Voicebots - Giving Voice to Chatbots, IVRs, or Apps?

Businesses have forever leveraged technology to acquire and engage with customers. If you’ve ever shopped online, you might have experienced this firsthand through an interaction with a chatbot.

Usually parked in the bottom right corner of the screen, these rule-based bots can be interacted with through textual input for various use cases such as customer support, data collection, order tracking, and more—pretty obvious stuff.

With advances in technology, the natural progression has been for Chatbots to evolve into Voicebots. So does this mean that Voicebots are just Chatbots that evolved to be able to use Voice as a means of input?

Well, not quite. Although this may be the case for some Voicebots. It may not be for others.

Confused? Well, what we mean to say is that not all Voicebots are the same. There are small differences in these bots that make a world of difference. 

We want to help you understand this better, so let’s break down a few different types of Voicebots that exist today -

Different  types of Voicebots

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1) IVR Bots

If you’ve ever called up a customer support helpline then it is more than likely that you have interacted with an IVR bot.

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Usually, when dealing with customer support you will first hear a pre-recorded automated message followed by which you may make inputs in one of two ways Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency signaling (or DTMF) or through the use of Voice recognition technology.

In the case of DTMF, callers simply have to use the keypad on their phone to select menu options, whereas Voice Recognition capabilities enable what’s called Directed Dialogue, which means callers can give verbal responses instead of using their phone’s keypad to navigate menus. 

For example, an IVR menu might say, “For billing, press three or say ‘billing.’”

While this is an example of a Voicebot, IVR bots are very primitive and extremely limited in the functions they can perform. Here, Voice is used as an input point but only to perform a very restricted function, making selections from certain limited options presented.

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2) Voice-enabled Chatbots

Voice-enabled chatbots are exactly what they claim to be. Chatbots that allow users to make inputs through Voice instead of just a traditional touch and type interface.

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Although this type of technology can be considered Voice Tech it is quite primitive, with no real nuances attached to it.

We put together a thorough comparative analysis between chatbots and Slang Voice Assistants to demonstrate the world of difference that exists in this case.

These types of Chatbots...err...Voicebots only allow for one-way conversations, do not support multilingual inputs, and are usually only optimized for text input and not for Voice.

These bots are also not the type that one would consider “smart”. They only offer the functionality that a traditional chatbot provides with the exception that they can be interacted with through Voice. 

A major issue with Voice-enabled chatbots is the identity crisis they seem to be going through , not fully a Voice Assistant yet not a Chatbot, bound by all the problems associated with chatbots as well as the complexities of using Voice. 

If you’ve integrated a Voice-enabled chatbot then you really are stuck between a rock and a hard place. We would recommend switching to a better alternative immediately.

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3)  Voice Assistants as Voicebots

Voice Assistants are the true queens when it comes to Voice Technology, although they are leagues ahead of IVR and chatbots, they are still often clubbed into the same category as Voicebots.

However, there are a ton of differences between Voicebots and a Voice Assistant.

In the case of Voice Assistants, Voice is always the primary mode of interaction, and the functionality they offer is phenomenal. In addition, these Assistants support inputs in multiple languages are capable of various functions beyond simple yes and no logic, can understand natural language, and truly elevate customer experiences.

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Moreover, Voice Assistants come in many different forms; here are a two major types of Voice Assistants you should know about -

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i) General Purpose Voice Assistants

General Purpose Voice Assistants as the name suggests can help you with general things such as setting alarms, scheduling events, making calls, launching apps, and more. Some can even trigger actions inside specific apps using deep links.

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These general purpose Voice Assistants are being adopted at a rapid rate and truly are making the lives of millions of individuals much easier.

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ii) Custom In-App Voice Assistants

Witnessing the popularity of Voice Assistants, some brands have started adding Voice Assistant as a primary mode of communication in their apps and websites. These voice assistants are present in an app to ease or elevate the customer experience and are capable of functions such as Voice Search, Voice Navigation, and more.

These Voice Assistants are present in apps to ease or elevate customer experiences and are capable of functions such as Voice Search, Voice Navigation, and more. If you want to learn more about how top E-commerce brands are breaking digital barriers for the Next Billion Users with Voice Assistants download our ebook today.

One great example of Custom In-App Voice Assistant, even if we do say so ourselves, is Slang In-App Voice Assistant.

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With Voice Search 46% more accurate than Google's, robust multilingual support, a cloud based framework, and integration in as little as 30 minutes, Slang In-App Voice Assistant might just be the best Voice Assistant on the market.

Conclusion

The term Voicebot is still growing and evolving. In many cases, Voice Assistants are lumped into the same group as other Voicebots. It should be noted however that the Voicebots that exist today are all but passé.

Voice Tech has evolved drastically over the years and Voice Assistants are at the forefront of the innovations that have taken place. Voice Tech in this form, is the future. 

At Slang Labs we are pioneering another new innovation, Voice Assistants as a Service or VAaaS for short. With VAaaS, any brand can add domain specific and multilingual In-app Voice Assistants to their apps in less than 30 minutes!

Looking to add an In-App Voice Assistant or you want to say hi?  Book a meeting with us today!
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