The document discusses the growing use and capabilities of chatbots and virtual assistants. It notes that chatbots are becoming a key access channel for customer service, with Gartner predicting 25% of customer service will be via bots by 2020. The document then draws parallels to the rise of websites in the 1990s, and how chatbot development skills are becoming more widespread. It emphasizes that chatbots should be designed with user needs and expectations in mind. The remainder discusses tools for developing more advanced chatbots with capabilities like disambiguation, digressions, and integrating images and backend data.

1. Outcome Oriented
Chatbots
XXXXX
by
David Patterson
KnowNow Information

2. Intelligent Assistants
• Chatbots and virtual assistants are proving to be much
more than just a fad - they have quickly become a key
access channel where immediacy is of value.
• Gartner predicted 25% of all customer service
interactions will be via bot by 2020.
• Salesforce says 69% of people prefer to use chatbots
for quick interactions.

3. A useful comparison
• When the internet rose to prominence in the mid 90’s
most companies wanted a website.
• Over time, the skills to build a website became more
prevalent. Eventually, anyone could build one.
• Quickly it became obvious that the key skill was how
to communicate. Not so easy to get right.

4. History repeating…
• Intelligent Assistant technology is improving.
• The key IT providers are on board, Google, IBM,
Microsoft.
• The software development skills required to build a
simple bot are much reduced.

5. History repeating…
• Intelligent Assistant technology is improving.
• The key IT providers are on board, Google, IBM,
Microsoft.
• The software development skills required to build a
simple bot are much reduced.

6. “The key is to design your assistants with your
users in mind. How do they expect to
communicate and what do they need to
achieve? ”

7. User Expectations
• Resolve my query
• Understand me
• Be relevant to my questions
• Show me images
• Don’t repeat yourself
• Clarify my meaning if
necessary

8. Expect more
• A chatbot doesn’t just replicate a FAQ document
• A chatbot should interface with back end where
necessary to provide immediate answers
• Combine different bots or skills into a single assistant
• Users should feel comfortable. No ‘uncanny valley’.

9. Our Development Ecosystem
Development Tools
Developers
3rd Party Tools
Deployment
Conversation Director
KnowNow InformationIBM Skore
Watson Assistant Google Assistant
VerticlyTectonic
UK/GreeceUK/Philippines
KnowNow
UK
EscalateAI
Automated Human Handover
EnvolveIT
Predict marketing opportunities
THCO Your IT TeamLocal Government systems
KnowNow

10. The Conversation Director
• Establish a common language and
capture user interaction
• Evaluate how machine interaction
will differ from human to human
• Generate insight and design a
project to deliver end to end
capability
• Work with partner ecosystem to
deliver the required bot. Embed
and optimise.
• 1 day workshop, 1 week
turnaround with business process
capture and project plan- £5,000
plus VAT and travel.

11. Directing Conversation
• Preselected options
represented as buttons
• Used to enable the user to
make a decision or to confirm
understanding
• Can be simple yes/no or
totally user-definable

12. Adding images
• Integration of images as your
response to the user
• Use an image to quickly
convey meaning to your user
• You can demonstrate areas of
the screen you want the user
to read or click
• Use gifs to give your bot
personality

13. Disambiguation
• Your assistant might be confident that two or more
dialog modes match the user’s goal but needs help
deciding which one to follow.
• Disambiguation allows your assistant to ask your user
for clarification by listing the purpose of each node
and asking the user to select the right one.
• You can select the text you want the assistant to say
to your user.

14. DIGRESSIONS
• Sometimes the user will start another line of enquiry
while the bot is within a specific intent’s dialog
• Digressions enable the bot to leave one dialog to
answer the new question/intent
• You can return to the initial dialog if appropriate

15. Getting Started
• Map out your existing customer processes
• Find the gaps and opportunities
• Set realistic goals
• Define your purpose!

16. David Patterson
Conversation Director
KnowNow Information
david.patterson@kn-i.com
07738 310999