Websites and services that will speak and converse with you is the promise offered by a significant new offering from Advanced Chatbot Solutions launched today.
Chatbots are computer programmes designed to have plain language conversations with users – removing the need for special commands or codes. Advanced Chatbot Solutions can provide chatbots with moving faces and high quality speech to create a whole new way for customers to interact with sites on the world-wide web. In the USA, where such chatbots have already been deployed, web site owners are already reporting traffic increases of up to 200% and sales increases of up to 30%. There is also a significant increase in customer trust as a result of the more emotional bond created between user and website avatar.
Advanced Chatbot Solutions has been set-up by Birmingham based Daden Limited to exploit emerging chatbot and speech technology. Chatbots on offer range from simple page and FAQ guides, which provide a commentary rather than engage in full conversation, to a bot which can get live news and weather reports, conduct user surveys, and even send emails and SMS messages.
Daden Limited's Managing Director David Burden said, “Whilst chatbot technology has been around for some time, it is only now with widespread broadband availability that we can deliver users a rich and rewarding chatbot experience. Our strength comes from taking good avatar technology and combining it with a very flexible application which can conduct business tasks and interface with a wide variety of information and data sources. We believe that chatbots will prove an ideal way for consumer websites to improve customer engagement – particularly with youth audiences.”
Quite apart from opportunities in the conventional B2C market, the technology also has considerable potential for e-learning applications and elsewhere. David adds “The voice aspect of the chatbots could provide a real boon for users with a sight impairment. The conversational and friendly style can also dramatically simplify web access for those with learning disabilities. We are already talking to major players in the charity sector to work out how we can use chatbots to help bridge the digital divide.”
Advanced Chatbot Solutions have linked USA based Oddcast Inc's avatar technology, with their own unique conversation, intelligence and interface software. This enables the chatbot to have a rich conversation with a user, whilst also being able to interface with existing web site content, web services, and even web accessible databases to answer user questions.
Looking to the future, David adds “Even we wouldn't claim that today's chatbots are capable of passing the Turing Test – the classical measure of artificial intelligence. However we do think that that is only a few years away. We are also working on speech input for our chatbots to complement their speech output – so having a spoken conversation with your computer could be a lot closer than you think!”
end -
Note for Editors
1. Advanced Chatbot Solutions is a new technology venture and operating division of Daden Limited. It is committed to bringing advanced chatbot and voice technology to market in the UK. See www.chatbots.co.uk.
2. Daden Limited is a small privately owned UK company with a focus on marketing, strategy and advanced technology. Daden is based in Birmingham UK. See www.daden.co.uk
3. The Turing Test is a major focus in Artificial Intelligence research. First proposed by British Scientist Alan Turing in 1950, it tests to see whether a human can tell the difference between having a typed conversation with another human, and having one with a machine. Whilst views of what actually constitutes artificial intelligence have long moved on beyond the confines of the Turing Test, it remains a key litmus test by which to judge the chatbot elements of artificial intelligence research. See http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/scrapbook/test.html.
4. Avatar is a generic term for a visual representation of a user or computer programme within a virtual environment.
Contact Details
All media enquiries should be addressed to:
David Burden
Daden Limited
103 Oxford Rd
Moseley
Birmingham
B13 9SG
Tel: 0121 247 3628
Email: media at daden.co.uk
Photos
Photos are attached. Alternative photos are available from the above address.
