building conversational bots
TRANSCRIPT
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Building Conversational Bots
Charlotte Bots and AI MeetupNov’ 16
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Introduction
Ramu Pulipatibotsplash.com
Helps build and launch conversational bots
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Agenda• Bots Background
– Bot Conversations– Bot Kinds– Platforms
• Building Bots– Frameworks– Build your own
• Best practices– Bot personality– Following through– Smart Bots
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Bot Conversation Basics
• Human to human• Human to bot directly (Facebook, Skype)• Human to human with Bot in the mentions or
sideline (Google Allo, Slack)• Bot to human – notifications (Facebook, Slack)
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Bot Kinds
• Universal AI trained bots– Google Allo, Facebook M, Siri, Cortana– No Integration support
• Voice only / Text based integration platforms– Amazon Alexa, Skype– Voice enabled, limited integrations
• Domain or business specific Bots– Slack, Facebook, Kik and Microsoft Teams?– OS platform as native app alternative (limited functionality)– Usually based on workflow, NLP and domain focused
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Platforms
• Software as services– Closed platforms with bots: Slack, Facebook,
Skype, Gitter– Platforms without bots: Snapchat
• Hosted platforms– Open Source: Rocket chat, Matter Most, Zulip
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Bot frameworks
• Proprietary end to end solutions– API.ai, Motion.ai, Wit.ai, Botsplash.com
(managed)• AI Machine Learning services– IBM Watson, MS Cognitive Services, Alieyn
• Libraries– MS Bot Framework, Botkit
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Build your own
• For advanced and complex handling of business scenarios
• Enables to target a specific platform using full potential
• Easy to build simple and focused bots• Managing context, workflow, NLP and
Machine Learning would make it complicated
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How to get started?
• Start with platform tutorial (first timer)• Understand platform capabilities and libraries• Create a user workflow– Identify input fields and output– List the different flows to reach the output– Write down interaction sessions
• User testing and collect improvements
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Bot Personality
• Use direct & natural language• Give personality. Engage in role play.• Provide users with suggestive responses and
type_on notifications• Keep message concise and use a/b testing.• Maintain short term memory and long
memory• Allow the user to start over anytime
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Use Platform Features• Menu• Greetings• Get started• Share• Display templates• Call Phone• Buy• Share• Receipt• Extensions
• Profile• Time zone• Gender• Targeted promotions
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Interaction Analysis
• Provide alternate messages and content flows• Measure– Flow dropouts– Conversions Rate
• Understand– User geography and focus services– Usage times– Notifications
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Engagement
• Provide confirmation before placing an order or confirmation
• Use website as fallback• Standby support staff for e-commerce• Give clear option to change subscriptions
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Building Smart Bots
• Basic keyword & distance algorithms are not very effective
• Retrieval vs Generative chatbots• Natural Language Processing• Machine learning / AI
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Questions?
• Discuss– Next month meetup agenda– Upcoming Charlotte events