Fields of application for conversational AI in the enterprise environment

No company without processes and IT - but it is sometimes not easy to keep an overview in the process labyrinth and system jungle. This is where conversational interfaces - often language assistants or chatbots - come in handy: With digital assistants like Neo it is possible to reduce this complexity to a simple interaction; a conversation. Processes can be started, data retrieved and systems addressed through specific questions and commands, which means that assistants can be seamlessly integrated into company processes. By integrating with existing systems, they virtually dock onto the current database and make it accessible in a new way. data and co. remain where they belong, but the interaction takes place with the user. A number of application scenarios are conceivable here.

Language Assistants for Business: Use Cases for Enterprise Systems - „Hey SAP, come on...”

„Voice” as an interface has been suitable for the masses at least since Siri was on cell phones and Alexa in the living room, but the really valuable use case is often still missing. But especially in cases where hands have other things to do - like in the car or on construction sites - voice control can have enormous advantages over traditional forms of interaction: It is not only faster, but also safer. Use cases for language assistants could be:

• Recording of sales calls in the car
• Reporting in labs by voice
• Reporting and updates to the back office via voice input in the truck
• Query of appointment summary for conversation preparations on business trips
• Logging of maintenance and inspections for wind turbines
• Control of smart building & IoT devices in offices

Language assistants in industry: fields of application in machine control and system monitoring

Above all, however, in industry and production - with the right hardware - voice control can increase work safety through “hands-free” interaction and at the same time make paper notes and logs redundant. Employees can also be guided through device debugging or search the machine's manual by voice to increase efficiency. For this purpose, the language assistant can run on a smartphone or tablet, for example, be controlled via a headset or used on data glasses or smart glasses . The most popular fields of application include:

• Search manuals and manuals by voice
• „Guided Working” via voice-based instructions through assembly or repair steps
• Voice control for maintenance and repair processes
• Logging of shop floor meetings by voice
• Creation of test and inspection reports through automatic voice logging

Chatbots for business: More than just question-answer use cases!

However, voice-based assistants are by no means an “all-purpose tool” - voice input usually makes little sense, especially in open-plan offices, for sensitive information or for chat-based interactions. Conversational interfaces can also be used here as “chatbots”. With a chatbot, the user “chats“ as known from well-known messaging apps or support chats, but not with a human but with an intelligent bot. In the past, various chatbots have been published on different platforms, but often disappoint with little context -Understanding and functionality. But with a Conversational AI Platform, chatbots can do more than answer simple questions: Intelligent chatbots can access third-party systems, start processes and react differently based on the user profile. In this way, the user can be guided through more complex business processes - such as an order or approval process - via a simple chat without being affected by the complexity of the source systems. Popular areas of application for chat-based assistants and business chatbots are:

• Query of KPIs and key figures from different systems
• Process monitoring through proactive alerting and push notifications from the bot
• Guidance through processes such as ordering processes
• Easy access to HR processes such as vacation requests or sick leave
• Answering questions as “first-level support“ with the possibility of escalation if the bot is overwhelmed
• Scheduling appointments or sending appointment polls
• Brief query of systems and machine status

Speech and text - no “either/or” decision

The great advantage of conversational interfaces that run on a wide variety of devices is the so-called “multimodality“: Depending on the context, environment and device, language and text-based interaction can be used, so that voice output can be supported by visual elements or images, for example be explained through language. With intelligent assistants like Neo, both forms of interaction - speech and text - are possible in combination, by using technologies such as “Speech Recognition“ (also Speech-to-Text), “Speech Synthesis“ (also Text-to-Speech) and “Natural Language Understanding” (also Natural Language Processing) is used. In this way, chatbots and language assistants are combined and the best of both worlds are combined in a conversational interface.