Chatbot is a virtual agent that responds to user utterances with the help of an NLP Engine. The conceiving thought in the early 1920s was to automate the machines and give them the capability to think and work like humans. To reach at the present state, Chatbots had to pass through many transitions, from being a meagre chatterbot to helping customers to help them. The early development of Artificial Intelligence, which is the core technology of Chatbots, led to Charles Babbage to design the first computer. That gave us the computers that we so diligently use in our day-to-day lives and imagining it without them is nearly impossible. The thought of making intelligent machines was truly materialized in the Dartmouth Conference, under the leadership of John McCarthy. As the digital transformation space expanded Chatbots slowly started to become a reality by Eliza the first chatter bot as they were previously said, which was developed using the Slip Language, that allowed Eliza to “chatter” with the users.

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This began the era of developing interactive programs that would answer the questions asked. The chatbot development wasn’t only concentrated to design Chatbots that would simply answer queries, but that could allow you to check your Bank’s Account Balance, apply for an Account or get a quote from a Fin Corp. In all, they have created a buzz in the BFSI Industry, and they are there to stay.

What do the chatbots have in store for the customers?

The main reason behind accepting Chatbots as an alternative to a sales agent or a Phone Banking Executive is that the inclusion of Chatbots can be done using half the payroll of the agents and the ROI is nearly doubled or at least it reaches a break-even. The USP is the increase customer engagement, as in the recent times millennials want to get things done just by swipes of their thumbs. No one any longer wishes to wait in the IVR pipeline, chatbot addresses this pain point more than adequately, as a single chatbot can talk to multiple users at the same time and resolve their issues simultaneously. Now the chatbots for simply being a chatter tool have evolved into a means to perform various actions that an agent does from pulling out your transaction history, to assessing a fund transfer, to reporting your lost card, getting quotes and many more.

Their 24/7 accessibility increases the customer satisfaction ratio as they feel their queries are being resolved quickly and they are cared for, in return its beneficial to increment customer loyalty. There are some peculiar customers who need to talk to a human being to ascertain their dilemmas, they can’t rely on some robots. The chatbots try to answer as many queries that they can and offload the agents, but when there is a special request from the customer or the chatbot can’t predict the user utterances the conversation is transferred to the live agent. That way the credibility isn’t compromised, and the customer gets what he wishes.

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So, in summarization these are the wins for the Customer-

1. 24*7 support.
2. Prompt Response
3. Not just get the FAQs sponsored but perform transactional conversations too
4. Improved query redressal experience

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