you can gather real insight and start driving better customer experiences.

Author: Guest Author

Published On: 5th May 2016 - Last modified: 6th Feb 2019
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