Opus Research Updates Intelligent Assistants and Bot Landscape

San Francisco, September 5, 2018. In anticipation of the Conversational Commerce Conference-San Francisco (#C3SF2018), Opus Research has issued an update of the “Intelligent Assistance and Smart Bot Landscape” first compiled and published in 2015. Since its introduction, the number of firms included in the landscape has mushroomed from fewer than 50 to well over 400 solutions providers. They range from the expected giants in search, ecommerce, social networking and raw computing (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and IBM), to hundreds of lesser-known innovators whose software or platforms support rapid recognition and understanding of each individual’s intent, speedy integration with existing customer care and data management infrastructure and conversational user interfaces that span time, devices and modes of communication.

“Intelligent Assistance requires systematic implementation of elements of ‘artificial intelligence,” explained Dan Miller, Lead Analyst at Opus Research. “In this Landscape and an accompanying technology blueprint we provide organizing principles that deflate the hype surrounding bots and highlight innovation that will improve customer experience and employee productivity.”

Five Principles Describe How to Succeed in Bot-ness

Metabots shape end-user expectation.
Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant are perceived as “state-of-the-art” assistants, at least in the #VoiceFirst domain. As their users experience more success in search, shopping and other daily activities, they will expect more from other Intelligent Assistants, including message bots, chatbots and virtual agents

Assistants evolve into Advisors.
We’ve already seen assistants turning into advisors as part of home healthcare, financial services and travel. With an infinite capacity for context (including transaction histories, payment preferences and vendor preferences) the move from passive assistant to pro-active advisor is a natural.

Improved productivity is the objective.
We’re far beyond mere natural language understanding. The new targets are task completion for individuals and higher level of productivity for employees. Conversational user interfaces for business processes is the key.

Intelligent Authentication must be built in.
User authentication must be baked into the conversation. It is key to privacy, fraud prevention and personalization as well. Both “front-end” (automated speech processing, biometrics) and “back-end” resources (behavioral analytics, location) must be designed to support zero-effort authentication.

New solution providers appear every day.
You can’t tell the players without a scorecard and the new Landscape (along with the Technology Blueprint) has provided marketing, support and digital commerce specialists with a useful tool for mapping new entrants into their proper position in the ecosystem.

About Conversational Commerce Conference
C3 is convened semi-annually to provide a venue for marketing, customer care and digital commerce executives to meet with solutions providers spanning #VoiceFirst, messagebots, chatbots and virtual assistants. www.conversationalcommerce.net

Contact: Derek Top, Research Director
dtop@opusresearch.net

About Opus Research
Founded in 1986, Opus Research is an advisory and analysis firm providing critical insights and consulting on software and services that support multimodal customer care. Its focus on “Conversational Commerce,” merges intelligent assistance, conversational intelligence, and intelligent authentication. More info: www.opusresearch.net

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This release was published on openPR.