AI-powered chatbots became a craze in 2016. This is in thanks to advances in natural language processing, access to open source algorithms, and platforms.
"The ones which will make a difference are those which have the domain knowledge to address core problems in a certain vertical. To use the same bot to order a pizza and book a bus ticket – those days are gone," says Sanjoy Roy, CEO and co-founder of AskSid that makes AI bots for fashion brands. AskSid's IQ has passed early exams in Europe. The year-old Bangalore-based startup's first big client is Austrian women's lingerie brand Wolford. Five months on, the AI bot is engaging Wolford's customers in 12 countries. Two other fashion brands have signed on in Europe, but Roy did not want to disclose their names at this early stage.
AskSid's chatbot is the tip of the iceberg; the bulk of the work goes on below the surface in two other modules.
One of them – TrainSid – ingests the brand's product data from catalogs and other sources, including customer calls to the help desk. This helps form Q&A pairs, build product attributes, and apply AI to power engagement via the chatbot, which is text-based currently but could be a voice assistant in the future. Then there's MeasureSid, which derives insights from the chats for brands that they can use to update their catalogs, spot trends in what shoppers want, and so on. For example, Wolford launched a marketing campaign around opaque tights after noticing women asking for them in one of its markets. AskSid is thus integrated into the brand's product, inventory, pricing, ecommerce, and promotions data. It engages with customers on multiple channels, including the brand's website, app, Facebook page, and Skype – with WhatsApp waiting in the wings.
