{"id":4113,"date":"2017-05-26T11:00:06","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T05:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/?p=4113"},"modified":"2022-01-04T15:06:23","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T09:36:23","slug":"can-chatbots-replace-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/26\/can-chatbots-replace-humans\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Chatbots Replace Humans?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you think bots will never replace human agents, you\u2019re amongst the lucky few who has been served by intelligent human agents.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Let&#39;s stop pretending that the average Customer Service Rep has an IQ of 140 when we believe that chatbots are not intelligent enough to replace human agents. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ErzpUfMmLP\">https:\/\/t.co\/ErzpUfMmLP<\/a> via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/verge?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@verge<\/a> . <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CustomerService?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CustomerService<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ujDj2l3593\">pic.twitter.com\/ujDj2l3593<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ketharaman Swaminathan (@s_ketharaman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/s_ketharaman\/status\/1097881111496151041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 19, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>I admit that I\u2019ve also been among the lucky few at times.<\/p>\n<p>But, more often than not, I come across fairly dumb human agents. And, lately, I&#8217;ve started experiencing fairly intelligent chatbots.<\/p>\n<p>Let me give you three recent examples.<\/p>\n<p><strong>#1. MNO (HUMAN AGENT)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I sent an email to this leading mobile network operator in July last year inquiring about its 3G plans. I get its quote in November! Although he &#8211; yes, it was a he &#8211; took four months to respond, the human agent hadn\u2019t found the time to check my customer record in his CRM. Had he done so, he\u2019d have found out that I already had a 3G connection by then! (Which I got by connecting with the MNO on social media after waiting in vain for the reply to my email)<\/p>\n<p><strong>#2. PUBLISHER (HUMAN AGENT)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I recently renewed the subscription of a reputed global business magazine. From the date of the last issue mentioned on the magazine\u2019s jacket, I got a feeling that my subscription period was calculated wrongly.<\/p>\n<p>I decided to take this up with the Indian distributor of this global media giant and sent the following email to this company:<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #fafafa;\">\n<p style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\">Dear Fortune Subscription Department:<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\">My newly renewed subscription is for 30 issues. I opted for Special Gift of \u201c10 Bonus Issues\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\">Therefore, my subscription should cover a total of 40 issues (being 30 + 10).<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\">According to the cover sheet received along with the first issue dated 15 Dec 2016, my new subscription apparently expires in JUNE 2018.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\">This covers only 25 issues, calculated as follows:<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\">December 2016: 1 issue<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\">2017: 16 issues (being 12 + 4, given that frequency is monthly plus 4 extra issues per year).<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\">Jan-Jun 2018: 8 issues (50% of full year figure of 16 issues)<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\">TOTAL: 25 ISSUES<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\">So there is a discrepancy of 15 issues (being 40 &#8211; 25) between what my subscription should include and what your cover sheet states it includes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\">Please arrange to resolve this discrepancy and restate my correct last issue date \u2013 it can\u2019t be June 2018.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\">Thanks in advance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\">Thanks and Regards \/ Ketharaman S<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>I got the following reply:<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #fafafa;\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Dear Mr Ketharaman,<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Greetings from Business Media Pvt Ltd !<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">This is further to your appended mail regarding FORTUNE ASIA magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Please be informed that FORTUNE is a monthly magazine with 4 Quarterly double issues which counts as 20 issues in a year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Please feel free to contact incase of any further information is required.<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Looking forward to your continued readership.<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Best Regards,<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Dhanpreet\u00a0\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0 Fortune Asia<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-left: 25;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Chief Manager &#8211; Consumer Marketing Services<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>As you can see, the reply &#8211; from the head honcho of the Indian distributor&#8217;s consumer marketing &#8211; was extremely casual and didn&#8217;t come anywhere close to answering my question.<\/p>\n<p>I gave up on this company and finally got my issue resolved by escalating it to the parent company\u2019s Asia Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n<p><strong>#3. BANK (CHATBOT)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I recently tested out Eva, the chatbot deployed by a Top 3 private sector bank in India.<\/p>\n<p>I first raised a straightforward query:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/HDFC-BANK-EVA-CHATBOT-SUCCESS.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4117\" src=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/HDFC-BANK-EVA-CHATBOT-SUCCESS.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"149\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/HDFC-BANK-EVA-CHATBOT-SUCCESS.jpg 409w, https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/HDFC-BANK-EVA-CHATBOT-SUCCESS-149x200.jpg 149w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 149px) 100vw, 149px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Eva passed this test with flying colors.<\/p>\n<p>I then logged a complaint related to the discrepancy in the length of the narration field between the bank&#8217;s IMPS and NEFT payment methods.<\/p>\n<p>Eva failed this test.<\/p>\n<p>But so did the human agent handling the bank\u2019s Twitter account. Despite explaining the problem by attaching a screenshot to my tweet, I didn\u2019t even get the customary auto-response.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/chatbots-fi-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4124 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/chatbots-fi-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/chatbots-fi-1.jpg 630w, https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/chatbots-fi-1-200x89.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<hr style=\"width: 70%;\" \/>\n<p>When I wrote about chatbots <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/sketharaman.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/13\/how-humanlike-are-virtual-agents\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/sketharaman.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/21\/how-humanlike-are-virtual-agents-part-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a><\/strong> seven years ago, I found many of them to be quite human-like. I thought virtual agents &#8211; as chatbots were called at the time &#8211; showed tremendous potential and predicted that they could replace lower-end human call center staff within the forseeable future.<\/p>\n<p>Well, that future is already here. Even a simple chatbot like Eva can match or outdo the two human agents described above.<\/p>\n<p>From this, can we conclude that chatbots can replace all human agents?<\/p>\n<p>NO.<\/p>\n<p>Because there have been other situations where I\u2019ve received a much better level of response from human agents that can&#8217;t be matched by chatbots available today.<\/p>\n<p>This got me wondering when a chatbot can replace humans and when it can\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>To answer this question, I&#8217;d a look at the so-called QRC model. According to this popular model used in customer service, customer missives to brands fall under <em>Query<\/em>, <em>Request<\/em> or <em>Complaint<\/em> e.g.:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Query: What 3G plans do you offer?<\/li>\n<li>Request: Please send me a paper bill ASAP.<\/li>\n<li>Complaint: My printer has stopped working.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When we think of Customer Service, we tend to think only of complaints. However, that&#8217;s not an accurate representation of what happens in contact centers. According to several CX leaders I\u2019ve spoken to in the course of executing some of my company\u2019s engagements, only 60% of support tickets are complaints, with the balance 40% split evenly between queries and requests.<\/p>\n<p>From personal experience and anecdotal evidence, chatbots can outperform human agents for answering virtually all customer queries.<\/p>\n<p>With the recent advances made in Artificial Intelligence \/ Machine Learning, chatbots may soon be able to match mid-level human agents for fulfilling most customer requests.<\/p>\n<p>However, chatbots will take a while to match high-end human agents for resolving complaints.<\/p>\n<p>That said, sophisticated chatbots are already complementing human agents in this area.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/HOSTGATOR-TWITTER-CHAT-INTEGRATION-OMNICHANNEL-CUSTOMER-SERVICE.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-4116 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/HOSTGATOR-TWITTER-CHAT-INTEGRATION-OMNICHANNEL-CUSTOMER-SERVICE-200x187.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"187\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/HOSTGATOR-TWITTER-CHAT-INTEGRATION-OMNICHANNEL-CUSTOMER-SERVICE-200x187.jpg 200w, https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/HOSTGATOR-TWITTER-CHAT-INTEGRATION-OMNICHANNEL-CUSTOMER-SERVICE.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>I saw a great example of this when I couldn&#8217;t access one of my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.einsuranceportal.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">websites<\/a> recently. Like I usually do, <a href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/03\/why-social-media-has-become-my-first-port-of-call-for-customer-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">I used Twitter as my first port of call to reach out to my hosting service provider<\/a>. Involving SSL, domain redirects and a few other complicated issues, the problem soon went over the chatbot\u2019s paygrade. At that stage, the chatbot handed me over to the company&#8217;s live chat channel handled by a human agent.<\/p>\n<p>Normally, whenever I switch channels \u2013 from, say, email to telephone or vice versa &#8211; I\u2019d have to start all over again. That didn\u2019t happen this time. The chatbot seamlessly passed on the transcript of the Twitter DM conversation to the human agent so I could continue from where I left the Twitter DM conversation.<\/p>\n<p>Agreed that such examples of seamless <em>omnichannel customer service<\/em> are few and far between today but I expect the technology to go mainstream soon.<\/p>\n<p>So, to return to the question in the title of this post. As things stand, with my vast experience with human agents and limited experience with chatbots, I&#8217;d answer the question &#8220;Can Chatbots Replace Humans?&#8221; thus:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Yes&#8221; for Query.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Maybe&#8221; for Request.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;No&#8221; for Complaint.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Looks like I\u2019m not the only one who is so optimistic about chatbots taking over many customer service activities from humans.<\/p>\n<p>According to a MarketingCharts.com \/ PegaSystems survey of 6,000 adults in North America, EMEA and APAC, the largest segment of the surveyed audience (38%) felt that chatbots can provide better customer service than human agents in the future.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/MARKETINGCHARTS-CHATBOT-HUMAN-BETTER.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4118\" src=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/MARKETINGCHARTS-CHATBOT-HUMAN-BETTER.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"268\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/MARKETINGCHARTS-CHATBOT-HUMAN-BETTER.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/MARKETINGCHARTS-CHATBOT-HUMAN-BETTER-200x107.jpg 200w, https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/MARKETINGCHARTS-CHATBOT-HUMAN-BETTER-768x411.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is great news for service providers who suffer from severe attrition of human agents caused by the tedious nature of most customer service work.<\/p>\n<p>By taking over their mundane work, chatbots can free human agents to focus on cross-selling, upselling and other value-added areas of customer engagement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>UPDATE DATED 17 JULY 2017:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I came across the following ad for Bajaj Allianz&#8217;s latest BOING chatbot today:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/BAJAJALLIANZ-BOING-01.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4260\" src=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/BAJAJALLIANZ-BOING-01.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"229\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/BAJAJALLIANZ-BOING-01.jpg 1937w, https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/BAJAJALLIANZ-BOING-01-200x92.jpg 200w, https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/BAJAJALLIANZ-BOING-01-768x352.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/BAJAJALLIANZ-BOING-01-1024x469.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Like Appu, I also wanted to service my insurance policy using BOING.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/BAJAJALLIANZ-BOING-02.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4261\" src=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/BAJAJALLIANZ-BOING-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"401\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/BAJAJALLIANZ-BOING-02.jpg 480w, https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/BAJAJALLIANZ-BOING-02-160x200.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 401px) 100vw, 401px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But I wasn&#8217;t as lucky as Appu. When I asked BOING &#8220;How do I service my policy?&#8221;, BOING couldn&#8217;t even understand my question!<\/p>\n<p>BOING is surely not a great testimonial for the capabilities of chatbots but it&#8217;s still early days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you think bots will never replace human agents, you\u2019re amongst the lucky few who has been served by intelligent human agents. Let&#39;s stop pretending that the average Customer Service Rep has an IQ of 140 when we believe that chatbots are not intelligent enough to replace human agents. https:\/\/t.co\/ErzpUfMmLP via @verge . #CustomerService pic.twitter.com\/ujDj2l3593 &#8230; <a title=\"Can Chatbots Replace Humans?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/26\/can-chatbots-replace-humans\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Can Chatbots Replace Humans?\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,6,14,9,10,13,7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b2-product-v-services","category-bfsi","category-cx","category-ecommerce","category-mobility","category-product","category-retail","category-mandatory-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4113"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8967,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4113\/revisions\/8967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}