Zammo unfurls conversational AI integration service

Zammo.ai today launched a conversational AI platform that makes it simpler to engage customers via multiple voice assistants, interactive voice response (IVR)/telephony, and chatbots without having to write any code.

That no-code approach, provided via the integrations the company has embedded within its software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, enables organizations to create workflows that span multiple conversational AI technologies without the aid of an internal IT team or a systems integrator, said company CEO Alex Farr. “No one from IT is required,” he said.

That approach provides the added benefit of eliminating the need to force customers to embrace a specific conversational AI platform, noted Farr. Organizations can add support for conversational AI platforms based on customer preferences, he said.

Over time, most customers are likely going to prefer to engage organizations using some sort of conversational interface such as Apple Siri or Amazon Alexa. As these platforms become more widely employed by consumers, it’s only a matter of time before additional customer experiences are going to be routinely employed to, for example, find the nearest location to have a car serviced.

At this point, it doesn’t appear any single conversational AI platform will emerge to dominate all others. Many users already switch between platforms multiple times a day depending on whether they are standing in a room or using their smartphone to send a text. Organizations that provide customer service, however, can never be sure what conversational AI platform might be employed at any given time.

Conversational AI platforms are, of course, core to many digital business transformation initiatives. The simpler it becomes for a customer to make a purchase or request a service, the more likely it becomes they will engage. Many an instinct to impulsively acquire something has been ignored simply because it takes too long to log into a website to order it. Today some organizations are even sending reminders to end customers to reorder goods and services via a conversational AI platform as an alternative to text messages or emails.

Not having this capability potentially creates an impression in customers’ minds about how modern an organization is as they begin to incorporate conversational AI into their everyday lives. However, a request made by a speech interface doesn’t always mean the customer wants their request answered via the same medium. Sometimes they may be asking an organization to send them a form via email.

Low code, big impact

Regardless of how speech interfaces are employed, it’s clear that line of business units are becoming more empowered to automate tasks without any help from internal IT teams. The goal is not so much to eliminate the need for IT teams as much as it is to reduce the backlog of projects that IT teams are being asked to take on and then maintain. In most cases that is being accomplished using no-code tools embedded within a platform. However, power users, also known as citizen developers, are employing low-code tools to build more complex applications. The relationship between IT teams and end users is rapidly evolving.

It may be a while before conversational AI platforms become the dominant user interface, but in certain use cases they are already having a profound impact. Most end users for the foreseeable future will continue to employ a mix of speech and graphical interfaces to interact with applications. However, the more conversational AI platforms learn about the habits and interests of an end user, the more proactive the platforms can become, especially if end users have opted into a service that provides that capability.

The challenge organizations now face is striking the right balance between being actually helpful versus overreaching in a way that some customers might perceive to be intrusive or, for that matter, simply downright creepy.