This Festive Season, Let’s Prove There’s Nothing More Valuable Than a Real Conversation

In Spike Jonze’s 2013 directorial venture, Her, Theodore Twombly, a writer, gets himself an assistant powered by AI, a Virtual Assistant, as we in the business call it, and ends up falling in love with the said assistant, because of how intuitive it is to his needs. While it is an interesting premise to make a film on, what is notable is the fact that in a 2015 study about the usage of virtual assistants, about 64% of respondents said they could see themselves falling in love with virtual assistants! It gives new meaning to how filmmakers say their movies are a reflection of the society we live in.

Just to get it out of the way, a virtual assistant or intelligent personal assistant is a software agent that can perform tasks or services for an individual based on verbal commands. Sometimes the term "chatbot" is used to refer to virtual assistants generally.

Think of this: does talking to a computer all-day satisfy the need for communication? Does it quench the thirst that we as humans have, to have emotional and psychological connect? The study mentioned above, also reveals that a staggering 71.4% of respondents think that the quality of their lives would be affected if they had to go forward without chatbots. It is an undeniable fact that virtual assistants today have made their way into almost every aspect of our lives. Our homes, our vehicles, our offices, pretty much everywhere we go, we’ve made sure we surround ourselves with a system that is ready to schedule our meetings or play our music or do whatever else it is that we need, at the sound of our voice.

Also Read: Outsourcing Alternative: Chatbots, the New Customer Hero

Honestly, we get the appeal. Chatbots listen to you. They understand what you have to say. They do what you need them to do. They learn from every interaction you have with them. We at Kore.ai are reputed as builders of some of the most powerful chatbots and virtual assistants in the world today, which can cater to pretty much every imaginable use that conversational AI has. So we’re probably the best source to tell you that at the end of the day, artificial intelligence is just what it claims to be: Artificial. And while it can be trained to do a various range of tasks, it, unfortunately, isn’t capable of replicating a human connection. And it ideally shouldn’t be, either. You could talk to a virtual assistant for days on end, and still not have the feeling of satisfaction you get when another human being understands what you have to say. That remains unmatchable, despite any level of advancement that technology makes.

The Holiday season is upon us, and it is the perfect time to reflect on the year that’s passed us. Time is probably the best gift you can give yourself, and to the ones near and dear to you. Here at Kore, we value time a lot. We’ve devoted our entire operation towards building technology that saves time for our users and makes their business functions more efficient. So this holiday season, we request you to give yourself the gift of time. Unplug your devices, and exist in the real world. Spend the final chapter of the year by building conversations and connections outside the electronic world, with people around you. After all, who better than a Conversational AI company to tell you what the value of a conversation is!