A few years ago, voice-based assistants were more a novelty than a common expression. With the advent of AI, NLP, and speech recognition technologies, voicebots have become more sophisticated and used in different industries. A recent report by Statista Research says a whopping 150% jump in the voice AI market share is expected by 2026.
How does Voicebots differ from Chatbots?
Chatbots and voicebots are both conversational interfaces that automate user interactions. However, They are different in terms of technical implementation and use cases. Chatbots are text-based conversational interfaces that understand user inputs and respond appropriately using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML).
On the other hand, Voicebots are speech-based conversational interfaces that communicate with users via automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) technologies. They are most commonly found on voice-enabled devices such as smart speakers and mobile devices with voice assistants.
What is Voicebot?
A voicebot is a AI-powered conversational solution that understands user input and generate appropriate responses in regular, everyday language. They will be used for a variety of tasks, such as controlling smart home devices, providing statistics or entertainment, and automating customer service. Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri are few popular examples of voice bots.
How are Voicebots being designed/developed?
A voice-based bot takes voice input through the user’s microphone. The user’s voice is recorded by the Web speech APIs and sent to the dialog flow for a response. Dialogflow is a platform for natural language understanding that allows you to integrate your conversational agent with popular platforms such as Google Assistant, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Telegram, and others.
It also includes a Web API that can be used to integrate the agent into websites.
The user’s voice communications are converted into text and text messages are converted into a voice using the web speech APIs. The dialog flow uses the speech synthesis interface to provide a synthetic voice for the reaction text and returns it to the user.
Major use cases where Voicebots can be utilized
Meeting reservations and appointment scheduling are handled by a bot. The bot is more useful when checking the weather, determining the location, and conducting an online search.
Voicebots in healthcare settings can assist patients in managing their health, scheduling appointments, and providing basic medical advice. Voicebots in banking and finance can assist customers in managing their finances, such as checking account balances, transferring funds, and paying bills.
Why should we use Voicebots?
- Saves Time – Voicebots are lots quicker than humans at managing repetitive, regular tasks
- Accessibility – Chatbots are readily available to customers around-the-clock
- Shorter customer wait times – The bot can interact with multiple users simultaneously, reducing the wait time for users and improving overall customer satisfaction
- Price – A chatbot just has a one-time expense. You can recruit less customer service staff once it has been developed and put into operation
- Hands-free Interaction – Voicebots provide a hands-free interaction experience for users, allowing them to perform tasks or get information without having to use their hands. This is particularly useful in situations where the user’s hands are busy or they are unable to use them, such as when driving or cooking
Scope of Voicebots Beyond Customer Service
The customer service sector is a prime example of how voicebots can boost efficiency, amplify consumer engagement, and cut costs all at once. In the near future, more businesses around the world are anticipated to take advantage of voicebots and digital assistants to enhance client relationship management procedures and obtain better, 24/7 engagement support.
