Conversational Interfaces:

Where does the journey go ?

We drive digital customer experience innovation in the physical world.

CURRENT FOCUS AREAS

Tangible

Conversational

Immersive

Responsive

Environments

360 content

Assistants

Chatbots

Virtual Reality

Concierges

Wearables

Internet of Things

Augmented Reality

4

THE JOURNEY

1. Dream Destinations

2. Where we are

3. Routes and Obstacles

4. Why to go

5. Insider tips

DREAM DESTINATIONS

SCIENCE FICTION BECOMES REALITY

"Computer, go to sensor probe. Any unusual readings ?" (Captain Kirk to USS Enterprise, Star Trek, 1966)

"Open the pod bay doors, HAL." (Dave Bowman to HAL, 2001 – A Space Odyssey, 1968)

"Hello, Bomb? Are you with me ?" (Lt. Doolittle to Bomb 20, Dark Star, 1974)

"This is all your fault." (C-3PO to R2D2, Star Wars, 1977)

"Kitt, there are no more drive-ins." (Michael Knight to K.I.T.T., Knight Rider, 1982)

"Is that weird ? You think I'm weird?" (Samantha to Theodore, Her, 2013)

THE PERFECT DIGITAL ASSISTANT

Interacts with user based on language (speech or text). conversational

understands intention

supportive

context aware

loyal and discreet

efficient

Understands intention behind sentences.

Is aware and makes use of context.

Helps user to do a task by conducting a dialog.

Doesn't follow own or 3rd party objectives. Respects privacy.

Doesn't start philosophical discussions.

Imagine how this would change the world.

No one would use your website or app any more.

WHERE WE ARE

"In from three to eight years we will have a machine with

the general intelligence of an average human being."

Marvin Minsky, 1970

Beam me up Scotty, there is no artificially intelligent life down here. Captain Kirk, 2017

http://weknowmemes.com/2011/12/siri-im-bleeding-really-bad-can-you-call-me-an-ambulance/

IT'S ABOUT MACHINE LEARNING NOT AI

"Field of Computer Science that gives computers the

ability to learn without being explicitly programmed."

Arthur Samuel, 1959

THE OLD WAY OF DOING THINGS

Problem

Analysis Find Algorithm Develop Code

THE NEW WAY OF DOING THINGS

Problem

Assemble

Training Data

Train

Neural Net

EXAMPLE APPLICATIONS

Picture/video to Text

Snow in New

York

Intent get forecast

Date March 10th

2017

Place NYC

Sentimen

t

neutral

What's the

weather

tomorrow in New

York ?

Speech to Text

What's the

weather

tomorrow

in New York ?

Text to Intent

ANATOMY OF A CUI

NATURAL

LANGUAGE

UNDER-

STANDING

Text DIALOG

MANAGE-

MENT

NATURAL

LANGUAGE

GENERATION Text

Machine

Learning

Programming

(no AI yet...) Templates

SPEECH TO

TEXT

Machine

Learning

TEXT TO

SPEECH

Intent

&

Entities

Actio

n

Machine

Learning

CONVERSATIONS AS A PLATFORM

Context Services

One-to-One Messaging

Conversation Services

Group Messaging

Authentication

Rights and Access Mgt.

...

Profile

History

Location

Preferences

...

Commerce Services

Payment

Subscriptions

Promotions

Advertising

...

Massive User Base

Installation-free environment

ROUTES AND OBSTACLES

TWO ROUTES AVAILABLE

Text based

Chatbots

Task oriented

Messenger based

Speech based

Assistants

Multi purpose

OS/Device based

Conversational

Interfaces

Chatbot Example

Assistant Example

Down to Earth...

THE ABYSS OF IGNORANCE

Cool

Ex

pe

rie

nc

e q

ua

lity

Use Case the system

is trained and

programmed for.

Training

effort

User

Expectations

Lousy http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Unfenced-Peril-Hazard-Danger-Caution-Risk-Cliff-1745961

NEW THINGS TO LEARN

Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) Conversational User Interfaces (CUIs)

NEW THINGS TO LEARN

Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) Conversational User Interfaces (CUIs)

Utterance

Variability

Entitity

Recognition

Language

dependencie

s

Idioms &

Emojis

Ambiguity

Handling

Mixed

Languages

...

Complexity

Handling

Topic

changes

Detect

failure

WHY TO GO ?

USER BEHAVIOUR TRENDS

App Fatique is real

Average download: 1 app/month (Source: Bussiness Insider Tech)

75% of apps not used again after first day. (Source: AppBoy)

Only 3 of installed apps are used frequently. (Source: comScore)

Messengers grow fast

Messenger surpassed Social Media in Monthly Active Users in 2015. (Source: BI Intelligence)

70% of WhatsApp users are using it daily. (Source: DMR)

Messengers are opened 9 times a day, average of all other apps 2 times. (Source: Flurry Analytics)

Speech based technologies are adopted quickly

Amazon sold > 5.000.000 Echo/Dots in 2015

CES 2017: >20 devices with Alexa, including household devices and cars.

Microsoft, LG and many others also announced devices.

CUIS HAVE SEVERAL ADVANTAGES

Customer Business

Conversational

Interfaces

Installation free

Login free

Contextual / Personal

...

Natural / Learn free

Build once

Change friendly

SAAS solutions

1-to-1 bi-directional

...

TRAVEL IS A NATURAL USE CASE

TRAVEL EXPERIENCE

I'd like to make vacation in the mountains. Any ideas ?

Don't forget immunization.

Are there offers during the school holidays ?

What's the cheapest flight?

The gate has changed. Please go to G23 now.

How was your trip ?

Looking for a nice italian restaurant for today.

Please go to the east entrance. The shuttle to the

hotel departs there.

TECHNOLOGY IS ALREADY AVAILABLE

Text based

Chatbots

Task oriented

Messenger based

Speech based

Assistants

Multi purpose

OS/Device based

Conversational

Interfaces

IBM

Watson

Apple

Siri

Amazon

Alexa

Samsung

Viv

Microsoft

Cortana

Facebook

Messenger

Microsoft

Skype

Telegram

...

Microsoft

LUIS

Facebook

wit.ai

Google

api.ai

Google

Allo Google

Assistant

Amazon

LEX

Amazon

ASK

Amazon

Polly

WeChat

...

Google

Home

Amazon

Echo / Dot

3rd Party

Devices

Household

Appliances

Cars

Slack

...

NEW ECOSYSTEMS ARISE

Messenger

Chatbot Ecosystem

Messenger Bot

Assistant Ecosystem

Assistant Bot

Messenger

Web Ecosystem

Search Engine

Website

Messenger

App Ecosystem

App Store App

Customer

Business

SEO, SEM

Submission, ASO

Submission, ???

Submission, ???

Customer

Business

Customer

Business

Customer

Business

NEW

NEW

THE USER BASE IS ALREADY MASSIVE

570.000.000

Number of users who login DAILY into

chinese messenger WECHAT

INSIDER TIPS

BETTER DON'T MISS THE TRAIN

• New opportunities to interact

with customers for marketing,

sales, service and experiences

evolve right now.

• Users quickly adopt and have

high expectations, especially in

personalization and

contextualization.

• New Ecosystems arise:

You are in or you are out.

START SMALL AND AGILE – BUT START

• Keep it simple and iterate quickly.

• There is a lot to learn for you, your agency, your customers but for your competitors too.

• Prepare for an agile process not for a big bang.

• Test with Closed User Groups early. Actively seek and use customer feedback.

• Beware of the Abyss of Ignorance.

• Focused and task-oriented Use Case is key.

• Don't try to imitate a human. Manage user expectations.

• There are a lot of reasons to start and no reason not to start.

• User behaviour changes, technology is available, Ecosystems arise.

• First steps don't need big budgets: Building simple CUISs is comparably easy.

START NOW

Don't make the same mistake you did with web, mobile and apps before ;-)

39

THANK YOU.

Director Technology

SapientRazorfish

Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring 17-21

50672 Cologne, Germany

Mail: fheimbrecht@sapient.com

Felix Heimbrecht