Case study: Effective chatbot applications in enterprise environments

AI-powered chatbots have immense value to add in a wide range of enterprise settings, as discussed in our previous three articles in this series.

To this end, CIOs cited chatbots as the primary focus of AI investments in their organisations this year.

As specialists in the field of intelligent automation, rapidMATION builds intelligent chatbot solutions to solve a diverse range of business challenges; and we can do so rapidly, leveraging a range of market-ready technologies – including:

• AI capabilities;
• Software robotics; and
• Intelligent human-in-the-loop processing.

Due to our deep expertise in this field and knowledge of leading technologies, we can develop solutions to meet any business goal.

Our intelligent chatbots provide smart conversational experiences and full-cycle process automation support, drawing on some of the best technologies and tools in the market.

Below, we have outlined three examples:

Case study 1: Streamlining the client onboarding process   

One of our clients is a legal firm that specialises in personal injury cases.

As this organisation regularly deals with a large volume of potential new clients, we developed an intelligent chatbot solution that streamlines their client onboarding process in a smart and sensitive way.  

To build this rapidMATION intelligent chatbot, we used the Microsoft Bot Framework to provide an enterprise-grade conversational AI experience.

This solution draws on several cognitive services, including AI and natural language processing, enabling it to listen to, understand, and converse naturally with users – as well as learn from them.

It also utilises QnA Maker to answer specific questions based on existing FAQ sources, structured documents and other materials.

The result is an intelligent conversational assistant that acts as a first point of contact, welcoming new clients and taking them through a user-friendly question and answer session to discover their needs.

Based on these requirements, the chatbot platform transfers the client directly to the most relevant legal expert.

This allows the individual to continue his or her consultation without wasting time or repeating information unnecessarily.

This approach simplifies and rationalises the client onboarding process with two key goals in mind:

1. Providing a better level of customer service; and
2. Enabling the firm's lawyers to focus their time on higher value work.

With this solution in place, legal practitioners can now focus their attention on areas that require their expert knowledge, rather than spending billable time going through routine Q-As.  

Case study 2: Helping new hires with minimal impact on senior staff  

In a knowledge-centric working environment, new hires require an intensive amount of support and guidance during the first few months on the job.

While it's important to answer their questions promptly and thoroughly, the time spent mentoring new starters can place undue pressure on senior colleagues who already have large workloads of their own.

When one of our clients in the legal services industry faced this challenge, rapidMATION developed an intelligent chatbot solution to step in and help new hires, as well as any other employees who require information fast.

We rapidly developed this solution on the Microsoft Bot Framework, embedding a range of cognitive capabilities, including a natural language processing and machine learning component to connect people, knowledge and data through a unique conversational experience.

We also utilised QnA Maker to give this intelligent chatbot the ability to retrieve answers to specific questions by leveraging existing organisational data from multiple sources. 

This has given our client's new hires 24/7 access to a smart virtual assistant that can point at the firm's internal knowledge base, retrieve the relevant information, and provide detailed answers to their questions in a user-friendly and conversational manner.

This helps to create a positive user experience, while minimising the need for colleagues to disrupt each other or conduct time-consuming research on their own.

A key benefit of this solution is that it can learn and improve performance over time, through machine learning and its ability to bring humans into the loop intelligently.

When a question can't be answered by the chatbot, it automatically re-routes the query to a relevant human expert to provide a timely answer – making sure the user gets the information they need, while simultaneously learning from this experience.

The result? An intelligent chatbot solution that continually evolves to add greater value.

With this approach, experienced colleagues still share their knowledge, but only when this is truly necessary – allowing our client to gain maximum value from employees and technology.

Case study 3: Managing HR requests more efficiently

Conversational AI can also be deployed to streamline a range of HR processes.

To this end, we custom-developed a rapidMATION intelligent chatbot that helps one of our clients handle a range of different HR-related queries and service requests.

For this solution, we combined three technology platforms to create a foundation for intelligent automation and conversational AI.

Firstly, we used the Microsoft Bot Framework to create a smart virtual assistant that can converse with and learn from users.

It also draws on several out-of-the-box skills, which enable it to read email, check calendars and more.

We then integrated this solution with the K2 digital process automation platform and the UiPath robotic process automation platform and created a custom skill for each of these systems.

This means that a K2- or UiPath-driven process can be triggered directly from the chatbot.    

For example, employees from across the enterprise can ask this virtual HR assistant to check their leave balances, enquire when the end of year closing period is and set up leave requests automatically; or launch the application process for a new company phone.

The chatbot collects all the requisite data and shares this with the relevant manager for review.

In order to action these tasks, the chatbot system integrates with either K2 or UiPath.

K2 helps to orchestrate tasks and data between the chatbot, the RPA software robot, enterprise software and humans, who are pulled into the loop only when necessary (to approve a mobile phone request, for example).

UiPath, on the other hand, provides a software robot that can execute tasks and share data between various enterprise platforms – freeing HR specialists from routine, repetitive work.

This approach enables our client to eliminate HR bottlenecks, provide employees with swift assistance, and manage routine processes and data more efficiently.

Ready to capitalise on these benefits and build an intelligent chatbot solution for your business?

Get in touch here – and, if you haven't done so already, don't forget to register for our webinar: "Better Together: Intelligent Chatbots, Software Bots - Humans" on December 11.