When Apple Inc. first launched Siri in late 2012, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users discovered what it was like to have their own personal virtual assistant.
As with any new technology, Siri was met with mixed reviews. Some claimed that Siri’s voice recognition wasn’t up-to-par and that her responses were highly limited. Since then, Siri and many other virtual assistants come a long way, receiving countless upgrades and now operate on an entirely higher plain referred to as Intelligent Virtual Assistants.
Intelligent virtual assistants are rapidly taking over traditional customer contact centers, becoming very popular particularly among young users that are potentially attracted toward the concept of computerized customer executives and self-service. This increase in popularity is expected to drive Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market growth at a CAGR of 39.32 percent from 2013-2018.
A combination of natural language processing and artificial intelligence is making it possible for virtual assistants to possess large volumes of knowledge repositories and to solve almost all user queries with a more than 90 percent accuracy rate.
An intelligent virtual is a customized automated digital character, such as an avatar or a 3D animated persona, which provides information and service assistance to customers. This assistant supports users’ queries on topics such as company details including financial and investor-related details, product portfolios, and technology-related information. They provide better customer engagement when compared to customer executives. Enterprises use virtual assistants to reduce their spending on developing many customer contact centers because they offer maximum revenue for minimum resources.
What most people want to know is: what are the pros and cons of using virtual assistant technology?
TechNavio analysts have weighed the market drivers, challenges and trends to give you a solid list of pros and cons in the Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market:
PRO: Need to Automate Knowledge Management
Nowadays, automated knowledge management is the basic requirement of any website and many sectors are deploying virtual assistant software that enhances the customer experience. To achieve improved profits, enterprises are automating the knowledge management process through the deployment of virtual assistant software. For instance, when clients enter their queries on any website, the virtual assistant software immediately interprets the query, automates the response process, and provides the best possible answer.
CON: Difficulty in Integration of Knowledge Base of Virtual Assistant and Enterprise
Virtual assistant service providers have to integrate the front-end (i.e., the appearance on the screen) with the back-end (i.e., the knowledge base of the customer) to provide a complete solution. This integration is very difficult, as enterprises and virtual assistants each have their own knowledge base. This means that the deployment of virtual assistant solutions can duplicate the knowledge base creating multiple knowledge bases. This hampers the process of providing a complete solution to the customers, as virtual assistants answer customer queries from their knowledge base. This makes it mandatory to integrate the right knowledge base with the front-end to provide the best possible answer to a customer enquiry.
PRO: Increasing Demand for Web Self-Service
Enterprises deploy virtual assistant software as it eases web self-services through automatic analysis, and the search for new content eradicates the need for any specialist skills or dedicated resource to answer client queries. Virtual assistant solutions allow customers to find answers quickly and easily, which enhances customer experience and increases the brand image. Virtual assistants, with the help of web self-service, also reduce customer calls and emails, which lessen the load on the contact center, helping enterprises in achieving fast return on investment.
CON: Complexity in Understanding the User Objective
Customers can query in the form of text as well as speech, as virtual assistants use natural language processing technology and semantic search techniques to provide an answer. These techniques use complex algorithms to understand user objectives and sentiments to generate an appropriate response. As a customer query may vary from being very technical to very crude, it is very difficult for virtual agents to keep track of all forms of enquiries. Different customers may ask the same question in many different ways, which also complicates the communication with the virtual agents.
PRO: Growing Need to Improve Customer Relationship Management
Customer relationships are one of the key focus areas for effective revenue generation in any enterprise. Enterprises are attempting to develop a wide customer base because of the increase in competition to obtain maximum market share. They started implementing enterprise solutions such as enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management, but it is difficult to maintain the same level of personal contact with all customers. The lack of a centralized system to control continuous communication with customers with relevant and consistent data leads to loss of customers and exposes the business to risks. I
In addition, virtual assistants can be deployed for social media, mobile devices, and enterprise websites, enabling them to have continuous communication with customers. For instance, enterprises deploy virtual assistants to provide product or brand information to customers to increase the brand awareness. They also help in promotions by asking new customers to sign into the company’s loyalty account.
CON: Viability Issues
The Global Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market is still in the nascent stage but is growing at a fast pace. Service provider solutions have more or less the same features, making it very difficult for customers to choose between them. The viability criteria of the service providers play an important role because a customer selects a provider expecting to have a long-term contract, as the deployment of a virtual assistant is costly.
VERDICT:
There is no denying that virtual assistants are here to stay, as the overwhelming popularity has led to equally overwhelming demand. It is important to remember that market is still young, and has a lot of “growing up” to do. Virtual assistance service providers are continously updating, upgrading and completely overhauling their technologies to improve user experience.
Furthermore, the Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market also has a lot of investor interest because of high growth potential. Many smartphone developers are looking to develop mobile-based virtual assistants, and there is also a huge demand for cloud-based solutions as well. This is just the tip of the iceberg for the potential virtual assistant applications.
