Overview of common conversational AI workloads - Azure Tutorial

- In this lecture, we'll look at an overview of Conversational AI and some workloads. So what is Conversational AI? Conversational AI is the name given to technology such as Chatbots and digital assistance. Unlike traditional software applications where you might point and click to complete a task, with Conversational AI, you can use natural human-like language. This can be done on text channels, such as websites and messaging applications. Alternatively, you can also interact with Conversational AI on speech channels such as the telephone, or smart devices. Powered by advancements in machine learning in natural language processing, Conversational AI, lets people interact with software in a more accessible way. For example, providing humans with instant responses to queries made using natural language. Conversational AI can be used, to augment existing resourcing capabilities. For example, a chatbot can be trained to handle tasks, such as password resets, or answering commonly asked questions. Voice agents can be developed to help you discover new content or make content recommendations. For example, publicly available APIs such as the Twitter API, can be integrated with voice solutions to provide innovative ways to interact with data being discussed on the internet. Self-service agents are another common use case. Virtual customer service agents can be developed to help customers perform tasks such as, checking the status of an order. Conversational AI helps you connect audiences using different channels. By giving people the option of interacting with machines using natural language, Conversational AI can also help improve accessibility. For example, speech-to-text can be leveraged to help people with physical impairments, interact with your software product, using their voice. Microsoft provide low-code and pro-code tools to help you create Conversational AI solutions. Low-code tools can be used by citizen developers, or people with less technical expertise. Whereas pro-code tools are typically aimed at developers. The option that you select depends entirely on your use case are business requirements. Conversational AI solutions that you develop, can be hosted in Azure using the Azure Bot service. And tools, such as the Bot Framework Emulator, are available to help you test and debug your Conversational AI solutions. We'll explore some more of these in detail in subsequent lectures. In the next module, you'll learn about the features, and characteristics that you can expect to find in chatbots.