Evolution Of Conversational Platforms

Overview:

In recent months, few readers have been able to avoid interaction with conversational platforms. At home, we have watched Alexa giving an applause in TV adverts, we have used Siri to find a playlist or, perhaps received the latest Smart Speaker as a birthday gift.

- Anil Nileshwar

The workspace has been no different. The excitement is palpable – for the first time since computers became personal, we are adopting a newer and more natural way of interacting with machines, using speech instead of keyboards. In the coming months, conversational platforms will be all likelihood, be at the centre of the transition in our business landscape.

What is happening?

In the last few years, advances in NLP and AI along with availability of excellent software libraries such as NLTK and spaCy have enabled compelling use cases for conversational platforms. The more promising use cases relate to enhancing productivity and experience for employees and customers. For example, employees can now log their leave using chatbots, customers can interact with virtual assistants to resolve issues quickly or the sales force can review their dashboard with just voice commands. The focus of these efforts has generally been a limited one - to automate processes or reduce costs, although to be fair, many of these are still at an early stage in their service lifecycle.