Whether you realise it or not, you have undoubtedly used a chatbot at some point. It begins with a simple “Hello there. How may I be of service to you? message that appears on a webpage when you visit it. Or, a message from the social media of your favourite restaurant saying, “Hi, Joel! Do you have a craving right now?” These are just a few instances of chatbots that businesses have used to streamline client engagement.
Simply described, a chatbot is an AI programme that uses natural language processing (NLP) to simulate human communication. They serve as virtual or digital assistants, interpreting user queries and providing relevant responses.
These user requests might include things like making appointments at restaurants, looking up prices, arranging events, and placing online orders for goods. Typically used on websites, smartphone applications, and messaging services like Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Slack, bots can be voice or text-based.
Although chatbot technology can appear novel and intriguing, it has really been around for a long. Joseph Weizenbaum created ELIZA, the first chatbot, in 1966. He created ELIZA to mimic human interaction using pattern recognition. It wasn’t intelligent enough to respond to queries in their entirety, though. It instead adhered to a pre-written script that was modelled after a Rogerian psychotherapist.
Chatbot development has advanced significantly over time. Developers of chatbots have gained knowledge from the limitations of earlier bots. These days, chatbots are quite clever and improve communication between humans and robots.
Over time, chatbots have developed and substantially improved communications between customers and businesses. The abilities needed to create a chatbot are quite similar to those needed to create software.
According to a report by AIMultiple, 65% of chatbot firms and clients consider a lack of talent to be the biggest issue facing the sector. In other words, chatbot developers now have a lot of untapped potential.
Without further ado, let’s explore in more detail the abilities you must have.
Proficiency with chatbot frameworks
Expertise in chatbot frameworks should be the first and most important qualification for every chatbot developer. Building chatbots from beginning is inevitable if you work in the chatbot development field. You must be adept with frameworks like IBM Watson, APi.ai, Microsoft Azure Bot Service, and others in order to execute this.
While many firms nowadays use chatbot platforms to build chatbots, if you’re building bespoke chatbots, you’ll need to be familiar with these frameworks. Additionally, you must to be able to contrast many frameworks and select the best one for a certain chatbot.
Additionally, it is highly recommended that you get enough practice on open-source chatbot frameworks such as Wit.ai and Rasa, since practice is the only way to improve your skills. Remember, if you are applying to small companies, you will need to choose a paid chatbot framework, as opposed to the open source ones. The latter requires you to have expertise in the Natural Language Processing (NLP) domain as well.
Mastery of programming languages
For seasoned developers, this should be obvious. Developers should be knowledgeable in using a variety of programming languages in addition to chatbot frameworks. Most likely, if you’ve extensively dealt with chatbot frameworks, you already have this aspect handled.
These frameworks are built on certain programming languages, after all. The most popular ones are Java, Python, PHP, and Ruby, which you should learn (or review) for your skill set. These abilities will enable you to tailor your chatbot in ways that are most suitable for your company.
So it’s time to start reviewing if you don’t know these programming languages or haven’t used them in a while. Start studying various programming languages right now with the help of online tutorials and courses.
Knowledge of Emerging Technologies
Think back to how different chatbots were ten years ago compared to now. The chatbots you encounter now surely don’t resemble the simple chat windows we used to communicate with only a few years ago, do they?
Today’s chatbots have developed to include some very cool features. Due of chatbots’ revolutionary nature, developers must stay current with emerging trends and technology. You will require in-depth understanding of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to create an efficient chatbot that can foresee the potential conversational flow and answer questions in an effortless manner. Your chatbot won’t be able to differentiate between a welcome and a client enquiry without the use of AI and NLP technology.
In addition to these technologies, machine learning is essential in determining how chatbots are designed and how conversations progress. Before moving on, it could be a good idea to take the necessary courses (listed above) if you don’t already know these technologies and are looking for a job developing chatbots.
Communication Skills
Communication is likely to be at the top of any list of talents any large firm would want their chatbot developers to possess.
Why? What are chatbots if not another means of communication between businesses and consumers?
How will they create a chatbot that can mimic a human conversation if the individuals creating it lack the fundamental knowledge of composing one?
Don’t misunderstand me; I’m not advocating that you study conversations in-depth as a conversation designer would, but while working on chatbot creation, you still need a fundamental understanding of how natural language should flow.
Experience Integrating Chatbots on Various Platforms
You will unavoidably need to have some experience dealing with omnichannel chatbots if you want to design chatbots for a living. Knowing how to add a chatbot to a website is no longer sufficient.
Businesses now aim to maintain a high standard of customer service across all platforms. A chatbot developer has to know how to integrate the chatbot, whether it be on Facebook, Skype, or WhatsApp. After all, messaging apps are the prefered method of communication for over 55% of customers with enterprises.
Being a great chatbot developer necessitates extensive understanding of frameworks, programming languages, and communication abilities. Along with these abilities, your profile will be strengthened if you have expertise designing and executing cross-platform chatbots.
And that’s it! You are well on your way to becoming a fantastic chatbot developer from a web developer if you are certain that you have these abilities and traits. It is never too late to develop these talents and increase your prospects, even if you believe that you lack some of the attributes that we have listed below. After all, the need for chatbot developers will only increase over the next years.
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