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Customer Assist (Chatbot) Journey

The Customer Assist Journey is a rough story of what most organizations that develop a Customer Assist chatbot will go through. We highlight the various phases of this journey, and try to give you the information that you need to make this journey as smooth as possible. Knowing what your journey involves allows you to plan better, and to be more proactive in addressing challenges - there are fewer “surprises”.

This page is always in an “under construction” mode, as we remove links that are no longer relevant, and add links to new relevant materials. The idea here is not to give you EVERY possible link on a topic, but instead to steer you to content that is high quality, and that has been applied in the real world.

Contents


Exploration

At this point our customers may have a very concrete bvusiness problem that they are trying to solve (“reduce call center volume by 50%”). It might be just a vague realization that with the proper application of AI to their business processes, they should be able to realize some benefits. In other cases, it’s just a response to a CIO directive to “infuse the business with AI”.

We call this the exploration phase because our customers are exploring their options - different vendors, different technologies, and new and different vocabularies. Many of the typical software and system development paradigms and common practices are NOT followed - and can be counter-productive.

Identify the Need

At this point most people are trying to build an initial business case - nothing too specific, just enough to convince themselves that more investigation is a good use of time. Things like high level vision statements (our AI Ladder for example), case studies and success stories, and industry reports. At this point, blue sky thinking, and design thinking workshops can be used to help drive idea generation.

While we would love you to focus on IBM Watson solutions, at this point, you shouldn’t be thinking about specific technologies or vendors. The thing to keep in mind is that you want to focus on the overall solution - and not get hung up on the individual technologies that will be used to power those solutions. Focus on What do you WANT? and not on What do we think we can do?. Some people have called this a focus on “The Art of the Possible”.

Determine the Technology

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Discover your Solution

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Evaluation

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Solution Design

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Cost Estimation and Business Case

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Proof of Concept (POC)

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Drive to Value

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Solution Hardening

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Project Scope and Planning

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Project Buildout

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Initial Deployment

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Operational Solution

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Value Expansion

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Scope Extension

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Measures of Success

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