AI chatbots are used more and more to expand the reach and efficiency of customer and company relationships. AI chatbots, simply put, are software programs that imitate human conversation. AI chatbots are used in various mediums and by many companies. You can order a pizza through a restaurant chatbot or send in a customer service complaint via chatbot. There are incredibly useful, since they can be accessed and utilized at all hours of the day.
AI chatbots can have a frustrating side though—they are not human. They try and imitate human conversation, but they are a software program. In fact, chatbot programs failed to successfully fulfill 70 percent of user requests. That means that seven out of ten people who tried to communicate with company via chatbot, left the conversation without getting what they wanted, and likely left feeling very frustrated.
Facebook is encouraging those who utilize chatbots through social media to simplify the chatbot efforts to converse with users. Or rather, Facebook is telling people to make their chatbots less chatty. People who interact with chatbots are usually looking to quickly receive an answer or order a service. Since one of the advantages of chatbots are increased efficiency, people want to save time and effort—they are using a chatbot rather than calling someone. So if they come to the chatbot looking for a quicker and effortless response and end up getting messages that are not helping, users are going to get frustrated quickly, even to the point of avoiding chatbots. That is why Facebook is encouraging chatbot developers and users to scale back on the conversational aspect of the chatbots and provide more interactive menus for users to get to what they want more quickly.
Facebook itself is updating the chatbot feature options. Facebook is leaning away from the free-ranging chatbot, one who converses freely with users, to a more practical chatbot, one that quickly gets the users what they are looking for, whether it is an answer to a question, to receive customer service, or to buy a product or service. Companies should take advantage of Facebook’s findings and scale back to simply the chatbot conversation options and provide users with a more useful chatbot interface.
Companies who are currently utilizing chatbots should not be discouraged by Facebook findings of failed user and chatbot experiences. Chatbots are in the initial stage of launching. A recent Yahoo news article notes that only four percent of digital business professionals use chatbots. So while chatbots are still a work in process, their use will continue to grow as they are programmed more effectively.
