What is an Intelligent Bot?
Oracle Intelligent Bots is a chatbot feature of Oracle Mobile Cloud Enterprise. Very simply they are a computer program with artificial intelligence that can be integrated with social media platforms and allow you to interact with them in a conversational manner. An intelligent bot can understand and react to questions that you ask it. For example, it could be used to check a credit card or account balance, order a take away meal or check the stock availably of an item of clothing at your local retail outlet.
It is estimated that over half the population already has access to a mobile device, and its predicted that by 2021 there will be 10 billion mobile devices in use, this means that people are always online and connected. With 6 out of the 10 most used apps on mobile devices being instant messaging apps (such as WhatsApp, Kik, Facebook Messenger to name only a few) instant messaging is fast becoming a preferred means of communication, and with ‘Intelligent Bots’, business can now leverage this popularity in instant messaging to connect with their customers, ensuring that instead of having to download a separate mobile app, search through websites or contact a call centre, users can instantly connect and get quick responses from an automated intelligent agent.
How do Oracle Intelligent Bots work?
There are 4 key components to Oracle Intelligent Bots; Channels, Dialog Flows, Custom Components and an Artificial Intelligence Engine.
Key
- UI – User interface
- API – Server/ server integration
- SDK – Client/ server integration
Channels
An Intelligent Bot is designed to be the back-end functionality that is accessed via an existing front-end messaging application or Channel. The Channel Configurator within Oracle Intelligent Bots is where you can plug your bot into one or more social media platforms such as Facebook Messenger and Skype or digital voice assistants such as Amazon Echo and GoogleHome.
Dialog Flow
The Dialog Flow is how you design and implement logic within an Intelligent Bot to allow it to conduct a conversation with a user. A conversation can be compared to a workflow, it has steps that are navigated through and depending on the route taken or responses given specific actions can be initiated; for example, a banking bot can have multiple dialog flows defined that allows the user to either check the balance in their account, to make a payment or to transfer money to a friend or contact.
Custom Components
Custom Components within the Dialog Flow are used to enhance an Intelligent Bot by integrating it with your on-premise or cloud back end systems and other data sources. This allows it to access information to give intelligent and detailed response to questions, or to allow it to action requests made by the user. Integrations can be made using a range of supported methods including REST, SOAP, Fusion Applications connectors and Integration Cloud Services APIs.
Artificial Intelligence Engine
At the core of the bot is its Artificial Intelligence Engine, Oracle Intelligent Bots use Natural Language Understanding and Machine Leaning models to interpret and categorise incoming requests from users. As the bot encounters new phrases and terminologies it can learn the intent of these, meaning that over time its intelligence will continue to grow allowing it to accurately understand and respond to a wide range of requests from users.
Who will benefit from Oracle Intelligent Bots?
The potential uses for Oracle Intelligent Bots is wide and varied, as already mentioned bots can be used to allow customers to interact with companies using a platform that they are already familiar with and actively using. For example, a fast food chain could utilise a bot to allow its customers to order a pizza delivery via SnapChat, a bank could provide a service that allows it clients to check their balance via a voice assistant like Amazon Alexa, a public sector organisation (which previously may have had to invest heavily in a tailored CRM application) could utilise an existing platform such as Facebook to allow members of the public to pay their council tax bills or enquiry on and purchase other public services.
The uses do not however have to be limited to interactions with customers outside of an organisation, companies could also make use of Intelligent Bots internally to allow sales representatives and account managers to quickly access information on their clients, or employees could book annual leave and request expense payments, all using an existing platform on a device that they are already carrying around with them.
Summary
Intelligent Bot technology is still in its early life and its full potential is yet to be discovered, however it is already evident that it will enable organisations to greatly improve connections with their customers in an effective way, whilst leveraging an existing platform and benefiting from a channel that is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
If you would like further information on how your organisation could benefit from the use of Oracle Intelligent Bots, then please contact Claremont.