Chatbots are becoming more widely used and Bangladesh hasn’t lagged when it comes to developing these pieces of software used in customer service or information acquisition.
More or less all online platforms in the country are equipped with live chats and they are mostly enabled by chatbots.
Chatbot, popularly known as ‘bot’ is basically softwares developed using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and is designed to carry out conversation by input through text or voice and then generate a response that is also in natural language.
Several Bangladeshi firms are now developing the software and one organisation has even succeeded in tapping the foreign market.
Chatbot developing company MCC Limited Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ashraf Abir said, “We are getting good response regarding chatbots.”
Asbir who also served as the director of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) said that his company developing chatbots for 11 organisations.
He said that they develop the software through an engine called Fox AI. “The best thing about the chatbot is that an organisation can boost sales without any human agents.”
He added that that his company has also developed a bot for Unilever PureIt’s Facebook page and the success rate is satisfactory as well.
Information and Communication Technology researcher Arif Nizami says that call centres and customer cares are also using chatbots in addition to human agents.
“When the chatbot has run out of information or getting stuck that’s when it transfers the call of chat box to the human agent,” said Nizami, also the CEO of PreneurLab.
“Our chatbots are being used by Daily Star, mobile phone operators Robi, Banglalink, BRAC and IDLC,” he added and said that their use will increase more as it is both time and cost effective.
REVE Systems is another chatbot developer whose bots are being used in a government projects and by over 25,000 people and is programmed to decipher commands in Bangla language as well.
Their clientele includes a bank on Bhutan and a popular e-commerce platform in India. The Commercial Bank of Kuwait is also a potential client.
“Our chatbots are able to supply the customer with a lot of information. No matter what the input, the REVE chatbot will decode the question and provide the answer,” says REVE sales Division chief Towhidur Rahman.
He added that unlike human agents, chatbots are able to communicate with several people at the same time and only transfers the question to the human agent when its unable to formulate an answer.
According to experts the growth of this sector is quite promising exceeding 10 percent and it is owing to the use in local organisation.
Global Market Insights predicts that the chatbot will be a $1.34 billion industry by 2024 which was only $250 million in 2017.