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IBM invades chatbot space

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 27 Oct 2016
Although most chatbots today don't meet customer expectations, IBM sees opportunities in the emerging technology.
Although most chatbots today don't meet customer expectations, IBM sees opportunities in the emerging technology.

IBM has invaded the emerging chatbot space with its supercomputer, Watson.

The computing company yesterday unveiled Watson Virtual Agent, a cognitive conversational technology that allows businesses to build and deploy "conversational agents".

It explains that these agents, or "bots", have emerged as businesses look to improve customer engagement, offering customers quick responses to queries and addressing potential issues in real-time.

Although a recent report by Forrester notes that most chatbots today don't meet customer expectations, IBM sees opportunities in the emerging technology.

A study by Tracxn Research shows that over $140 million has been invested in chatbots since 2010, with close to $85 million invested in 2015/2016.

Watson is an artificially intelligent computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language. The supercomputer shot to fame after it beat expert "Jeopardy" quiz show contestants in 2011, and is named after legendary IBM president Thomas Watson.

The supercomputer has traditionally been used in different industries, including healthcare, banking, contact centres and education.

IBM says Watson Virtual Agent allows users - from start-ups and small businesses to enterprise - to build and train engagement bots from the cloud, harnessing the power of cognitive technologies.

It also accelerates users' ability to deploy bots, including pre-trained cross-industry content, with minimal configuration, simplifying the process for both seasoned developers or users without formal technical training, says IBM.

Watson services, like Watson Virtual Agent and the Watson Conversation API, draw on advances in natural language processing, machine learning and deep learning, gained from IBM Research innovations and acquisitions.

These conversational capabilities join existing Watson services such as IBM Watson Tone Analyzer, Watson Speech to Text and Watson Text to Speech, offering users cognitive capabilities to build conversational agents and other solutions.

Both Watson Virtual Agent and Watson Conversation are offered as cloud-based services.

According to the latest research by Gartner, by 2020, at least 80% of new enterprise applications will make strong use of chatbots. The same research indicates that, by 2021, "conversational artificial intelligence-first" will be adopted by the majority of enterprise IT organisations as the most important new platform paradigm. The "conversational AI-first" meme will supersede "cloud-first, mobile first" by 2021, Gartner adds.

IBM says its conversational capabilities enable users to build solutions that can be easily deployed across platforms - whether on social media, SMS, mobile app, embedded within a Web site or even in other form factors, like robotics.

"Our platform continues to evolve as we tap IBM's science and research capabilities to enhance our services," says David Kenny, general manager for IBM Watson.

"IBM is advancing the technologies on the platform in the area of conversation, all with a mission of helping brands transform their customer experience, empowering users to create solutions that deepen engagement and facilitate stronger, more positive interactions."

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