Virtual agents / Chatbots
in United Kingdom

Dadorac is an iPhone App with speech synthesis and 5 avatars. Don’t want to give set questions to ask, but try to ask about whatever interests you, using conventional spellings.  Try questions that you would ask a friend, but that conventional chatbots would provide poor responses to.  Some examples might be:

“what are you having for dinner?”

“where did i leave my keys?”

“where shall we go?”

“why do my knees hurt?”

First turn off your iPhone mute (switch in left-hand corner), then start the application, in order to listen to Dadorac’s speech.

MoodiMonitor is a chatbot created for young people who want express their feelings through a confidential channel. The chatbot asks users a series of questions to find out how he can aid them whenever they are, for example, happy, depressed or being bullied at school. When they are feeling down, the chatbot will try to cheer them up. If he is not able to do so, he will refer them to Childline UK. The chatbots database consists of menu-structured questions and answers. Moodimonitor is created in coorporation with Thin Martian.

Ada is a Virtual Assistant present on a Fido intelligence website dedicated to foreign contractors . The bot, speaking English, guides the Internet users through solutions provided by Fido intelligence and explains how they function. Ada, created based on Text intelligence technology, is the first bot that can move through the entire width of a website, rather than occurring only in a chat window. Additionally, this virtual assistant is equipped with several gadgets used during the chat with internet user.

Website visitors just type a question into the question box; the system then sifts through the vast amounts of data on the site looking for possible answers. Once an answer has been found it appears on the screen along with links to further information. It is hoped ‘Ask Alex’ will become the first port of call for people looking for answers, providing instant response and feedback and reducing the need to call the Customer Service Centre, providing a faster more responsive service and saving both time and money. New questions will continue to be added to further improve customer satisfaction. User input is vital, if a question is not being answered there is a facility which allows the user to submit the question for inclusion.

This new interface has allowed Lincolnshire to optimise their online content, by making the information more customer focused and easier to find, therefore creating a solution to both, online and offline customer service issues. At the moment the technology is only available on the ‘I am a Parent’ section of the Lincolnshire site, however in time it will be widened out to other areas, to further enhance service delivery. To see “Ask Alex” in action, please click here to visit the Parenting section of the Lincolnshire website.

Peter Barton, Head of Web and Information Services at Lincolnshire believes the Synthetix customer service technology gives them a solution to both their online and offline customer service issues;

“People like talking - or writing - to people. And that’s how they see it. We anticipate this being a big win for our customer service.

You can ask Jenny any questions about Virgin Media Services or ask her for assistance if you need help with browsing through the website.  Jenny’s face is animated and changes with her mood. Her face is a virtual copy of a real Virgin Media customer service agent.

Customers with questions and queries can click on ‘Help’ on the homepage or input their questions directly to the page at other points on the site and are greeted by the smartAgent. Andrea has been designed to talk to thousands of people every week, answering their queries and navigating them around the website. The conversational, natural language interface provides straight answers to straight questions. Andrea is answering queries about Travelodge venues and has a wealth of knowledge, from hotel directions to in-room facilities.

Travelodge have full access to the Synthetix.info analytics service and can see all the questions that visitors to the website have. This allows them to make sure that Andrea is always updated to answer any new queries that may arise. It also provides detailed management reports to monitor the success of the smartAgent.

Wanda is magic.  She is a fairy and works for Park - the UK’s number 1 for Christmas savings.  Wanda is there to help Agents, customers and anyone interested in ordering from Park with their questions.  Questions can be asked in natural language.  Wanda can help you navigate around the website, answer questions about commission, orders, deliveries, vouchers and more.  She can let you know how many weeks you have left to pay for your orders, and how much you should be paying each week. 

The agent gives you great makeup tips especially around False Lash Effect Mascara, it also has great links to content on Facebook, You Tube and along with Exclusive videos from Caroline Barnes (a Max Factor makeup artist). This agent uses the latest click to share technology which gives the agent a great viral edge. Users can be watching the video or taking a poll and instantly share the content with their friends in messenger.

A.B.I responds in natural language to what you type. She is able to “learn” what to say by analysing her conversation logs and by direct question/answers with visitors. During a conversation A.B.I will decide if she enjoys chatting to someone or not and will acknowledge what she deems negative or positive input.