Releasing Ashtrid - Our new Customer Service Bot
In time past, small, medium, and large organizations handle their customer services on a one-on-one basis; this can be very daunting for both staff and clients, as there is usually a long queue of clients to attend to and too many questions/requests to handle. But with the emergence of technology, the trend is gradually changing; we no longer need to waste time, energy, and human resources just to handles these requests.
Technology brought a lot of possibilities, one of which is Chatbot. Chatbots otherwise known as virtual assistants are artificial intelligence (AI) software that can simulate conversations (or a chat) with a user in natural language through messaging applications, websites, and mobile apps or the telephone. They are deployed by organizations to simplify the customer service task and enhance user experience.
Initial demo done with Ashtrid by an independent tester
Technologically speaking, Chatbots are the representation of the natural evolution of a Question-Answering system leveraging Natural Language Processing (NPL). They work by analyzing user requests, to determine the user's intent and returning the response possible.
Here in Ashpot, we have been making a lot of changes and modifications to our approach to a lot of things, and this is all part of a company-wide decision to reposition for global impact. And we are glad to say that things are moving along well. The company is making huge moves and investments towards implementing Artificial Intelligence and building AI-powered tools and products to serve both our in-house needs and those of our customers.
Video of demo of conversation between Ashtrid on Facebook Messenger with our CEO
Today, August 14th, 2020, our new customer services AI bot, Aashtrid was released to handle and attend to users on our website and Facebook platform today. There was a wave of excitement as several customers practiced chatting with the new and latest employee on our "payroll", Ashtrid.
Speaking about how Ashtrid is going to work, Ashpot CEO, Psalms Kalu said, "It has been a pleasure working with the team on building and deploying Ashtrid. We are also going to say that at this earliest stage Ashtrid may not always be online. She will be online mostly on workdays between 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. This is because Ashtrid for now is hosted on our server in the office which may not be online always. We are setting up a DLAMI server at AWS to power the chatbot 24/7 before the end of this August. We understand that this may not cover all the needs we want her to solve. But it is a step in the right direction and we are happy to get started!
Asked if Ashtrid could be commercialised to serve other companies, he responded "Time will tell".
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