special series on ai & chatbots session 4 · 6/7/2017 · data science and technology, content...

Copyright © 2017 Earley Information Science1

Special Series on AI & Chatbots

Session 4

Copyright © 2017 Earley Information Science

Seth Earley, Earley Information Science

Chris Daly, Sotheby’s

Gary Gerber, Conversica

Leslie Swanson, eXalt Solutions, Inc.

Conversational Commerce and

Virtual Sales Assistants


About Earley Information Science

• Improved competitiveness

• Improved loyalty & churn

• Increased differentiation

• Brand elevation

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

• Increased visibility

• Reduced risk

• Alignment to objectives

• Business simplification

BUSINESS OPERATIONS

• Improved “Shopability”

• Increased share of market

• Control brand across channels

• Improved time-to-market

ECOMMERCE

• New efficiencies

• New markets

• Increased collaboration

• New competitive advantage

INNOVATION

We Organize Data to Drive

Business Outcomes


EARLEY EXECUTIVE ROUNDTABLE SPECIAL SERIES

SESSION 1

March 29, 2017Digital Workers, Chatbots, and Customer

Service - Reality vs Aspiration

What works, what doesn't, and what

organizations need for success

THE AGE OF THE CHATBOT IS COMING - ARE YOU READY?

SESSION 2

April 12, 2017The Role of Intelligent Virtual

Assistants in Healthcare

How virtual assistants can help solve

the 'adherence gap' and more.

SESSION 3

May 10, 2017How Financial Services Organizations

are Using Chatbot in Customer Service

Going beyond basic banking transactions to

meet the needs of new audiences.

SESSION 4

June 7, 2017Conversational Commerce and

Virtual Sales Assistants

How the age of the virtual sales agent

is changing the face of commerce.


Upcoming Event

Workshop: Building Chatbots and Intelligent

Virtual Assistants

Monday, June 19

2:00PM to 4:00PM

Tuesday, June 20

2:30PM to 3:30PMSession: What to Do When Watson Fails

Speaker: Seth Earley


Today’s Agenda

Welcome & Housekeeping

• Seth Earley, CEO, Earley Information Science @sethearley

• Session duration, questions & recording

• Take the polls & the survey!

The Panelist Point of View

• Chris Daly, VP, Head of Experience & Product Design, Sotheby’s

@UXimius

• Gary Gerber, Senior Director & Head of Product Marketing, Conversica

@MyConversica

• Leslie Swanson, President/CEO, eXalt Solutions, Inc.

Expert Panel Discussion

Questions & Answers

Join the conversation: #earleyroundtable


Seth Earley - Biography

Seth EarleyCEO and Founder

Earley Information Science

Over 20 years experience

Current work

Co-author

Editor

Member

Former Co-Chair

Founder

Former adjunct professor

Guest speaker

AIIM Master Trainer

Course Developer & Master Instructor

Data science and technology, content and knowledge

management systems, background in sciences (chemistry)

Enterprise IA and Semantic Search

Information Organization and Access

US Strategic Command briefing on knowledge networks

Northeastern University

Boston Knowledge Management Forum

Long history of industry

education and research in

emerging fields

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Science and

Technology Council Metadata Project Committee

Editorial Journal of Applied Marketing Analytics

Data Analytics Department IEEE IT Professional Magazine

Practical Knowledge Management from IBM Press

Cognitive computing, knowledge and data management systems,

taxonomy, ontology and metadata governance strategies

Connect with me:

@sethearley


“Conversational Commerce is about delivering

convenience, personalization, and decision support …

with only partial attention to spare”

“Utilizing chat, messaging, or other natural language

interfaces (i.e. voice) to interact with people, brands, or

services and bots that heretofore have had no real

place in the bidirectional, asynchronous messaging

context.”

“…a conversational service [can be] provided by a

human, bot, or some combination thereof…”

Chris Messina (former UX designer at Uber and Google

– coined the term “conversational commerce")

Conversational Applications


• Reduction of friction

• Extreme personalization

• Hyper contextualization

• Synchronized stream of interactions

• Natural interactions

• Zero barrier to adoption

• Starting conversations rather than downloading apps

Benefits of a conversational user interface


Achieving benefits is not trivial

Benefit What it means Requirement Implication

Reduction of friction Messaging is part of daily user experience

Brand needs to engage with the user Need to embrace micro interactions and retain identity

Extreme personalization

Understanding of preferences, demographics, interaction history

Need to address privacy concerns and align preferences with a meaningful experience

Challenge of personalization across any channel is still there – what is a personalized experience?

Hyper contextualization

Mobile context provides multiple signals about user intent

What do user task signals tell us about moment to moment needs?

Though mobile context is gained, context of web vehicle is lost

Synchronized stream of interactions

Messaging apps synch across devices

Need to respect preferences Understanding of device context needed

Natural interactions Language interaction provides additional signals for intent

Requires domain specific tuning around products, services and offerings

Taxonomies, ontologies, curated content is even more important

Zero barrier to adoption

Native use in common applications

Nuances of chat experience require thoughtful design

Due to varying context, rich experience requires new UX approaches

Starting conversations rather than downloading apps

Inviting bot to discussion begins process

How do you engage the user to initiate outside of branded context?

Gaining and retaining attentionrequires creative engagement, high value experience


Task Complexity versus Domain Complexity

Judgement Based

Do

mai

n C

om

ple

xity

Transaction Support Knowledge Retrieval

Complex Advisory/ Diagnosis

Product Configuration

Product Support

Order Processing

Task Complexity


1. Chatbots are a channel– get your data and content house in order

2. Architect knowledge for reuse – support content can be served up as self

service, through agents or through bots

3. Understand user scenarios – find repeatable, unambiguous processes to

build maturity

4. Use human curators during training – ensure your bots are competent

before releasing to the wild

Take aways


12

Copyright © 2017 Earley Information Science13 Copyright © 2017 Earley Information Science

Poll #1

How important to your business are chatbots/virtual sales

assistants to enable commerce?


A major priority (funding & executive buy-in)

Important but still needs a business case

Not a priority at this time

(Please check one)

How important to your business are chatbots/virtual sales

assistants to enable commerce?

1

2

3


Chris Daly - Biography

Chris Daly

Head of User Experience and Product Design

Sotheby’s

• 20 years in user experience & product design,

strategy, & execution.

• Depth of knowledge in upscale eCommerce,

financial service & hospitality sectors

• UX & product design efforts for both consumer and

enterprise/B2B facing initiatives for brands such as

Emirates Airline, Delta Airlines, Verizon, American

Express, Avis Rental Car, Starwood Hotels,

Bloomberg, Citi, JP Morgan Chase, Visa, and HP.

• A noted speaker and expert on the convergence of

UX and artificial intelligence, voice based interfaces,

and conversational commerce.


2 Take Aways

Web: easy to “own” the brand experience Apps: still easy Chat: NOT easy

It’s not easy, but brands must work to “own” their chat experiences – just like they do their web and app experiences.


2 Take Aways

Digital Footprint of Individual Experience Moments

Bra

nd

Po

ten

tial

of

Ind

ivid

ual

Mo

men

t

Chatbots,Voice Uis,App Slices

Mobile Web,Mobile Apps,Watch Apps,

TV Apps

In-Store,Desktop Web

The smaller the digital footprint of the moment within the user journey…

The bigger the potential to build brand value.

Because the pay-off is asymmetrically positive

SMALL LARGE

LOW

HIGH

Copyright © 2017 Earley Information Science18 Copyright © 2016 Earley Information Science

Poll #2

How far along is the organization in using chatbots or virtual sales

assistants ?


Conducting initial investigation

R&D lab deployment

Limited pilot of customer facing application

Customer facing deployment at scale

Not in use

How far along is the organization in using chatbots or

virtual sales assistants ?

1

2

3

4

5

(Please check one)


Gary Gerber - Biography

Gary Gerber

Senior Director and Head of Product Marketing

Conversica

Extensive product leadership experience in security,

sales automation, technology, payments, healthcare,

non-profit and start up sectors in North America, Asia-

Pacific, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.

An in-demand speaker and presenter, he has headed

Product Marketing, Product Development, and Product

Innovation at multiple companies and is Inventor of

record on seven international patents.

Conversica is lead conversion software that uses an

artificial intelligence persona to engage prospects in

natural, two-way email conversations to qualify leads

before turning them over to sales.

1. Not All Chatbots are the Same

Nicole, Day 22

Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner.

I’m just trying the software now on my personal server.

But I do have some questions and could talk to someone.

Regards,Bill

Day 23

No, I’m working from home so have him call my cell at 850-473-2512.

Bill

Nicole, Day 26

We are set for a meeting next week.

Thanks for following-up. Bill

Alert to CRM,

Sales Rep, Handoff

Alert to CRM,

Sales Rep

Alert to CRM,

Sales Rep

Hi Bill Days 1-21

I see that you downloaded our free software trial, Zend Studio.

I want to follow up to see if you have questions. Would you like me to set up a call to learn more?

Thank you,

Nicole S.Sales Assistant

Hi Bill Day 22

Colby is working on this and would like to give you a call.

Is (650) 888-7821 the best number to reach you on during the day?

Have a good afternoon!

Nicole S.

Hi Bill Day 25

I just wanted to follow up and make sure Colby got you all the information you needed.

Did you connect with Colby?

Thanks and have an awesome day!!

Nicole S.

Engage

Qualify

Follow-

up

Reactive

Difficulty to build = LOWERROI to business = LOWER

Proactive

Difficulty to build = HIGHERROI to business = HIGHER

2. AI Enhances People, not Replaces

22 Confidential - Do Not Distribute

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 % C

HA

NC

E TO

SET

SA

LES

AP

PO

INTM

ENT

NUMBER OF CONTACT ATTEMPTS

AI drives 30% more Sales and sets more Sales appointments than human sales team alone

WITH AI SALES ASSISTANT,

7-10 CONTACT ATTEMPTS USING “4Ps”

YIELDS 30% MORE SALES APPOINTMENTS

WITHOUT AI SALES ASSISTANT,

SALES STOPS AT 2 CONTACT ATTEMPTS

Artificial Intelligence provides the only cost effective way to thoroughly engage all leads.

Prompt

Personalized

Persistent

Performance

MAKES IT POSSIBLE FOR COMPUTERS TO HAVE

HUMAN-LIKE CONVERSATIONS

AI

Counc

il

3. AI in Isolation is Just a Science Experiment

23

Nicole, Day 22

Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner.

I’m just trying the software now on my personal server.

But I do have some questions and could talk to someone.

Regards,Bill

Day 23

No, I’m working from home so have him call my cell at 850-473-2512.

Bill

Nicole, Day 26

We are set for a meeting next week.

Thanks for following-up. Bill

Support

Vector

Naive

Bayes

…Neural

Network

Hard

Rules

Random

Forest

Machine LearningAlert to CRM,

Sales Rep, Handoff

Alert to CRM,

Sales Rep

Alert to CRM,

Sales Rep

Integration

Framework

Salesforce

Marketo

Eloqua

HubSpot

Velocify

DealerSocket

CDK

VinSolutions

30+ more…

Dashboard, Reporting & Analytics

AI optimized through seven years of real-world learning

Experimentation Framework

Hi Bill Days 1-21

I see that you downloaded our free software trial, Zend Studio.

I want to follow up to see if you have questions. Would you like me to set up a call to learn more?

Thank you,

Nicole S.Sales Assistant

Hi Bill Day 22

Colby is working on this and would like to give you a call.

Is (650) 888-7821 the best number to reach you on during the day?

Have a good afternoon!

Nicole S.

Hi Bill Day 25

I just wanted to follow up and make sure Colby got you all the information you needed.

Did you connect with Colby?

Thanks and have an awesome day!!

Nicole S.

ADVANCED AI plus

COMPREHENSIVE INFRASTRUCTURE

1. AI NLP – Classification Engine

Audit Desk

Engage

Qualify

Follow-

up

Communication

Gateways

+ Email

+ SMS/Text

2. AI Inference

Engine

3. AI NLG

Dynamic

Messaging

System

4. Human

Training

Desk

No – 7%

AI Confident?

Yes – 93%


What application are you hoping to develop/enhance?

Lead screening/generation

Presales support (FAQs/Product Information)

Product selection or configuration

Sales transaction support

Something else

1

2

3

4

5

(Check as many as apply)


Leslie Swanson - Biography

Leslie Swanson

President/CEO

eXalt Solutions, Inc.

• Currently President and CEO of eXalt Solutions – a leading Digital

Transformation Platform provider for Knowledge Work in B2B sales.

• Prior to eXalt Leslie was President and CEO of Vigilant Networks a

network monitoring company which was sold to Gen-Tek and Expert

Views a CAE/CAD/CAM database company sold to RR Donnelley.

• Leslie has a passion for meta data or rules driven software and

technology and has been awarded numerous patents in network

monitoring, eBusiness Catalogs and Knowledge Management.

• After 30 years in the tech community, Leslie is committed to growing

diversity in the tech sector. Her favorite charity is Code Squad where

she serves on the board.

• Leslie holds a BSEE from Case Western Reserve University and an MBA

from University of Rochester.

© 2017 eXalt Solutions. All rights reserved.

www.eXaltsolutions.com

The Impact of Digital

WebSelf-

Service

Agile Digital Process

Predictive Self-AwareIntelligence

How your customers

want to interact with

you in the front office

The back office

speed required to

remain competitive

The awareness & decision

velocity needed to adapt

to marketplace changes

1

The Digital Disruption has Changed

50-70% of work is Rules Based and Repetitive

2 3

© 2017 eXalt Solutions. All rights reserved.

www.eXaltsolutions.com

WEB SELF-SERVICEIt’s what B2B Buyers Prefer

94% research online at least once. (Accenture)

60% prefer to purchase without a salesperson.

(Forrester)

67% of the buyer’s journey is now done

digitally.” (SiriusDecisions)

27% of US population is Millennials who don’t

want to talk on the phone:

Largest segment with fastest growing

spending power. (Mary Meeker)

13% believe a sales person understands their

needs (Forrester)

AGILE BACKOFFICEGives Agility to Everyone

22% of a rep’s time is focused on selling (Pace

Productivity)

• “transact” –convert to order

• “transfer” – match best resource(s) to

opportunity using business rules

• “borderless” – involve cadre of partners in

each sale.

74% using industry platforms to integrate /

collaborate with business partners (Accenture)

• 39% deployed platforms

• 35% are experimenting

98% reported revenue impact from poor transaction

management (Forrester)

Better Together

SELF AWARE

INTELLIGENCEDigital processes make sure each sale is profitable

• Each digital thread gives visibility and

control needed to manage each

customer engagement profitably

• Profiling each transaction by type

allows setting SLA’s

“78% agree that successful

businesses will manage employees

alongside intelligent machines

ensuring collaboration between the

two.”

-- Accenture

Humans & Digital Workers produce more

at a higher level of quality as a team


Roundtable Discussion

Seth Earley

CEO & Founder


@SethEarley

Chris Daly

Head of User Experience & Product Design

Sotheby’s

@Uximius

Gary Gerber

Senior Director & Head of Product Marketing

Conversica

@MyConversica

Leslie Swanson

President/CEO

eXalt Solutions, Inc.


Suggested Resources

EIS | Virtual Assistants & Artificial

Intelligence Resourceshttp://www.earley.com/ai-resources

InfoQ | There's No AI (Artificial Intelligence)

without IA (Information Architecture)https://www.infoq.com/articles/artificial-intelligence

Meet your friendly sales assistant -- the AI

chatbot http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/feature/Meet-your-friendly-

sales-assistant-the-AI-chatbot

Chatbots to help you be all things to all

customers http://blog.cabinetm.com/index.php/2017/04/24/chatbots-

help-things-customers/

Conversational commerce applications https://www.producthunt.com/@chrismessina/collections/c

onvcomm

Virtual assistants, chatbots poised for

mass adoption in 2017 http://www.cio.com/article/3153966/artificial-

intelligence/virtual-assistants-chatbots-poised-for-mass-

adoption-in-2017.html

EIS | Making Intelligent Virtual Assistants a

Realityhttp://www.earley.com/knowledge/white-paper/making-

intelligent-virtual-assistants-reality

Smart Merchandising – Inspired by Artificial

Intelligencehttp://www.earley.com/blog/smart-merchandising-inspired-artificial-

intelligence

https://www.producthunt.com/@chrismessina/collections/convcomm

http://www.earley.com/knowledge/white-paper/making-intelligent-virtual-assistants-reality


Earley Information Science Solution Team

Seth EarleyCEO & Founder

[email protected]

Seth Seigel-LaddyClient Partner

[email protected]

Jeanna GiordanoClient Partner

Jeanna. [email protected]


Upcoming Event

Workshop: Building Chatbots and Intelligent

Virtual Assistants

Monday, June 19

2:00PM to 4:00PM

Tuesday, June 20

2:30PM to 3:30PMSession: What to Do When Watson Fails

Speaker: Seth Earley



(EIS)

Information Architects

for the Digital Age

Founded – 1994

Headquarters – Boston, MA

www.earley.com

For more info contact:

[email protected]

[email protected]

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special series on ai & chatbots session 4 · 6/7/2017 · data science and technology, content...

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