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First published: January 4, 2022 @ 6:00 pm
As artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics grow, the use of chatbots and virtual assistants is growing rapidly. But are they different? And which one should you choose? Read on to find out.
Photo by Mohammed_Hassan on Pixabay
Chatbots are interactive software programs that can simulate human conversation. They’re similar to virtual assistants, which you’ll learn about later in this article.
The main difference between them is that chatbots are much simpler than virtual assistants, making them more suitable for tasks that require only a few simple questions and answers.
They can be programmed to respond to certain keywords or phrases, or based on the user’s behaviour during the conversation.
It’s very important to note that chatbots are not meant to replace human interaction with customers, but rather supplement it by taking care of routine tasks like answering emails or scheduling appointments for customers who prefer interacting with an AI agent over a human agent.
They’re also becoming more advanced, as companies realize the potential of AI agents in their business processes. Today, many companies offer chatbot-based customer support features as an added value feature to their online services.
For example, banks offer automated customer service via chatbots. Some of them also offer chatbot-based customer service as a core feature.
A chatbot is programmed to answer questions and make decisions on its own, based on its own logic. A simple example of this is a chatbot that answers the user’s questions about the weather in different locations around the world.
The weather forecast will be given to the user by answering their question and then providing an answer based on its own internal logic (e.g., the answer will depend on what time of day it is, how far away from your location you are, etc.).
In this case, there’s no direct communication between the user and the chatbot, only responses from the chatbot to the user.
This type of interaction is referred to as one-way communication. In contrast, virtual assistants work in two-way communication with customers. They communicate with customers via text or voice and respond to them accordingly.
As you can see, a chatbot is more limited than a virtual assistant. For example, you can’t ask it to find out more information about a certain topic or person if it doesn’t know about that topic or person.
But chatbots are gaining popularity because they’re much easier to program than virtual assistants. They’re also very cheap to develop, making them ideal for small businesses and startups. This is because there’s no need to hire a team of developers to create a chatbot. It can be developed by one person or a small team.
Photo by Mohammed_Hassan on Pixabay
Virtual assistants are programs that can be used to carry out certain tasks. They can be installed on computers, smartphones, and other devices and provide assistance to users.
Unlike chatbots, virtual assistants use two-way communication with users or conversational AI. They can respond to questions or requests of users by using voice or text.
A virtual assistant is programmed to perform a specific task for the user. It’s very important to note that it’s not always necessary for a virtual assistant to know how to carry out its task. It may simply need instructions from the user, which it will then follow.
A virtual assistant is programmed to perform certain tasks based on the instructions of the user. For example, you may ask your virtual assistant what time it is in New York right now, and your virtual assistant will then respond by providing you with an answer using text or voice.
This type of interaction is referred to as one-way communication between the user and the virtual assistant. In contrast, chatbots are programmed for two-way communication. They answer questions or provide information only when asked by the user.
But despite being more advanced than chatbots, virtual assistants are still quite simple. You can’t ask them to make decisions or take actions on their own.
In this section, you’ll learn more about the differences between chatbots and virtual assistants.
Chatbot will assist business and customers, serve as the experimental platform. While, virtual assistant will assist users with everyday tasks and engage in casual or fun conversations.
Chatbot can be used to perform a single task, while a virtual assistant can be used to perform multiple tasks.
But there’s another important difference between them. Chatbots are cheaper than virtual assistants. It’s much easier to develop a chatbot than an AI agent. You don’t need to hire developers or create your own programming language for your AI agent, as is the case with most virtual assistants.
A big advantage of using virtual assistants over chatbots is that they work in two-way communication with users. This means that they respond to questions and requests from users in real time.
They can understand the user’s request and then provide an answer. This makes them much more advanced than chatbots, which are only programmed to carry out one task for the user.
But virtual assistants can be more complex than chatbots. For example, they can understand the context of a conversation (human-like conversation), which means that they can understand what the user is asking or requesting when he or she speaks to them.
This allows them to make better decisions in response to the user’s request, because they know what the user is asking for and why he or she is asking for it.
Virtual assistants can also understand how users speak. They know what words mean, so they can determine what kind of information the user wants to receive when he or she speaks to them.
This makes it easier for virtual assistants to provide users with accurate answers in response to their requests.
It’s very important to note that this type of understanding of human language isn’t present in chatbots. They don’t understand human language at all, but they can do conversational interfaces and give better customer experience.
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