Editorial
Computers that talk back to you have been around since at least the 1960s when an MIT professor developed a “chatterbot” named ELIZA that used premade templates to repeat words back to users.
Decades later, “chatterbots” are now simply called chatbots, but their appeal remains clear: "If we could figure out a way to talk to our computers the way we talk to other people … it would make those computers easier to understand and operate, more accessible to everyone, and just more fun to use.”
Because chatbots mimic the experience of talking to someone, they’ve been a natural (and powerful) tool for customer-focused use cases, and are well on their way to becoming a “primary customer service channel” for many organizations.
But chatbots aren’t just for customer service. They’re supplementing IT help desks and other functions, especially for use cases related to improving the employee experience. In fact, employees say they are “optimistic, excited and grateful” about using chatbots in the workplace.
As you strive to improve the overall employee experience, it’s crucial to consider the digital employee experience — which is where chatbots come in. Today, more and more organizations are using chatbots, now fueled by artificial intelligence (AI), to transform the increasingly vital employee digital experience (DEX).
AI-Driven Chatbots: A Better Experience for Employees
With AI, chatbots are no longer limited to pre-formulated answers. Instead, they have access to previously unimaginable volumes of data — including external data from third-party sources and proprietary internal data (after opt-ins and data privacy requirements are met, of course). An AI-driven chatbot also can learn and grow from user interactions. That means it is constantly improving and becoming even more relevant.
I joke sometimes that the chatbot is more than a digital tool or IT assistant — he’s “my little buddy that has access to all the answers to all my questions,” and it’s easy to see why. When interacting with a modern chatbot, it’s almost as if you’re talking with a real person — especially for chatbots incorporating natural language query (NLQ) technology. Today’s chatbots can simplify complex instructions, summarize long documents or translate content into a different language. You can even train your chatbot on your organization’s tone and voice, so it truly feels like you’re talking to someone within the organization.
These qualities make chatbots one of the most effective delivery mechanisms for AI. Even if your employees have access to AI-driven content through a search box in a browser window, an AI-driven chatbot typically offers a better experience — which helps you enhance your digital employee experience (DEX) and increase AI adoption throughout your organization.
Related Article: Let's Take Digital Workplace Chatbots to the Next Level
How AI Chatbots Enhance Productivity and Add Value
By adopting chatbots, companies can achieve significant time and cost savings, as well as operational efficiencies. So it’s no surprise that they’re becoming a must-have tool in the modern digital workplace.
For employees, chatbots improve the digital employee experience by helping them streamline communications, reduce their workload and be more efficient in everyday tasks. So how exactly are employees using AI-driven chatbots to get more done throughout the day?
1. Getting Faster Answers, 24/7
"Technology is making us more impatient," which, ironically, is one of the most common reasons people enjoy their chatbot experiences. Chatbots can accelerate response times, "delivering answers three times faster." An AI-powered chatbot gives your employees quick answers to FAQs and other information, so they don’t have to wait endlessly for a response. Speed and access are especially valuable for organizations with large numbers of remote and hybrid workers. (And don’t forget, AI never has a bad day.)
2. Automating Routine Tasks
How much time do your employees spend managing their schedules, solving basic IT issues or dealing with other time-consuming (but routine) tasks? An AI-driven chatbot can handle these inquiries and automate many daily functions, whether you want to reduce the time employees spend on common HR tasks by 75% or simply let employees “offload tedious office work.” As one executive explained, “Bots handle all of your repetitive questions and tasks, meaning your agents are freed up to focus on the complex issues that require a human touch."
Related Article: Forge a Path of Least Resistance to AI and Automation
3. Predicting Next Steps
With AI, a chatbot can use predictive analytics to anticipate what your “silent sufferers” and other employees need — and what problems they might face — before there’s an issue. AI is constantly analyzing historical data and usage patterns, so it can predict everything from a document an employee might need to a potential system failure on their laptop based on sensor data and anomaly detection. This functionality is especially useful for your IT help desk since the chatbot can suggest next steps and preventative measures and (for IT issues) allow your help desk team to pinpoint and solve problems quickly.
4. Creating a More Connected Workplace
Even if you're not quite ready to make chatbots official AI employees, there are significant benefits for turning to AI-driven chatbots as co-pilots. When chatbots have access to your employees’ calendars, schedules, meeting agendas and other data (again, according to opt-ins and data privacy compliance), they can remove bottlenecks, promote a more agile workforce, and allow seamless interactions across departments and functions.
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5. Building Your Culture and Brand
With “quiet quitters” making up at least 50% of the U.S. workforce, it’s more important than ever to make digital workspaces as fun and inviting as possible. You can train your chatbot to mirror the voice of your most charismatic executive, share fun facts about the company, and maybe even tell a joke or two. A chatbot can be the always-on (and always-enthusiastic) digital companion that gives employees another reason to smile at work.
The Importance of High-Quality Data
As you integrate AI chatbots into your workflow and processes, remember that AI is driven by data — which is why it’s so important to focus on data quality from the start. “Without good data to feed into the AI, trust can never be achieved,” as a report from the Enterprise Strategy Group noted. Ideally, your data should be well-structured with minimal noise, broad, deep and delivered in real-time (or as close as possible).
Chatbots may never completely replace people and the interactions we have with each other every day, and I hope they don’t. But if you’re not using AI-driven chatbots to support your employees — and improve your DEX scores — you’re missing out on an increasingly valuable tool.
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