Advancements in technology have seen the introduction of chatbots into our everyday lives. No longer is it a gimmicky feature we only ever see controlled by those manning spaceships in the films – Siri, Alexa and a whole host of other chatbots are well established in our homes and are now the norm in most workplaces. The real question? How can we be using chatbots to boost productivity and transform our workplace?
What exactly is a chatbot?
When you boil it down, chatbots are computer programs designed to mimic human conversations. They’ve been around for plenty of years and there have been huge strides forward in the technology as well as quite a few failures. Chatbots use Artificial Intelligence to hold their conversations with Internet users but this AI technology also means it has the ability to learn – Microsoft’s chatbot ‘Tay’ ended up being so efficient at learning human conversation that it went a little too far and ended up being silenced by Microsoft before it did too much damage.
Not all chatbots need to be having such complicated conversations or learning quite so quickly – in fact, the biggest strength in using chatbots is having the knowledge to use them in areas of your business where you know they will thrive. It’s the low level, yet high demand work that chatbots are so good at – like answering customer queries or solving simple problems. Even the voice assistants like Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant display this power.
How can they transform your workplace?
Humans are an extremely valuable resource to any business, so why bog them down with menial tasks? It’s those tasks that bore them and lead to employees becoming unsatisfied and unhappy with their job. There are some ways in which chatbots can actually remove those issues and start making your workplace productive and as efficient as possible.
- No need to factor in sick days. In Australia, sick days are costing businesses $33 billion each year and part of that cost is in lost productivity. Chatbots don’t get sick (aside from the rare glitch, of course) so they help to recover some of that cost when it comes to making sure the small tasks are taken care of. Plus, they don’t even require salaries!
- Chatbots are available 24/7 – customers aren’t always browsing during work hours so having a service available at all hours of the day means that no one is slipping through the cracks and being forgotten.
- Humans make mistakes and have real emotions about the work they’re doing – mind-numbing work like answering the same question over and over again can understandably cause frustration in some of your employees. Giving the work to a chatbot means that these frustrations won’t set in because chatbots thrive on the kind of rote work that drives humans mad.
- Chatbots – particularly voice assistants – eliminate the need for multiple steps in one task. Think about getting the weather forecast. Before voice assistants, it would mean opening up a browser, typing in your location, finding the weather and then clicking again to see ahead of time. Now all it takes is asking your assistant “What will the weather be like on Sunday?” and the work is done for you. The same goes for sending quick emails, booking meetings or just getting reminders.
Chatbots are just another way of working towards a smarter, more efficient workplace. The idea of Tim Ferris’ 4 hour work week is that you delegate and outsource all the tasks you really don’t like doing and you reduce the draining tasks down as much as possible. The great thing about chatbots and other forms of Artificial Intelligence is that you’re not dumping those menial tasks on another human – you’re dumping it on a machine that actually enjoys doing them. It’s a win-win situation that saves you time, energy and money – all while getting the job done!
Want to further increase the productivity of your office? Pendragon can help you run your business more efficiently, saving you time and money.
For further information please don’t hesitate to contact us, book an appointment or reach us at [email protected] or 02 9407 8700 where one of our Australian team members will gladly help you.
