Digital personal assistants and chatbots

Unfortunately, it is still all too common for some call centers to use legacy Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems that make calling them an exercise in patience. However, we have made great advances in the area of natural language processing: chatbots. Some of the most popular examples are:

Google Assistant: Google Assistant was launched in 2016 and is one of the most advanced chatbots available. It can be found in a variety of appliances such as telephones, headphones, speakers, washers, TVs, and refrigerators. Nowadays, most Android phones include Google Assistant. Google Home and Nest Home Hub also support Google Assistant. 

Amazon Alexa: Alexa is a virtual assistant developed and marketed by Amazon. It can interact with users by voice and by executing commands such as playing music, creating to-do lists, setting up alarms, playing audiobooks, and answering basic questions. It can even tell you a joke or a story on demand. Alexa can also be used to control compatible smart devices. Developers can extend Alexa's capabilities by installing skills. An Alexa skill is additional functionality developed by third-party vendors.

Apple Siri: Siri can accept user voice commands and a natural language user interface to answer questions, make suggestions, and perform actions by parsing these voice commands and delegating these requests to a set of internet services. The software can adapt to users' individual language usage, their searches, and preferences. The more it is used the more it learns and the better it gets.

Microsoft Cortana: Cortana is another digital virtual assistant, designed and created by Microsoft. Cortana can set reminders and alarms, recognize natural voice commands, and it answers questions using information.

All these assistants will allow you to perform all or at least most of these tasks:

• Control devices in your home
• Play music and display videos on command
• Set timers and reminders
• Make appointments
• Send text and email messages
• Make phone calls
• Open applications
• Read notifications
• Perform translations
• Order from e-commerce sites

Some of the tasks that might not be supported but will start to become more pervasive are:

• Checking into your flight
• Booking a hotel
• Making a restaurant reservation

All these platforms also support 3rd party developers to develop their own applications or "skills" as Amazon calls them. So, the possibilities are endless. 

Some examples of existing Alexa skills:

• MySomm: Recommends what wine goes with a certain meat
• The bartender: Provides instructions on how to make alcoholic drinks
• 7-minute workout: Will guide you through a tough 7-minute workout
• Uber: Allows you to order an Uber ride through Alexa

All the preceding services listed continue to get better. They continuously learn from interactions with customers. They are improved both by the developers of the services as well as by the systems taking advantage of new data points created daily by users of the services.

Most cloud providers make it extremely easy to create chatbots and for some basic examples it is not necessary to use a programming language. In addition, it is not difficult to deploy these chatbots to services such as Slack, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and WhatsApp.