Chatbots.org Business News

Lenovo leverages noHold technology as a way for consumers to find the most relevant answers they need in one place; Single Point of Search.

Top companies in the security software industry are leveraging Virtual Assistants to help protect users from various scams, while diverting thousands of customers away from the call center. 

The wide spread adoption of mobile, social, and E-commerce has businesses and consumers more worried than ever about cybersecurity and privacy. Major security breaches have caused distrust (Sony, Target, JP Morgan Chase), and Internet scams remain an easy way to steal account data and personal information (IRS impostors, social media scams, email viruses). Every year, cyber-attacks are increasing in volume, financial loss, and sophistication. Gartner sees an upward trend, estimating that the “global cybersecurity market will grow from $67 billion in 2013 to $93 billion in 2017” (TechCrunch).

Intelligent virtual assistant acts as the primary interface between digital data and customers. This software agent performs tasks based on the input provided and by accessing the information online on various sources. Intelligent virtual assistant technology incorporates the combination of a user interface, mobile device and mobile application. The ability to organize and maintain information is one of the key characteristic of intelligent virtual assistant. At present, most websites place burden on end users to find answers to their queries. If end users are not able to find relevant information, they usually abandon the search and contact live customer service representatives. Companies need cost effective ways to effectively and efficiently respond to customer needs. Hence, most companies are turning to interactive online channels such as intelligent virtual assistants and web chats.

Key factors driving the global intelligent virtual assistant market include increasing adoption in large enterprises in order to replace traditional methods of customer engagement and innovation in the field of speech recognition technology in smartphones. Further, small and medium enterprises are anticipated to embrace intelligent virtual assistants since the cost of these software is anticipated to reduce on account of increasing competition. Moreover, with rising popularity of speech recognition applications in smartphones, the intelligent virtual assistant market is expected to witness significantly high growth in the near future. Furthermore, expanding applications of intelligent virtual assistants across end-use sectors such as healthcare, e-commerce and banking offer potential opportunities for growth in near future. This is evident from the research and development activities carried out by key players such as Nuance Communication Corp. and Next IT Corp. among others.

Google and Microsoft offer digital assistants on smartphones, called Google Now and Cortana, respectively, which have deep knowledge of their users’ habits and schedules. Amazon sells a stand-alone device Alexa that, among other things, plays music, reads books aloud and can help buy items through Amazon. On September 8 Baidu, a Chinese internet giant, announced its own digital agent, Duer. And recently Facebook announced that a concierge service, called M, would be available through its messaging app.

According to research firm Gartner, about 38 per cent of American consumers have used virtual-assistant services on their smartphones recently; by the end of 2016 an estimated two-thirds of consumers in developed markets will use them daily.

HCL will be attending the SAP for Utility conference in Huntington Beach, CA. At the conference they will be introducing their new customer engagement platform, including a demo of noHold’s Virtual Assistant technology that integrates directly with HCL and SAP’s platform.

noHold announced the release of a new feature that will transform the way humans interact with AI, it is called Flexible Procedure Guidance. This cutting-edge technology expands on the Virtual Assistants ability to simply guide users through a set of static procedures. It takes self-service a step further by intelligently understanding what information is given by end users, providing flexibility to where the conversation begins.

noHold created a new connector that integrates with Lithium Communities to simplify the customer support experience. With a similar goal to optimize efficiency for end users to find support solutions, the connector uses noHold’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Lithium’s search to find answers in the discussion boards hosted within a Lithium Community, and returns the results within the noHold Virtual Assistant window. Through the open API connector, companies can leverage a Virtual Assistant that also works in parallel with multiple knowledge sources such as Lithium, Google, Bing, Salesforce, and more; all from one place, Single Point of Search.

Those who’ve followed this website during the past years, will acknowledge this is a great break through in the advancement of AI conversation technology in our homes: Amazon introduces Echo, a home devices with a build in chatbot named Alexa, responding to your voice and taking all kinds of commands. User can ask for weather reports, set alarms, create to-do lists, and have it play music all via voice command. Alexa can also be used to shop at Amazon. And Alexa is funny!

Amazon’s voice-controlled speaker “Echo” is now available to anyone, and it can be bought for $180. Shipping will begin on July 14.

Within the past 12 months, noHold Virtual Assistants have handled over 25 million conversations. During these interactions with the Virtual Assistant, actionable metrics were captured regarding end user behavior. noHold was able to turn these metrics into valuable insight not only for the support organization, but also for product marketing, engineering, sales, and more.

The Teneo digital employee will initially be available on Staatsloterij’s website, answering customers’ questions about the products and services available, in addition to helping people with the process of buying tickets and claiming their winnings.