This year at our Intelligent Assistants Conference in London, co-located with the Intelligent Authentication Conference, we’ve seen companies significantly up the ante on their goals for intelligent assistance. As Dan Miller, lead analyst & founder with Opus Research, already noted in his summary of the conference, all of the company case studies presented ambitious visions for the future of intelligent assistance.

Basic forms of intelligent self-service aren’t optional anymore. Today’s consumers demand easy self-service they can access from anywhere. We’ve already shown that the “easy” stuff works. It reduces call center costs, provides customers with greater flexibility, and gives customers 24/7 access to the answers and support they need. But brands can gain new customers and deepen loyalty among existing clientele by pushing the technology to offer surprising new forms of intelligent assistance. Here are just a few examples from the conference of how companies are already planning to do just that.

Shell Explores New Opportunities for IA
Shell has been leveraging technology from Artificial Solutions to build virtual assistants that can access deep knowledge about a vast range of the company’s lubricants. These virtual assistants have proven extremely useful at answering technical and product availability questions, as well as at making recommendations about the best lubricant for specific applications.

Now that the virtual assistants are answering nearly half of customer’s basic questions, Shell is exploring new opportunities. Integrating the virtual assistants with additional knowledge bases can increase the scope of areas where they provide assistance. Even greater opportunities lie in training the virtual assistants to cross sell and upsell products, such as informing consumers about the advantages of switching from mineral to synthetic lubricants. Shell even envisions intelligent assistants at the fuel pump that can assist and inform consumers at the point of purchase.

Enabling Ticket Solutions
Ticketbis uses Inbenta’s intelligent assistant and avatar solution to help both buyers and sellers of tickets on their ticket exchange marketplace. The intelligent assistant already fields a majority of users’ frequently asked questions about the buying and selling process. Now Ticketbis is exploring more deep linking into product databases to enable the assistant to answer questions about specific ticket prices and availability.

USAA: Developing Valuable Services & Member Loyalty
USAA has been aggressively on the forefront of intelligent assistant and intelligent authentication technologies for years. With the help of Nuance’s technology, USAA began implementing biometric authentication systems in 2013, rolling out voice and facial recognition solutions that increased security while making it easier for members to log into the mobile app. USAA was also an early adopter of Nuance’s Nina technology to drive a predictive, conversational assistant for its members.

Now USAA is looking at providing even more valuable services to its members by transforming their intelligent assistants into personal advisors. As Dan Miller pointed out, USAA has a vision for intelligent advisors that understand a member’s financial situation and goals. Data shows that many people are more receptive to financial discussions and advice from digital advisors than from real people. Perhaps the way to deepen loyalty and trust among members is to develop intelligent advisors members can confide in and seek counsel from.

Many of the panel discussions at the conference touched on the future possibilities of intelligent assistance. As intelligent authentication, business intelligence, big data, machine learning, and knowledge management capabilities converge, intelligent assistants will have a wealth of insights to tap into. Now is the time to start thinking big. What should intelligent assistance look like two or three years from now and how can we start building it today? This is where the real fun starts.

Categories: Conversational Intelligence, Intelligent Assistants, Intelligent Authentication, Articles