Talking to a bank clerk, contact a travel agent or calling Customer Service on your phone will soon be a thing of the past.
The history of the Internet has been a story of personal empowerment and self-discovery. Resolving problems for ourselves is a good experience that helps valuing our capacity to overcome challenges. But we cannot travel alone. We need an intermediate that will offer us a personal service focused exclusively on our priorities and that will adapt to our needs. That channel has a name: Intelligent Virtual Assistant.
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Whether you call it virtual robot, chat bot or digital assistant, it is clear that these intelligent agents are changing our lives. Instead of spending hours reading the FAQ pages on a company’s website, you can ask a Virtual Assistant who will offer you all the information you need in matter of seconds. It is obvious that VAs attract the business landscape, as they can serve thousands of customers at once, across all type of channels and offering a consistent experience and a 24/7 availability. VAs deliver knowledge and information to users via a human-like interface. Just by typing you can reach all the information you need and have the tasks done in a heartbeat. But everything gets better when you use your voice.
Today, four of the most important IT organizations—Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google— offer Speech Recognition software. Speech recognition has transformed the self-service experience, making the interaction between humans and robots much more natural. It is hands free, easy to use, and you can benefit from it anywhere you are. Virtual Assistants have broken free from the enterprise and business world and they are becoming an important part in our life. From giving you the news to remind you about your flight next week, play the music you like the most when your friends drop by, or even tell you a joke. Virtual Assistants will eventually be the main source of information and entertainment in our homes.
Self-service is the future of customer service, and using it is an experience that improves our lives. Its development is inextricably linked to Virtual Assistants, whose help goes beyond the simple search about information to the delivery of a complex and personal customized service. Users accustomed to the “take it or leave it” TV-dinner menu that is usually offered by companies, apps and websites, can now become foodies able to choose from a gourmet cuisine buffet that will satisfy all their needs. If you need something, all you have to do is ask for it.
