Mosts analysts agree that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will be the next big thing in Service Management. An increasing number of vendors is looking at including virtual agent or chatbots in their solutions. The required technology is widely available these days so you would think that the successful application of AI in service management is just a matter of time.
In reality it’s not the technology that is the culprit here, it is the content we use to feed the bots. Chatbots are only as intelligent as the content you base these on, no matter how elegant or sophisticated your technological masterpiece is. And even if you feed your bots with tons of knowledge articles, success is still not guaranteed. The problem is that most knowledge (content) is not written in the context of the person ‘talking’ to the chatbot. Instead, most knowledge is written in the context of the expert trying to predict how the question will be phrased. It turns out that experts are pretty bad in predicting which questions will be asked and how people will put their question into words.
AI depends on content. Create content first!
So you should focus on your content first before thinking about introducing AI. How do we get content that is written in the users context? And how do we make sure this content is up to date and relevant? The answer is Knowledge Centered Service. This knowledge management methodology is all about creating and maintaining findable and usable content. You always capture the question in the context (experience and wording) of the requester. And you do this following a ‘complete thoughts, not complete sentences’ principle: relevant information with as little words as possible. This makes content easy to find, easy to read and easy to translate.
Easy to digest, you might say. And your bots will thank you for that. And so will your customers.
