Why NLP is a must for your chatbot

NLP Chatbots

In recent years, we’ve become familiar with chatbots and how beneficial they can be for business owners, employees, and customers alike. Despite what we’re used to and how their actions are fairly limited to scripted conversations and responses, the future of chatbots is life-changing, to say the least. The standard usage might not require more than quick answers and simple replies, but it’s important to know just how much chatbots are evolving and how Natural Language Processing (NLP) can improve their abilities. This function holds plenty of rewards, really putting the ‘chat’ in the chatbot.

Before we get into the benefits of NLP, let’s understand exactly what it is:

What is NLP?

This seemingly complex process can be identified as one which allows computers to derive meaning from text inputs. Put simply, NLP is an applied artificial intelligence (AI) program that helps your chatbot analyze and understand the natural human language communicated with your customers.

Chatbots are able to understand the intent of the conversation rather than just use the information to communicate and respond to queries. Business owners are starting to feed their chatbots with actions to “help” them become more humanized and personal in their chats. Chatbots have, and will always, help companies automate tasks, communicate better with their customers and grow their bottom lines. But, the more familiar consumers become with chatbots, the more they expect from them.

With personalization being the primary focus, you need to try and “train” your chatbot about the different default responses and how exactly they can make customers’ lives easier by doing so. With NLP, your chatbot will be able to streamline more tailored, unique responses, interpret and answer new questions or commands, and improve the customer’s experience according to their needs.

Much like any worthwhile tech creation, the initial stages of learning how to use the service and tweak it to suit your business needs will be challenging and difficult to adapt to. Once you get into the swing of things, you and your business will be able to reap incredible rewards, as a result of NLP.

Why does Natural Language Processing matter?

This function is not applicable to every chatbot. However, if you’re using your chatbot as part of your call center or communications strategy as a whole, you will need to invest in NLP. This function is highly beneficial for chatbots that answer plenty of questions throughout the day. If your response rate to these questions is seemingly poor and could do with an innovative spin, this is an outstanding method.

For new businesses that are looking to invest in a chatbot, this function will be able to kickstart your approach. It’ll help you create a personality for your chatbot, and allow it the ability to respond in a professional, personal manner according to your customers’ intent and the responses they’re expecting. The younger generations of customers would rather text a brand or business than contact them via a phone call, so if you want to satisfy this niche audience, you’ll need to create a conversational bot with NLP.

Related: How to make your AI chatbot sound more human

In order to implement NLP, you need to analyze your chatbot and have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with it. Many digital businesses tend to have a chatbot in place to compete with their competitors and make an impact online. However, if you’re not maximizing their abilities, what is the point? You need to want to improve your customer service by customizing your approach for the better.

Get the most out of your NLP chat today

The future of chatbots is incredibly bizarre. It’s incredible just how intelligent chatbots can be if you take the time to feed them the information they need to evolve and make a difference in your business. This intent-driven function will be able to bridge the gap between customers and businesses, making sure that your chatbot is something customers want to speak to when communicating with your business. To learn more about NLP and why you should adopt applied artificial intelligence, read our recent article on the topic.