Introduction to Chatbots

Daden Limited

Chatbots 101

David Burden
Daden Limited

© 2010 www.daden.co.uk

Agenda

 What is a Chatbot?
 How can you use Chatbots?
 Why should you use Chatbots?
 Discourse – A Chatbot Application
 Authoring A Chatbot

What is a Chatbot?

A chatbot (also chatterbot, chatterbox) is
a computer program which attempts to
maintain a conversation with a person.
- Wikipedia

What is a Chatbot?

Virtual Assistant Virtual Receptionist
Virtual Helper Virtual Agent

Virtual Virtual
Customer Customer
Service Assistant Service Agent
Web Assistant Greeter
Artificial Intelligence (AI)

What is a Chatbot?

Demo

What is a Chatbot?

Human
Cases Modules Management
Interface

 Text form on web  Personality  Name recognition  Config
 Ajax  Core knowledge & memory  Lookups
 Sitepal avatar  Smalltalk
 Maths  Case creation
 Virtual world  General
 RSS/News  Domain
 SMS knowledge  Weather management
 IM
 Danger words  Wikipedia  Log management
 Email
 etc  Amazon  System
 etc configuration
 MSN etc
 etc
 etc

What is a Chatbot?

Web Page

IM/MSN

Parsing/NLP
SMS
Human Knowledge Management
Interface
Email
Reply/NLG
WAP/Mobile

Virtual
World Modules
Web
Service

Internet

Apps DBases WebApps RSS etc

Is it Artificial Intelligence?

How can you use Chatbots?

Greeters/Newscasters

 Not interactive
 Provide a welcome to the
site
 Draw attention to key
features/offers on specific
pages
 Can be scripted within the
page or through a Content
Management System (CMS),
or through RSS
 MUST change content often
 Different messages for
repeat visitors
 Simple to implement, low
risk

Survey Takers

 Step users through survey
questions in a more
conversational style
 Anecdotal evidence
suggests a more intimate
relationship between
chatbot and user, so
possibly more truthful
answers
 Can include branching logic
 Can switch into full chat
mode

FAQ Guide

 Natural language
alternative to an FAQ list
 Can suggest
alternate/related questions
 Can load up relevant web
pages
 Can feed in live data (eg
pricing)
 Can access web FAQ
through RSS
 No/limited attempt to
engage in conversation

Application Interface/Agent

 Natural language access to
large databases/systems
 Access systems through
web services or dedicated
interface
pages
 Always provides live data
(eg pricing, availability)
 No/limited attempt to
engage in conversation

Virtual Sales/Service Staff

 Brings together many previous
functions
 Access systems through web
services or dedicated interface
pages
 Provde live data (eg pricing,
availability)
 Engages in natural language
conversation
 Mix structured and un-
structured dialogue
 Builds a relationship and helps
the customer
 Remember returning visitors

Other Roles

 Teachers, trainers,
mentors and eActors
 Interpreters for the visually
impaired
 Personal assistants
 Virtual receptionists
 Kiosk guides

Virtual Worlds

 Greeters
 Tour guides and
receptionists
 Sales/service staff
 Teachers, trainers,
mentors and NPCs
 Machinima eActors
 Personal assistants
 Colour

Why should you use chatbots?

Common Advantages

 Differentiate your site/campaign/content
 Increase recall and memorability
 Consistent interface to multiple systems
 Build identification/empathy
 Increase usage and loyalty
 Increase trust
 Improve usability
 Let human staff focus on more complex
issues

Cost Metrics

It’s Time To Give Virtual Agents Another Look, Forrester Report, Dec 2009

Sales/Service Advantages

 Improve search "the use of avatars on Dell's site found that
users who interacted with them were twice as
 Increase site visits likely to give personal information than those
who didn't"
 Increase sales "online campaign featuring avatars for V
Graham Norton and Celebrity Big Brother....
 Increase retention generated click-through rates of 30%".

 Increase information "Revenues increased by £6,000 a month"

gathering "Sales increased by 35%"

"Click-through rates increased by 250%"

"62% of visitors converted to registrants"

"Site traffic lifted and sustained by 200%"

"An increase in trust"

"An increase in usability"

Sales/Service Advantages

AMA Journal of Marketing – Jul 2007

Education Advantages

 Improve engagement "when avatars are used for e-learning
content, use of the online courses
increases by 400%"
 Increased course
completion
 Increased retention

Who Else Is Using Them?

Who Else Is Using Them?

“Virtual agents are quickly growing in popularity, and it is very likely that by the end of
the decade all major websites will have some type of virtual agent solution to pro-
actively assist and sell customers. Approximately 10 percent of the Fortune 1,000
already have them.”

– E-Commerce Times, June 2010

Discourse – The Daden Solution

Discourse – User Interface #1

 Implemented as
web service – so
the bot can look
however you
want it to look, or Plain Text Text and Image
even sound

Flash Avatar Video
And Text to Speech And Text to Speech

Discourse – User Interface #2

 Implemented as
web service – so
the bot can be
accessed from
almost any
Internet IM/MSN Email
environment

SMS Virtual Worlds

Discourse – Parsing #1

 How the bot works out what the user said
 Approaches are:
 Pattern match – phrase and/or keyword

“what colour is the sky”
 what colour +sky

 Grammar based
 Issues of context


 Discourse uses extend AIML – Artificial Intelligence
Markup Language

 Supports keywords and phrases
 Supports context variables
 Google-like syntax
 Easy support for alternate words
 Support for multiple languages
 Pre-processing of input
Spelling, text-speak etc
 Banned word spotting

Discourse – Knowledge

 AIML
 Stores “knowledge” in reply string
eg “The sky is blue”
 Dumb
 Triples
 “Atomic” level of knowledge
 Subject-Predicate-Object (“sky” “has colour” “blue”)
 Enables logical deductions etc
 Resource Descriptor Framework (RDF) is
cornerstone of the Semantic Web
 Needs language generation

Discourse – Reply

 AIML
 Reply is stored text “The sky is blue”
 AIML allows alternate replies
 Daden AIML allows alternate words
 Triples
 Need language generation

Discourse – Modules

 Provide specific additional functionality, eg:

 User tracking
 Time questions
 Maths questions

Discourse – Web Modules

 Why program the bot with information that is already on
the web or in corporate databases
 Specific modules for:
 RSS feeds

 News and Weather
 Wikipedia
 Generic modules for:
 RSS search
 Web Services (eg SOAP)
 Screen-scape
 Break-out
 Custom modules as required

Discourse – Management

 Web based management
 Edit cases and triples
 View logs
 Edit lookup files
 Set configuration
 View logs
 Sort by score/popularity

 One-click case creation
 Export

Management

Discourse – Training

 Rapid testing and refinement
 Display authoring screen alongside chat screen
 Enter “bad answer” during conversation to relearn
 Enter “learning” mode and type Q&A direct into
conversation

Management

Discourse – Additional Features

 Banned words
 Danger words
 Pause content
 Default content
 Conversation threads
 Twitter/blog interfacing
 Context management

Discourse - Summary

 Hosted chatbot engine based on an extended version of
Artificial Intelligence Markup Language (AIML)
 Web form based editing
 Google style syntax
 Own web services interface to maximum user interface
flexibility
 Modules to access web services
 Web based management
 Dynamic training

Authoring a Chatbot

Bot Strategy

 Need to guide the user through the conversation
 Map out as a flow chart
 Start with catching general questions and then subtly
suggest keywords that the user can use to go to more
specific responses, eg:
User: Hello
Bot: Hi, I can tell you about Daden, our products and services
User: Great, what service does Daden offer
Bot: Daden provides virtual world building and chatbot design
User: What is a chatbot
Bot: That is someone like me. I can be used to sell or to help
User: How does a chatbot help to sell things?
Bot: I can tell the user about products, and access real-time
costs through web services
User: How do web services work?
Bot: I can access RSS feeds from your web site, and extract
costing information or any other data I need

(of course it's never that perfect in real life!)

The Kipling Way

How do Daden operate?

When was Daden founded?

Who owns Daden?

Where are Daden based?

What do Daden do?

What are Daden?
I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
- Kipling

Case Dimensions

What do Daden do?
What is a
virtual world?
Rephrasing What's a
chatbot?
What does Daden
do?
What's Daden Subsidiary
do? Questions

Daden is a virtual
worlds solution
provider.
Daden works with
virtual worlds and
chatbots.
Daden works in SL.

Alternate answers

Speech Acts & Adjacency Pairs

Speech Act Expects Example Example Response

WH/Open Question Statement Where are you Birmingham

Closed Question Yes/No Are you a computer Yes
Been here before No

Imperative Yes/No/OK Speak to me OK

Statement Acknowledgement My name is Fred Hello Fred
Question My name is Fred Why Fred?
Statement My name is Fred My name is Halo

Greeting Greeting Hi! How are you
Farewell Farewell Bye Bye
Request Accept/Reject Can I * Sure
Offer Accept/Reject Would you * No thanks
Complaint Excuse/remedy * does not work Sorry
Assessment Agree/Disagree I think * I agree
Blame Denial/Admission You shot * I didn't

Response “quality”: Preferred Second, Dispreferred Seconds, Non-sequitors

Approaching Case Creation

 VERY Iterative Process
 Aim at 1 week per cycle
 8+ cycles before live
Add Cases

Check Logs Locally Test

Test With New Users

Typical Project

 Typical Process:
 Agree requirement and personality
 Design avatar
 Gather case data
 Create cases, interfaces, modules and configuration
 Daden Testing and Tuning
 Site Integration
 Client Testing and Tuning
 Live
 Post Live Tuning
 2 – 3 months initial development
 2 – 3 months iterative testing with different users

Pricing

 £1000 pa licence/hosting
 £4000 - £40,000 based on:
 split of effort between Daden and client

 size of conversation base
 bespoke module
 Sitepal avatar from $199 pa

Chatbots - Conclusion

Efficient online self-service is a critical
component to the online purchase
experience: 57% of US online consumers
report that they are very likely to abandon an
online purchase if they cannot find quick
answers to their questions. However,
satisfaction with online self-service has room
to improve.

To reinvigorate online customer service,
eBusiness professionals should give virtual
agents another look.

Virtual agent technology is evolving, with
capabilities including natural language
processing and the ability to integrate with
enterprise systems. Virtual agents offer
compelling business benefits, including
enhancing customer experiences, reducing
It’s Time To Give Virtual Agents
Another Look, Forrester Report, live help costs, and driving cross-sells.
Dec 2009

Introduction to Chatbots

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