Do you know the means of term “virtual agent”?
When browsing the web or using social media, chances are you’ve seen or used one before, even without knowing it.
So what are virtual agents?
In reality, this is an automated version of a representative from your customer service.
It is a conversational robot that emulates a person via a voice interface or an online discussion platform to communicate with your customers. But its use is not limited to that.
The virtual agent is available in several variants:
There are chatbots, a chat-based interface that is often used on corporate websites.
You will also find intelligent virtual agents who use automated self-service and Artificial Intelligence to communicate with your customers via voice.
It is a kind of Interactive Voice Service (IVS), but which uses a combination of technologies such as voice recognition, natural language processing and machine learning.
Today we are going to give you 5 examples of intelligent virtual agent. The goal is not to compare them, but rather to show you the possibilities of using virtual agents in different sectors of activity.
Some Examples of Intelligent Virtual Agents
1 – Louise, the virtual agent of eBay
It is a typical and popular virtual assistant created by a Franco-American developer VirtuOz for eBay. He can advise and guide consumers who use the online platform. It can also provide assistance to users who are looking for information and answer their questions.
eBay was founded in 1995. It is one of the oldest online sales platforms, but also one of the most successful e-commerce sites.
With more than 240 million registered members, eBay is currently established in around 40 countries. Over time, as the volume of transactions and information available on the site increased, eBay had to provide a tool capable of guiding Internet users in an immediate, intuitive and interactive way. This is where the intelligent virtual agent Louise was born.
Nowadays, Louise has become a very efficient and intelligent additional help channel. The volume of conversations she handled was “satisfactory” according to Thai Binh Phan, senior project manager at eBay.
The rate of immediate problem resolution is 88%, and the conversational robot manages more than 30% of customer contacts for eBay.fr.
2 – Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant
Most of us know Amazon, an American e-commerce company.
Like eBay, the brand has also designed a smart virtual agent called Alexa. The latter can imitate real conversations, but what makes it special is that you can use intuitive voice commands to ask it to perform specific tasks.
According to the developers of the virtual assistant, Alexa is a cloud-based solution that uses voice recognition and natural language understanding to help its users.
To use Alexa, you need a device that incorporates voice technology. Then you just have to use voice commands for it to perform routine tasks.
Imagine you can ask your smart virtual agent to turn off the lights, lock your front door, set off an alarm at any time, wait 10 minutes, and then turn on the coffee maker.
Yes, it’s now possible with Amazon’s Alexa Assistant, and it can be done simply via voice.
3 – Gyant
Let’s take another example of a smart virtual agent that can be used differently. This is Gyant, a chatbot designed for the health sector.
Gyant can ask patients to understand the symptoms of their illness and then send the data to the doctors. They can therefore make diagnoses and prescribe medication in real time.
This service is accessible via Facebook Messenger, but its designers plan to distribute it on all instant messaging platforms.
In addition to providing assistance to English-speaking patients, Gyant can conduct a conversation in Spanish, German or Portuguese with its users.
According to the brand, more than 785,000 people in Latin America were able to successfully complete a prediabetes screening test using this virtual agent in March 2019.
The brand has also just announced a new virtual agent solution that will be especially dedicated to healthcare systems. The goal is to offer patients a COVID-19 screening assistant. It is the “COVID-19 Emergency Response Assistant”, a virtual assistant capable of offering screening and treatment assistance to fight the virus.
In addition to this, he can educate patients about the symptoms, preventive measures and controls necessary to limit the spread of the virus.
4 – Bob-le-Bot: the conversational agent at the service of customer relations
Currently, most chatbots only provide answers to questions from their users. Bob the Bot, on the other hand, is an intelligent conversationalist who can receive customer requests or call them to ask questions. It is this functionality that makes it original.
To do this, Bob-le-Bot calls on the progress of artificial intelligence and automatic natural language processing. It is a multifunctional chatbot that you can use to collect information, to generate sales leads or simply to manage the telephone reception of your business.
Many professionals consider it a precious tool to manage and optimize the customer relationship. But it can also take care of telephone surveys and polls, by launching a large call volume, quickly and at a reduced cost.
Finally, it should be noted that Bob-le-Bot is a conversational robot that can evolve easily. Thanks to a short training, the members of your sales team will be able to configure the intelligent virtual agent themselves according to their needs.