New chatbot aiaibot is hitting the scene, and smart chatbots are no longer reserved for big tech

Swiss startup aiaibot has launched a cross-platform, AI-based chatbot and robot which could revolutionize the way companies do sales and customer support. Their bot uses AI, ML and NLP capabilities which were once reserved for academia researchers and companies such as Amazon and Google. Once again, lab-developed novelties in tech find mass appeal.

Do you remember AskJeeves? The loveable avatar who answered your burning questions online was once the internet’s most advanced bot. But those of us who associate chatbots with the case-specific, rigid chat platforms of the early 2000’s are in for a big surprise; in the past decade, virtual conversation agents got a lot smarter. AI-based chatbots, like Swiss startup aiaibot, can have intelligent conversations, answer complex questions, recognize voice and text even when containing pronunciation, spelling or grammar mistakes and connect to databases to retrieve, or even edit, data.

In the process, they also help reduce operational costs by 30%, shorten waiting times and assist clients outside of normal work hours.

According to surveys, only 50% of respondents in the UK and the US would turn to a chatbot for customer support – they simply prefer a real-life assistant. Even out of those respondents who have used a chatbot, over 60% reported that the chatbot was unable to help and they eventually had to wait for a human representative.

These numbers, however, are grossly misleading. Over 75% of respondents who showed a negative attitude towards chatbots were over the age of 45; Gen Z and Millennials are 4-5 times more likely to talk to a chatbot than older clients. In other words, the skepticism is generational.

And It’s not just the consumer that’s changing – aiaibot’s AI accuracy level is around 80%, making it far smarter than our old friend Jeeves. This means that interacting with an aiaibot agent feels almost like speaking to a human being.
How is this possible? In recent years, complex algorithms and technologies have trickled down from the computer science labs in research institutions and universities to the commercial world.

In the health industry, AI now helps detect cancer with 98% accuracy, speed up and improve the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer and even identify COVID-19 in a CT scan. In many other industries, and especially in support and sales, the possibilities for using AI commercially seem endless.

The same is true for many other technologies which used to be reserved for scientists and are now available to all of us. Take the GPS for example. Known as ‘Global Positioning System’, it was developed in the Pentagon in the 70’s and 80’s, until the technology became available to civilians in the year 2000.

Waze, the navigation app acquired by Google for $1 billion in 2013, is a direct result of this commercialization process. It was launched in 2006 after one of the company’s co-founders received a GPS system from a friend. He wanted to create an app that would allow people to share information about speed cameras.

Today, none of us can remember a time when driving to an unknown location required physical maps, but when the company was looking for funding in 2008, most investors did not even have a GPS and smartphones did not exist.

“We had an important meeting with potential investors. We did some intelligence work and found out where they each live. We made sure all their houses were on the Waze map. At the start of the meeting, one of the investors inevitably asked, ‘are you trying to tell me that I will find my house on your map?’ Of course, I said, and innocently asked, ‘Where do you live?’ His house popped up on the map, his eyes widened and I could see dollar signs in them,” said Uri Levine, Waze cofounder, in 2013.

Eventually, every tech finds its commercial, public uses through startups, tech companies and entrepreneurs. It is simply a matter of timing. Many of us may have negative preconceptions of chatbots because of issues with past generations, but sophisticated algorithms now allow for chatbots to look and feel just like speaking to a human and actually help clients who want to make a complaint or a purchase, pay a bill, inquire about existing orders or ask questions about return policies and shipping and more.

aiaibot’s chatbot and robot (based on AI, as their name suggests) were developed in collaboration with universities and companies, to see how advanced algorithms can be used for a product which is easy to implement and use, has a good cost-benefit ratio and offers powerful features. It will certainly play a big part of our future; By 2022, 80% of enterprises are expected to use chatbots. Chances are, you’ll be talking to an aiaibot chatbot or robot sooner than you think.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes