This document outlines 4 golden rules for conversational AI according to SmartAction. Rule 1 states that conversational AI needs expert designers. Rule 2 is that in-depth tailoring provides a better customer experience. Rule 3 is that going live is just the beginning and ongoing customization is required. Rule 4 is that conversational AI must perform on par with humans. The document provides examples and use cases for how SmartAction's conversational AI is designed and customized for specific customers and contact center environments.

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© SmartAction
The 4 Golden Rules
for Conversational AI
Self-Service
CMO
Brian Morin
Director of Product Marketing
Helena Chen

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About SmartAction
AI-Powered Virtual
Agents for Omnichannel
Self-Service
What We Do Our Mission
To make life less hard®
for enterprises and
their customers
#1 Rated
Solution on Gartner
Peer Insights
Achievements
Founded as AI research
firm & headquartered in
Fort Worth, TX
Company
100+ Customers
across 12 industries

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©SmartAction | 3
RULE #1
Conversational AI
Needs Expert Designers

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Design Center of Excellence
BEFORE
140 seconds
Reservations
AFTER
(3X Higher Conversion)
111 seconds
3.5 Min 2 Min
Emergency Roadside
Assistance
Pre-AI Conversation Designer versus Post

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#1 Full Containment
• Natural language intent capture
• Authentication
• Billing inquiries
• Payment and payment arrangements
• Status
• Change policy or account information
• Scheduling
• Password reset

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#2 Happy Path
• Sometimes AI is the path for most callers
– not every caller
• Identify qualifying criteria to start the
happy path
• Identify handling rules for live agent
transfer after self-service has initiated

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#3 Information Relay
• Step 1 -> AI verifies customer information
• Step 2 -> AI captures intent and gathers
information
• Step 3 -> AI use triage questions to
assess the situation for the agent
• Step 4 -> AI transfers the call to a human
with context

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#4 Channel Switching
The Virtual Agent presents
callers with a custom
greeting and offers a text link
to an Answer Center that can
answer their questions
immediately instead of
waiting on hold.
Call
The Virtual Agent initiates a
text message to the
customer that provides a link
to a chatbot.
Text
The end user initiates a Virtual
Agent that can answer
Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQs), triage symptoms, and
escalate to medical
professional, if needed.
Chat

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Design 101 for the Highest Capture Accuracy
Vehicle Year
Vehicle Make
Vehicle Model
“You said 2019 Honda CRV, correct?”

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RULE #2:
In-Depth Tailoring =
Better CX

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Tailoring the Experience
Unknown Caller
Known
Customer
Known Lender
Opened Case Received
benefits package
Recent
enrollment
Past due bill
By Audience By Recent Activity

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 Challenge: Handle customer responses that are too long for
AI to parse
 Answer: Design probabilistic-clarifying questions based on
a knowledge base that maps grammars to intents
From Tension to
Resolution in 90
Seconds

13. CALL SAMPLE
Time to Route 0:19 0:43 1:32
Product Already Registered? Yes Yes No
Data Sources Leveraged Call History Customer Records 411
Tailoring
the CX
with Data
Product Registration
Repeat
Caller
Registered
Caller
New Caller

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RULE #3:
Go-Live Is Just the
Beginning

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Custom NLU Work
Confusion Transfer
Choice Hotels
Greater accuracy over time

16. ©SmartAction
IVA Lifecycle
Support Team
Client
Advocacy
Marilyn
Customer Success
Analytics
& Tuning
Eli
Customer Insights
AI Automation
Assessment
Charles
CX Consultant
CX Design
& Strategy
Mark
CX Design
Quality
Assurance
Ryan
QA
TEAM
Product
Solutions
Phillip
Solutions
Expert
Project
Management
Casey
Project Manager
Engineering
David
Engineer

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RULE #4:
IVA Must Perform on
par with Humans

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Speech Recognition ≠ Speech Understanding
Automatic Speech Recognition Natural Language Understanding

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Purpose-Built for the Contact Center
Customer
Request
Audio
IVA Response
Intent
APIs
“Sure, I can help you with that.
You have an outstanding balance of $125.01.
I can extend the payment date to August 1.
Would that work for you? “
Data Sources
Automatic Speech
Recognition
Natural Language
Understanding
NLU
ASR
“I need to make a
payment arrangement.”
“Can I get extension on
my bill?”
Text Transcription
YES!!

20. Next Steps
info@smartaction.com
o Identify:
1. Call/chat types perfect for automation
2. Expected completion rates
3. Expected call volume deflection
o ROI Calculation
Free AI–Readiness
Assessment
Request Demo
or
What You’ll Get
©SmartAction

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© SmartAction
Confidential & Proprietary
© SmartAction

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Confidential & Proprietary
© SmartAction
Addendum

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Purpose-Built for the Contact Center
Caller
Audio
“Let me confirm that I
heard you correctly.
You said, ‘Ford F-250.’”
Automatic Speech
Recognition
Virtual Agent
Response
NLU
ASR
“Aboard to have fifty truck.”
Text Transcription Natural Language
Understanding

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Cookie Cutter vs. Tailored Solution

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Helena thoughts to highlight
(see speaker notes)
Don’t know where this fits yet

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Automatic Speech
Recognition
Natural Language
Understanding
Audio
Dialogue
Management
NLU Dialogue
ASR
Speech Input