Chatbots.org Business News

Crash-test dummies constitute humanoid test devices used in simulated vehicle collisions. For many years those anthropomorphic devices were physical dummies of adults and children. Now begins the era for dummies to become virtual. They are digitalized similarly to avatars, and biologically modelled as any virtual physiological human.

Online Virtual Assistants are becoming more widespread and consumer appetite for them is growing, as highlighted by an independent survey of 1,500 consumers across Europe.

Results showed that 81% of people said they would be more likely to engage with an online Virtual Assistant if it improved their online experience, 72% welcomed them becoming part of every website and a similar number said they would spend longer on a website that had one.

Virtual assistants can take on multiple roles on a website, such as answering customer questions, performing various helpful tasks and connecting to enterprise systems when needed. Their intelligence allows them to remember facts, learn from their conversations and maintain a two-way dialogue with visitors but what other characteristics should they have?

Children with autism can develop skills they normally find difficult by interacting with virtual worlds. By using multitouch, these children activate a virtual character on a screen and experiment with different social scenarios. This way, researchers can compare their responses to those displayed in real-life situations.

Next IT, a leading provider of intelligent virtual assistants for business, announced that it has reaced a multi-year deal with United Airlines. Next IT will provide a natural, or every-day, language solution to create an exceptional customer experience for travelers using united.com.

The virtual assistant is planned to function much like ‘Alex,’ who was implemented by Continental Airlines in 2009 and has answered over 20 million questions for customers on Continental.com.

It’s that time of the year again: children writing up their wishlists for the upcoming holidays. Ecreation once again enables kids to chat with their favorite holiday characters: Saint Nicholas who is a local custom on the 5th of December in the Netherlands and Belgium, and Santa Claus who visits most children worldwide during Christmas.

Since today Dutch speaking children can chat again with Saint Nicholas - known locally as Sinterklaas - by adding his address to their Live Messenger. A chatbot that has been programmed to act like the real Saint, responds to children with witty remarks and a sense of humor. Kids can play games with him, listen and sing-a-long to his songs, and even find recipes to make candy which is associated with the popular holiday, celebrated each year on the 5th of December. Boys and girls can even report naughty friends to the Saint! Since his “resurrection” in 2006, over 200,000 people had a chat with Sinterklaas.

Additionally, as Santa Claus will make an appearance again on Live Messenger in December. This chatterbot is speaking English and has a similar range of useful Christmas related functionalities.

“Each year the Sinterklaas and Santa chatbots are a huge success, ” says Sjoerd van Dijk of Ecreation, developer of these chatbots. “It enables children to have a fun time chatting and interacting with their favorite holiday characters, each year they are having a fun time using all the possible activities and functionalities.”

With the trend of having data stored in the cloud and continuously increasing bandwidths, the idea of a mobile phone being an individual device is no longer necessary. SecurePhone research project, funded partly by the European Commission’s Framework Program 6, aims to change the way people interact and make business. SecurePhone is expected to improve trust and confidence in new technologies by masking high-tech functionalities under the reassuring interface of a smartphone.

MyCyberTwin, a new generation of artificial intelligence technology, today announced the launch of its Turing Test Challenge. The contest gives developers the needed tools and instruction to leverage MyCybertwin’s AI Platform to build intelligent virtual agents (IVA’s) and compete head-to-head with other developer agents.

Wikipedia defines the ‘Turing Test’ as a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior. It was first introduced by Alan Turing in his 1950 paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence highlighting the ability for machines to think. 

“Developers love working with new technology platforms. They are constantly looking for state-of-the-art products and services they can perfect,” said Liesl Capper, CEO. “Thanks to the inspirational work by the likes of Alan Turing, and the recent launch of Siri, today artificial intelligence is ready for prime time and quickly be adopted by businesses.  The ‘Turing Test Challenge’ allows developer to take advantage of MyCyberTwin’s AI solutions to build virtual agents to compete against other developers. Since creating this concept, the response we have already gotten is tremendous.  We are extremely excited to see what happens when developers get their hands on our technology.” 

VirtuOz, Inc., the leading provider of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) for online marketing, sales, and support, today announced the company has been selected as a winner of the Best in Biz Awards, taking gold in the Best New Service of the Year category.  Hundreds of entries were received in this year’s awards program from an impressive array of public and private companies across multiple industries, sectors and regions.  The winning companies represent the best in American business.

Creative Virtual Ltd has taken web self-service to the next level for two more customers with their recent integration of Google search functionality with the V-Person™ (virtual agent)  solutions deployed on the Milton Keynes Council and Renault UK websites.

Milton Keynes Council’s) online virtual assistant Shak now has the added power of Google search. When a user asks a question or enters a keyword, Shak searches both the V-Person knowledgebase and the Milton Keynes Council website for matches. Results of the site search are displayed in the ‘Google Search Results’ tab and, when no matches are found in the virtual assistant knowledgebase, in a page loaded in the background. This integration means that visitors to the Council’s website are now able to find the answers to all their queries with the ease of one user friendly interface.

Learn more about Milton Keynes Council’s most recent updates to ‘Ask Shak’

VirtuOz, Inc., the leading provider of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) for online support, today announced the availability of its marketing and sales IVAs.  Already a leader in virtual agents for support with the largest number of live enterprise intelligent virtual agents for the Global 2000, VirtuOz now offers a full suite of enterprise-class IVAs, enabling companies to create digital customer relationships and to engage with today’s online consumer across all transactions. 

In addition, VirtuOz revealed Chloe, the company’s new virtual agent for online marketing.  Using VirtuOz’ cloud-based solution and best practices, Chloe not only answers questions about the virtual agent market, the company, its products, services, and customers, she also represents VirtuOz’ unique brand.  She is designed to address the needs of prospective customers, partners, investors, and even job applicants and will serve as a showcase for virtual agent best practices as she continues to learn.