Users have become accustomed to using conversational devices
As people become accustomed to Amazon Alexa or Google Home, they are learning that a conversational user interface (CUI) is an intuitive way of interacting with digital channels. According to data published by Voicebot, the number of Amazon Alexa skills in the U.S. more than doubled over 2018. Not having a voice application for your site will soon become a competitive disadvantage.
Using conversational AI blueprints to accelerate development
Grid Dynamics' blueprints can dramatically accelerate time-to-market while improving the design quality of your custom-specified conversational AI system. We design and implement key architectural aspects as internal R&D (Grid Genie). We then apply our knowledge to your specifications. You get an application you control and own, with a low cost of ownership.
The evolution of conversational AI
Today: FAQ assistants
Chatbots are in wide use today. They are typically used to answer simple questions. For example, you may ask a hotel reservation chatbot, "are there rooms available for this weekend?" The chatbot can access the appropriate information database and deliver the answer in a natural language.
Emerging: virtual assistants
Virtual assistants contain the capabilities of chatbots but extend the capabilities to performing simple, well defined tasks. A hotel reservation virtual assistant could be requested to, "book a room this weekend for two persons". Virtual assistants have some simple dialog skills, usually limited to "slot filling", gathering minimal information to fulfill the current requested task.
The Future: contextual assistants
Contextual assistants feel much like holding an actual conversation with another human being. The dialog is more natural with context remembered throughout the entire conversation, and it is much more sophisticated than merely slot filling.
Our approach to conversational AI development
Build using open source technology
State-of-the-art NLP models
Data collection and dialog design
Manual and automated testing
Your app designed to your exact specifications
We give you a time-to-market advantage
We apply our broad spectrum experience
Low total cost of ownership
The architecture behind conversational AI platform
Natural Language Understanding (NLU)
Transforms conversational language into a form understandable by a machine, to extract information provided by a user and predict the next action in the dialogue.
NLU is powered by cutting-edge deep learning models and transfer learning techniques to solve various tasks like intent classification, entities extraction, coreference resolution, and more.
Dialog Manager (DM)
Dialog Manager is responsible for the state and flow of the conversation. Usually, it maintains the state of the conversation, routes incoming requests to specific dialog agents, supports context switching and more.
DM is a key component of the system that makes it easy to add new agents (skills) to the application.
Pluggable Dialog Agents
Dialog agents (skills) make it easy to add new abilities to the application. The dialog agent is the basic (reusable) unit of the dialog system which is responsible for some specific part of the conversation and can interact with your APIs.
Natural Language Generation (NLG)
NLG allows converting the predicted response into natural language. It can produce different response formats (text, SSML, images, ...) depending on channels and device type: voice only, large or small display, chatbot, ...
Technologies we use
We can build out your CUI
Conversational user interface applications are here to stay. Users have become comfortable using a conversational user interface as a viable and intuitive information gathering option. The proliferation of smart speakers such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home opens an exciting new channel of consumer interaction. Make sure your company is on-board with Conversational AI.
Grid Dynamics can add a conversational user interface with a minimum disruption to your existing platform. By using your back-end databases, Grid Dynamics supplies the "glue" that makes it all work together. With fast development cycles and no ongoing licence fees, we will exceed you expectations!
