Project – Design and implementation of chatbot
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
ABSTRACT
The study examined design and implementation of chatbot. This study sheds light on how the Delta State Polytechnic, Otefe can use chatbot in student service support. The findings provide implications to students’ service satisfaction. In the study of the implementation of a chatbot in the Delta State Polytechnic, Otefe website to electronically and swiftly provide users with support and assistance, the control center is based on the server where the administrator which providesthe system with frequently asked questions as well as reported issues and help on the use of the website into the chat robot(chatbot). The study design utilized the HTML and CSS programming language for the design of the front end while SQL was used in building the backend section of the system.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page – – – – – – – – – – i
Certification – – – – – – – – – – ii
Dedication – – – – – – – – – – iii
Acknowledgment – – – – – – – – – iv
Abstract – – – – – – – – – – v
Table of contents – – – – – – – – – vi
Chapter One:
1.0 Introduction – – – – – – – – – – 1
1.1 Background of the study – – – – – – – 4
1.2 Statement of Problem – – – – – – – 6
1.3 Aim and objectives – – – – – – – – 7
1.4 Significance of the Study – – – – – – – – 7
1.5 Scope – – – – – – – – – – 7
1.6 Limitation of the Study – – – – – – – – 8
1.7 Definition of Terms – – – – – – – – – 8
Chapter two: Literature Review
Review of related literature – – – – – – – 9
Chapter Three: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND SYSTEM ANALYSIS
3.0. Research Design – – – – – – – – 20
3.1 Analysis of the existing system – – – – – – 20
3.2 Problems of the existing system – – – – – – 21
3.3 Solutions to the problems of the existing system – – – 21
3.4 The proposed system – – – – – – – – 21
3.3 Justification of the proposed system – – – – – 22
3.4 Advantages and disadvantages of the proposed system – – 22
Chapter four: System Design
4.1 System Control Centre – – – – – – – 23
4.2 Objective of the design – – – – – – – 23
4.3 Input and Output Database Specification – – – – – 23
4.4 Program module specification – – – – – – 24
4.5 Choice of programming language – – – – – – 27
Chapter five: System Documentation and Implementation
5.1 Hardware and software requirement – – – – – – 28
5.2 System testing – – – – – – – – – 29
5.3 System maintenance – – – – – – – – 29
5.4 Site Preparation and conversion process – – – – – 30
5.5 User Manual – – – – – – – – – 30
Chapter six: Summary, Conclusion and recommendation
6.1 Summary – – – – – – – – – 31
6.2 Conclusion – – – – – – – – – 31
6.3 Recommendations – – – – – – – – 31
References- – – – – – – – – – – 33
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Chatbots are conversation engines that interact in real time with customers, machine operators, maintenance workers, etc. In addition, they can offer advanced dialogue and technology conversations using machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) enhancements. A chatbot can be seen as a software application used to conduct an on-line chat conversation via text or text-to-speech, in lieu of providing direct contact with a live human agent.A customer service chatbot is a bot that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to answer basic customer questions via a business messenger. They can recognize and answer multiple forms of the same question and can be trained to give instant responses using your preferred voice and tone (Loazlo, 2018).
Chatbots have become fashionable for companies as a relevant opportunity to take better advantage of social networks and obtain a different advantage at the Internet level compared to other companies that do not use them. They interact directly with customers and facilitate company-initiated communication. Chatbots are equipped with sophisticated voice recognition and natural language processing tools that enable them to understand complex and subtle dialogue and address consumer requests with depth, compassion, and even humor.
Willis (2013) explained that achatbot is often described as one of the most advanced and promising expressions of interaction between humans and machines. However, from a technological point of view, a chatbot only represents the natural evolution of a Question Answering system leveraging Natural Language Processing (NLP). Chatbots have not only jumpedthe conventional language processing, but have bridged the gap between businesses and consumers in ways that no other A.I. platform has done before.
Chatbots offer a fast and engaging customer experience by providing troubleshooting services, an on-demand help desk and a personal assistant all at the same time. It is more convenient and takes less effort and time for customers to converse with a chatbot. A bot uses artificial intelligence to instantly search through sizable quantities of information and accurately select the most relevant answer for a consumer (Balakrishnan, 2018).
According to Orsingher et al. (2010), businesses using chatbots can reduce conventional tasks while harmoniously handling various requests from customers. This rapid means of handling customer queries, combined with offering 24/7 support, helps businesses improve customer loyalty.Chatbots can be embedded into websites, helping to drive conversion rates and create a positive user experience. Juniper Research estimates that a company can save on average 4 minutes per chatbot enquiry when compared with traditional call centres.
Brands such as Starbucks, Spotify and Ebay are using chatbots to improve their customer service. One of the most innovative was developed by Bank of America. The newly launched “Erica” is designed to help customers make smarter money decisions. This chatbot uses artificial intelligence, algorithms and predictive messaging to help customers make payments, check balances, save money and transfer funds. Erica enables users to interact via both text and voice, and uses the information provided to push insights to the customer (Sugathan, et al., 2018).
Some of the common tasks performed by virtual assistants include, responding to the user’s queries, acting as a guide or tutor, leading customers to relevant content on a website, or guiding them in their shopping decisions. A virtual assistant does not only answer questions – it also tries to hold a conversation, mimicking human behaviour, so that the users would feel that they are interacting with a real human. One of the familiar technologies to implement virtual assistance refers to chatbots. Chatbots, also known as conversional agents, are software frameworks that can respond to natural language inputs and attempt to hold a conversation in a way that imitates a real person. Chatbots communicate with their human partners through various frameworks ranging from a simple text interface to speech recognition features. Chatbot advisory services are better than traditional human advisor services when compared for the factors like price and convenience, lower fees and 24/7 access (Patil et al, 2019).
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Chatbots bring efficiency in customer service by rendering quick service complete understanding and improved productivity. The main reasonto use chatbots in customer service is productivity, meaning quicker answer with less cost and effort. Chatbots enable customer services more user-friendly by facilitating easy navigation and completing transactions. Capability of providing information as per customers’ preferences has made customers chat-bots user-friendly. In the current era of digitally enabled bank chatbot is one of the services which enhance customer engagement. For example, consumers prefer to view, search, contact and make queries to know the details of the financial products before buying through Chatbot services (Shih and Hung-Pin, 2004).
Chatbots have been around for over fifty years. One of the earliest chatbots, a psychotherapist emulator nicknamed ELIZA, was created back in 1966 at MIT. ELIZA could interpret text and respond to prompts based on a script. And though ELIZA captured the interest of contemporary programmers, academics and futurists, it wasn’t until a bot called SmarterChild was integrated into America Online Instant Messenger (AIM) in 2001 (and later integrated into MSN Messenger) that the general public had the opportunity to interact with this type of technology. You could ask SmarterChild for the weather, sports scores, movie show times and more. At its peak, SmarterChild had over 30 million AIM buddies and accounted for almost 5% of the entire Internet’s chat volume (Chung, et al., 2018)
Fifteen years later, chatbots have become more sophisticated as advancements in technology have allowed them to efficiently and realistically mimic human interaction through complex algorithms and machine learning. Although it hasn’t quite happened yet, AI bots are getting closer and closer to passing the Turing test, a test of computer intelligence requiring that a human be unable to distinguish whether they are chatting with a bot or another human being.
Google’s DeepMind division has recently created the first AI bot to ever beat a professional player at the ancient Chinese game of Go (no, not Pokémon Go). And although the rules of Go are simple, there are more possible positions on the board than there are atoms in the universe, making it nearly impossible for the bot to systematically analyze the consequences of each possibility before each move. Instead, DeepMind’s AI, AlphaGo combines a traditional advanced tree search with deep neural networks that mimic thought processes in the human brain.
Another huge player in artificial intelligence, Facebook, is looking to optimize its user experience by integrating AI into its Messenger platform. Facebook’s project is called DeepText, a “learning-based text understanding engine” which works to understand and interpret text content with incredible accuracy. It’s able to interpret context, slang, and ambiguity to distinguish whether you’re talking about apple the fruit or Apple the company. DeepText’s end goal is to analyze your conversation and offer services through the Messenger app, such as booking a taxi. But don’t worry, DeepText won’t just spam you every time you say the word “ride”, it can distinguish whether you’re looking to hail a cab or just stepping out of one (Chung et al., 2018).
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Social networks are relevant modern tools that allow companies to improve their online commercial sales and relationships between sellers and consumers, but nowadays, there is an urgent need to use advanced technological tools at the business level due to the continuous use of digitization in society. One such technological tool, known as a chatbot, seems to be a gateway to the automation of different processes that were traditionally carried out by human employees or entrepreneurs, achieving cost savings and generating a high degree of satisfaction with users and clients. Human customer care service staff have limited working hours to operate and often times some businesses requires a 24/7 service demands and even if management tries to meet up, more finances and human capital is required thereby making it un realistic. This study proposes the design and implementation of a chatbot system for customer service. Chatbots, unlike humans, have no need for sleep. If the customer care team is unavailable, a chatbot can step in to answer questions and provide links to resources.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The aim of this study is to design and implementation of chatbot. The objective are as follows;
- To discuss the concept of chatbot
- To assist customers satisfactorily as much as possible
- To provide fast feedback to customers complaint or request
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Regarding who would benefit from this study, the first beneficiaries would be companies that do not market their products online, as this research could encourage them to operate on the Internet. Second are companies that operate online but are not familiar with chatbots, as this research could open their eyes to the benefits of this new way of attracting and keeping customers, since, nowadays, chatbots can serve as a new way for customers to acquire purchases and resolve their doubts quickly. This study contributes to the field of online sales commerce, as it is necessary to incorporate better digital solutions to enhance the results of companies.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study examines design and implementation of chatbot. In this study the scope is focused on understanding the concept of chatbot technology and its implementation in providing support for students of the Delta State Polytechnic, Otefe-Oghara.
1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The limitation of the study is time and financial constraint in that there was limited time allocated for the execution of this study as well as inadequate finance was available to cover a broader scope in this study.
Chatbot: A chatbot is a software application used to conduct an on-line chat conversation via text or text-to-speech, in replacement of providing direct contact with a live human agent.
Customer service: Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during, and after a purchase.
Machine learning: Machine learning is the study of computer algorithms that can improve automatically through experience and by the use of data. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence: Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems.
Project – Design and implementation of chatbot