Making data discovery more personal

“By 2020, the average person will have more conversations with bots than with their spouse.” – Gartner.

As soon as you pass by a store window it chimes “new arrivals!” or your mobile assistant reminds you to read a report because it’s urgent. Within the realm of virtual reality all these doesn’t seem very farfetched.  Connected things and virtual reality are realities now. IoT is making processes seamless every day.  Things are connecting us to more things and places at one time than we could ever think. It’s getting necessary to interact with ‘things’ as well as people. Take the example of customer support, no need to get irritated because all the customer care lines are busy, there are chatbots at your service. Ask them your query and get an answer in seconds. With big data analytics combining information from all sources of data and finding the right insights, more businesses are employing chatbots  as a channel to effectively get to that data as quickly and directly as possible.

Business to Customer

From predicting our texts to ordering coffee, digital assistants are everywhere. Many businesses are exploiting the virtual assistant trends to understand and serve their customers better. Take the example of Amazon’s Alexa. Alexa, enables you to customize and order coffee from Starbucks, you just have to give a voice order saying “Alexa, tell Starbucks it’s coffee time”. It would have saved your preferences beforehand and will apply them while placing the order for you. It can also call an Uber for you, tell you a joke and read books (e-books). This way amazon is becoming a brand you use for your everyday activities.

Conversational systems or chatbots with the help of big data analytics can collect information about a customer from different channels (i.e. mobile app, web page) and help recommend products based on the data. Based on customer interactions, these systems can answer queries and resolve issues faster. For example if a customer asks frequently about the product delivery schedule or has asked for delivery scheduling assistance before, the chatbot will be ready to help the customer in the future with similar queries and will be ready with a set of  frequently asked questions.

Customer service is an area where interactive technology is exponentially gaining importance. It is easier to personalize help in the form of chatbots answering specific customer queries like delivery time, customization, availability etc.  Conversational systems provide a designated agent and personalized service for each customer with ease.

Business to business

Imagine the simplicity of process if only you could ask your handheld device about the competitor’s product performance just as you order coffee. With smart data discovery and natural language processing, you can. Tell your virtual assistant to arrange meetings, display sales figures or even ask about the issue affecting customer satisfaction. The big data enabled smart system will generate required data and answer your queries. No need to wait for hours, this is simple and a direct way to get the information right when you want it.

Using a smart data solution with natural voice processing, you can ask specific questions like percentage of chances of a business scenario to work, or to change. It may also answer questions like efficiency of a particular product or service at any given point of time. With the help of big data analytics the required data to answer a specific question will be dug out from accumulated data from across channels. With the help of smart data discovery and big data analytics it is now possible to find answers at any point of time from any device (i.e. mobile, computer, tablet). By combining feedback from various channels, the system gives faster response facilitating quicker action plans and implementation.

China developed Baidu browser that has a digital personal assistant helping people maintain business relationships.

Bots have made life easy for both tech savvy and non-techie people. It allows you to use handheld devices in crowded paces, no need to hold onto your device or press small keys to give instructions. They are easy to make with big data skill sets and easy to deploy, this saves the cost of creating whole environments to test a theory. IM (Interactive Marketing) with the help of AI and virtual reality is becoming a part of our daily lives. We are getting undivided attention from machines more than humans. Big data has become more easily approachable with a friendly chatbot by its side working as a mediator.

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