There’s a new AI tool for small business that automates chatbots and blends that innovation together with machine learning to help employees and customers find the updated information they need quickly.
Boston-based Talla recently released it’s Intelligent Knowledge Base 2.0. Small Business Trends spoke with Rob May, Founder and CEO of Talla, about this latest version and what it can do for sales teams, customers and any small or medium sized business that has lots of data on their website.
Talla Intelligent Knowledge Base 2.0 is A Kind of Bridge
May started by saying the latest version of the company’s data base builds on an earlier model and the idea that chatbots and data bases need some kind of bridge to bring them together.
“There’s been a trend toward the merger of tools,” he said. “What we’ve built is a new kind of knowledge base that’s a merger between a Wiki type system, machine learning, automation and a chatbot platform.”
Natural Language Processing
Natural language processing and AI powered automation are two of the cornerstones of the company’s product. Natural language allows people to give computers instructions they understand and can follow through on. One of the things Intelligent Knowledge Base 2.0 does is make your business’s content more user friendly for chatbots.
“We’ve got some really interesting technology that allows you to turn the business content you write into bots that can answer questions and deliver information,” May says. The result is more accurate information that’s easier to retrieve. This innovation can be used a variety of ways but May says there are some front runners.
“Our most common use cases are sales and support teams,” he explains.
Train Content
Being able to train content is just one of the aspects that a lawyer’s office or other small business without the budget for a big client care team will find useful. The idea is also great for small companies that have technical products or those with complex pricing structures — any business where you’ll need to clarify things and interact with clients.
The update also prevents content duplication and automates recurring tasks. It gathers accurate real time information by integrating with popular business tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams to name a few. Not only can Talla give the answer to queries, the product can also execute actions.
Possible Scenario
May explains one possible scenario:
“A bank might have a complex product suite. A rep might be on the phone with a customer when they ask a specific question. Rather than do a keyword search and get 15 articles back, that rep can ask Talla and get one specific answer.”
The AI aspect also makes content updates automatic. Simply enter information on, say, your pricing or other details in the knowledge base — or answer a customers question once in an email or on a collaboration platform like Slack and when the question is asked again, Talla will “remember” seeing the question before and respond automatically. A company release states clients are reporting 90% accuracy.
May suggests that there’s a parallel between these latest AI tools and how cloud adoption affected small and medium sized business’s fortunes.
Latest Innovations
“With these latest innovations, small businesses are going to have the ability to have some of the power and scale of larger companies because of artificial intelligence,” May says. “Think about being able to scale your sales or support workforce. You might only need one person because that person constantly trains Talla.”
The company has some lofty goals.
“Our goal is to grow this into a digital workforce,” May says. “Now that these bots know something about your business, over time we want to add more skills and more automation.”
Talla was founded in 2015. Currently the company has over 3000 customers and 22 employees.
Image: Talla