What is the difference between the three options?

“Click-together” Chatbot

The easiest way to create a chatbot is surely via one of the many chatbot providers to click static dialogues together via a graphical interface. For example, to find the opening hours or address of a business. However, you will reach the limits as soon as external data sources from business systems need to be integrated into a conversation. The same applies for intelligent user conversations using AI technologies.

Self-developed Chatbot

Alternatively, it is advisable to develop a chatbots yourself. In principle, these degrees of freedom to integrate any business systems, any messengers and AI systems is enormously. However, this also applies to the costs of implementation and maintenance of chatbots, which quickly make integration uneconomical.

Usage of a Chatbot Platform

Companies can profit to unify the benefits of both options. Therefore it makes sense to use a chatbot platform that allows flexible integration of business systems and AI technologies, without having to redevelop all the essential components such as interfaces to messengers and AI systems. A chatbot platform is similar to a LEGO kit (“bottom-up strategy”): The basic functionalities (building blocks) are ready to implement an application scenario (model).

Which option is interesting for who?

The selection of an option is driven from the respective application scenario and the individual requirements derived to the chatbot. For example, how intelligent the chatbot should be, but also requirements for messenger services and business system integrations. Basically, the competence of a chatbot should be high enough to ensure a positive user experience. If this is not the case, there is a high probability that the user will not use the chatbot service a second time.

The following table provides an overview of fundamental selection criteria.

	“Click-together” Chatbot	Self-developed Chatbot	Usage of a Chatbot-Platform
Realization of the chatbot use case
Do I like only static content as a chatbot answer?	Mostly only static content is possible	Static and dynamically generated content can be realized	Static and dynamically generated content can be realized
Do you want to use information from external data sources and business systems? (e.g., ERP-, CRM-Systems)		X	X
Should the chatbot act intelligently? (Integration of AI technologies)	Mostly not possible	Freely selectable	Mostly freely selectable
Are programming skills mandatory?	Not mandatory	Always mandatory	Partially required if own use cases need to be realized
Should the chatbot be extensible with libraries?	No	Yes	Yes
Should other instant messengers be used or integrated?	Defined by the provider	Freely implementable	Defined by the provider, but usually expandable
Should the chatbot interact with the company’s IT infrastructure? (e.g., user identification via Active Directory or LDAP, loading of user data)	Not possible	Freely implementable	Prefabricated modules freely selectable and usually expandable
Entrepreneurial and economic aspects
Do you have high data protection requirements in your company?	Low	Very high	High (PrivateCloud) to very high (onPremise)
What are the costs for the realization?	Low	High	Low to medium
How much time is needed to realize a chatbot?	Due to limited chatbot intelligence without external data source connection: <1 day	With chatbot intelligence and external data source connection: ~ 3 – 6 months (depends on data source)	With chatbot intelligence and external data source connection: ~ 3 days to 2 weeks (depends on data source)
Would you like to have privacy under your own control?	Public Could: Defined by provider	Fully under your control (exception for public instant messengers)	Public Cloud: Defined by provider Private Cloud: Mostly under your own control onPremise: Fully under your control (exception for public instant messengers)
Cloud
Should the location of the installation / provider be freely selectable?	Defined by provider	Freely selectable	Private Cloud and onPremise: Freely selectable
Which type of hosting is preferred? (Cloud / onPremise)	Only Cloud	Cloud and onPremise	Cloud and onPremise

 

Is any trend apparent for corporate communication via messengers and chatbots?

The penetration to use instant messenger and chatbots is covering all business areas: from human resources, marketing, to internal IT support. However, all areas have one thing in common: all chatbots used in various business units must offer users added value in order to establish themselves permanently in the company.

Especially in areas requiring fast communication, the instant messengers will become more prevalent and thus opening up enormous potential for chatbots. Slack is a good example that allows users to communicate through channels, while chatbots automatically provide valuable content (such as sentiment analysis and competitor information).

What is important at this point when using instant messengers (and chatbots) for communication?

Many chatbot prototypes do not go beyond a technological demonstration, as they usually lack a positive user experience and real value. A chatbot without the integration of business systems inevitably leads to a limited technological implementation with low added value. Chatbots can only increase added value, when external data sources are connected which extend the overall competence. In other words, it can also be said that chatbots only represents simple puppets without the expertise of external data sources.

Would you like to know more about the topic and how the Business Bot platform supports you? Contact us.