Apps are awesome. But today, consumers are expecting more services and more help. Internet’s giants have set the bar high concerning user experience: artificial intelligence, virtual assistants, bots. Why don’t you adopt too, the artificial intelligence?
You recently heard a lot about bots, those little smart robots that will stand you in good stead. You also heard about smart apps, or even progressive web apps. All of those technologies have one point in common: bringing to your pocket, a bit of intelligence or sometimes even a virtual builder ready to anticipate all your needs.
Technologies have considerably evolved since the beginning of the 2000’s. Back then, with the emergence of the Internet, you had everything within earshot on your computer without moving from home. The trend of smartphones and of Internet on smartphones has made everything even more accessible at any time, everywhere. For two or three years, we have now progressively passed a new step. Soon, a software will work for you, it will understand you, anticipate your needs and will get you the appropriate answers.
First virtual assistants
We are far from science fiction, yet more and more virtual assistants are appearing on the market: Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana, M, Echo… Internet’s giants are all developing solutions whose objectives is a better understanding of the users, in order to help them realize a given action. This is often done through a vocal assistant to whom the user can talk too. Other, like Google Now can collect information on users in order to anticipate their needs and share with them some alerts such as « your way to work will take you 40 minutes », « your Amazon package has been shipped » or « you plane take off in 5 hours ». Messages remain still limited to a small amount of services (traffic, trip’s alerts or online order).
From a general point of view, virtual assistants are still far from being human. Indeed, they cannot yet execute what a developer is doing, in other words, the basic functions such as the search for restaurants or services, etc. To go further, they will have to be based on « machine learning ». The algorithm itself will be smart and will learn step by step in order to get precise. For example, if you have made worked your coffee machine 5.000 times, the idea is that your personal assistant will let you know that it is time for you to have check a piece because the algorithm has learned from the context that all the other users, in the same region, with the same water and with the same lime content had a problem after 5.000 uses. This is just an example but the number of possibilities is huge.
Combine the advanced technologies
If we combine machine learning, captors and data from the users, we can go very far into their assistance to offer them optimal conditions to their experience. Because beside the words like « bots » or « virtual assistants », the crucial thing remains the same: being able to help the users by outpacing their needs and by offering them the most appropriate solution thanks to data and general context. This way, in the future, it should not be surprising anymore that a smartphone initiates the defrost of your windshield in the morning. Indeed, it will have figured that you have woke up at 8 (thanks to its sensors), and that you have an appointment at 9 on the other side of the city (as mentioned in your agenda), and that because of traffic you will have to leave at 8:20 (thanks to its access to traffic) and that your windshield is frozen thanks to sensors or by the temperature given by weather service. Today, this type of scenario has become totally realistic. The only matter is to link the different technologies and to imagine the most pertinent services.
To figure out what could be the most interesting services, agencies have to organize creation sessions, of reflexion and brainstorming with their clients to understand the situation and the objective of the desired experience users. It is often advised to gather specialists who will be able to master available technological solutions in order to achieve those artificial intelligence feats. This will allow you to slip, in the pockets of your clients; a solution that will help them in their everyday life and that will position your brand as the closest to the needs of your users.
