Understanding chatbots and agents

In the modern business ecosystem, the role of chatbot systems is increasingly important. First appearing in the 1960s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA), chatbots have always fascinated both developers and technology users alike. Figure 8.1 shows the user interface of one of these early systems:

Figure 8.1 – The ELIZA chatbot interface

While these systems were rudimentary initially and seen as more of an experiment, with the advancement of NLP technologies, the experience they offer has become increasingly interesting and valuable to users.

Chatbot-based support systems offer today’s consumers a self-service experience. For users, self-service support services have two major advantages over human support:

• They are available 24/7, even outside normal working hours
• The user does not have to hold the line to access them

Even if there is some reluctance to use these systems at first,...