GoPhygital's Whatsapp Based AI-Powered Chatbot

With the entire world coming to terms with the COVID-19 pandemic and businesses adapting to the new normal, technology companies globally are working on solutions and innovations to help themselves and their customers in maintaining business continuity and accelerating their digital transformation journeys.

The teams at the GoPhygital have been doing their bit in helping their client-partners build solutions in the digital domain that not only help create awareness and share information about the Coronavirus pandemic but also, under current circumstances where offline marketing has taken a backseat, are helping businesses up their digital marketing game.

While working on one such initiative for Ipca Laboratories where the team created various innovative web-based solutions like the Self-Assessment Tool for Coronavirus Risk, the Coronavirus Myth Busters, and the Coronavirus Facts Quiz among others, the GoPhygital team were also brainstorming on how can the reach for these solutions be increased and made available to users by way of mediums which they used a lot more frequently than visiting a website…. And so was born the idea of GoPhygital’s AI-enabled WhatsApp based Chatbot platform.

Why a WhatsApp based Chatbot?

As per a forecast report by Juniper Research, Chatbots will be responsible for cost savings of over $8 billion per annum by 2022, up from $20 million in 2017.

Increasingly, companies across industry segments like retail, healthcare, BFSI, etc are implementing a conversational AI-focused chatbot as a part of their app/website and are increasing their focus on Business Process Automation (BPA).

However, while the integrated chatbot approach in a website/app is a good option, the challenge is user acquisition and retention since the cost of acquiring and retaining users are increasing by the day.

And which is where having a WhatsApp based chatbot is of an advantage. With an existing user base of 1.5 billion users globally and growing, and over 200 million users in India alone, WhatsApp is an ideal platform for businesses to develop their chatbots on. In addition to a captive audience, user onboarding is also very easy since not only do the majority of the users have the app already installed on their devices, but they also are familiar with all the features and functionalities. Backed with WhatsApp’s robust security layer which ensures that every message sent or received is encrypted such that it is meant only for the two parties interacting, it means that your data is safe and secure.

What does GoPhygital’s WhatsApp based AI-powered Chatbot do?

Launched as a pilot project to create awareness about COVID-19, it currently offers a self-assessment tool where the user can gauge his/her exposure to the risk of being infected by the Coronavirus disease by answering a set of questions where all the user needs to do is enter a number from 1 to 5 to choose the corresponding answer to the question asked.

e.g.:

The user has to send a message Start to the number +1 (202) 900-6447 or tap on https://wits.co/chatbot to begin the interaction. Upon initiation, the user has to send a “Hi” to begin the self-assessment where s/he is asked a series of questions like

Q1: For whom are you taking this test?

1. For yourself
2. Parent
3. Spouse
4. Child
5. Someone else

When user chooses an option by pressing the relevant number on his/her device (say, 1), s/he is taken to the next question.

Q2: What is your age group?

1. Less than 12 years
2. 12-50 years
3. 51-60 years
4. Above 60 years

On choosing the relevant option, the next question appears, and so on and so forth till the time the user has answered all the questions in the self-assessment tool. The AI-based algorithm then calculates the probability of the risk exposure to the virus in the backend based on the user’s inputs and generates a report which summarizes the probability of the risk exposure that the user has to the virus.

The content for the self-assessment tool has been developed in accordance with the guidelines defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the MoHFW.

What’s next / Value takeaway?

Going forward, the platform will be developed as a PaaS model that brands and businesses can license and customize for their business requirements. Businesses and brands can use the platform to drive conversations, carry out transactions, and send out notifications to their customers and stakeholders with ease. Add to that the rich-media messaging features that are already available on the WhatsApp platform such as images, emojis, location, and files, and you have your customer’s undivided attention.

With the recent investment of Facebook in Reliance Jio, the game just got interesting and in the days to come, there will be a lot of buzz around how the power of the 2 platforms can be leveraged to offer value to both businesses and consumers. There will be an increased focus on how businesses across industries like fashion, lifestyle, FMCG, retail, e-commerce, BFSI, healthcare, etc. can engage in There will be an increased focus on how businesses across industries like fashion, lifestyle, FMCG, retail, e-commerce, BFSI, healthcare, etc. can engage in a much better manner with their target audience by offering an integrated marketing approach across platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and the Jio ecosystem.

Team GoPhygital is already working with its client-partners in building solutions across all these touchpoints be it in Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, or Gaming. If you are a business or a brand looking to leverage the power of immersive technologies to reach out to an audience across the Facebook ecosystem, send us an email on iwantto@gophygital.io and we would be happy to create the right marketing solution for you!

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