Chatbots are now among the most popular web applications used in a wide range of industries. These chatbots can be found in the press, medicine, finance and even transport sectors. They offer a wide range of functionalities , enabling a company to pass on a message, by way of response, to customers seeking information about its products or services.
Given the importance of chatbots in the lives of today’s Internet users, it’s important to question their reliability. To meet this need, many companies are now offering open source chatbots to customers.
What is open source software?
To get a better idea of what an open source chatbot is, we need to start with the definition of “open source” itself. Indeed, open source software is software whose source is open, and most often usable via APIs made available to companies. This expression is used to highlight the fact that the application’s source code is freely accessible. These are open-source software applications that users can use, view and distribute without paying an excessive price, even occasionally as a free version. In other words, software that is available to all web users. Open source software has become a favorite software source for many companies today. This allows them to take advantage of a technical source that is mostly available free of charge.
This type of software, known as open source, is very popular today, and is used by many companies offering services in SaaS (software as a service) mode.
Let’s take a look at the advantages of open source software
The Price
Open source software is not necessarily free software. Even if its name may suggest it is.
The code itself is free and freely available, but you may have to pay the cost of integrating the software into your platform. Nevertheless, the price of open source software remains very reasonable. We invite you to make a quick comparison of open source and non-open source software, and you’ll see that you don’t need a professional comparator to understand that the price remains reasonable.
Flexibility
Open source software lets professionals easily and freely test the integration of tools into their interface.
Making code available via an api or other means is the very essence of open source.
Continuity
Open source software is characterized by its modifiability and scalability. This means that software can remain effective for much longer than other software. This clearly favors positive reviews of this type of software in the enterprise.
What is a chatbot?
A chatbot is a robot or software bot that enables companies to dialogue with their customers or users over the web. In this sense, chatbots and artificial intelligence are relatively inseparable, as chatbots necessarily call on artificial intelligence to provide relevant answers to users.
The advantages for companies of using this kind of robot or bot is relatively simple to understand.
The chatbot can provide details of the company’s products or services to its customers in a completely autonomous way.
Is a chatbot necessarily open source?
No, a chatbot doesn’t have to be open source. A conversational bot can be, yes, but not all are.
Today, this type of bot is created by just a few companies on the market. These companies can offer their bot as a free (freemium) version, as Botnation does, and others offer a free demo version. But these are not necessarily open source chatbot software.
Open source has its limits
In the opinion of many companies, the idea of using open source software is still a source of concern. Indeed, there are always a few security gaps.
So, using an open source chatbot can seem somewhat risky when it comes to security.
Certain security details can be overlooked, and the idea of using this kind of bot to dialogue and communicate with your company’s customers can be frightening. They may have security issues, as they are no longer maintained because the software developer is now on another project and the software is no longer evolving. Although popular with many professionals, open source software is not necessarily the most widely used in the chatbot world.
Take your company’s objectives into account
Generally speaking, the primary aim of chatbots is to help automate customer requests. Users of this automated chat will then be able to access concrete answers to their needs, whether complex or not. At the same time, these automated conversational supports enable customer service staff to be more operational and make better use of their time.
Choosing an open sourceconversational agent also means taking into account the other benefits of chatbots. For example, users of this virtual assistance solution can have both standard and customizable answers. What’s more, chatbots are always available, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Unlike customer services, the platform extends its availability beyond call center opening hours.
What’s more, theconversational agent provides an almost instantaneous response to the user. Customers are always served in real time. It should also be said that the implementation of such software is part of a dynamic of innovation. The company relies on new technologies to adapt to ever-changing customer consumption habits.
Clearly identifying the business sector you need to cover will help you decide which solution to prioritize for this virtual assistance. When there are several different solutions to choose from, it’s not always easy to make a decision. To make the best choice, we recommend that you think carefully and compare software before making your decision.
Ensuring the long-term viability of the chatbot system
It would be pointless to create an automated conversational agent without ensuring that it works over time. Sustainability is therefore an important criterion to consider for a high-performance chatbot. This parameter may lead you to choose the right editor or open source solution.
It’s important to note that chatbots operate in a highly competitive environment. Your conversational agent must therefore be able to adapt to this world. Favoring recognized chatbot publishers, such as Botnation, therefore seems an appropriate choice.
In this case, you’ll benefit (for your chat bot) from several references and a broad portfolio of consistent solutions. This can be a guarantee for the longevity of your chat bot.
Chatbot infrastructure: another criterion to consider
When setting up a chatbot for your company, you also need to choose the right location and hosting.
The robot can be located in the Cloud. It will then operate in integrated infrastructure mode. The advantage here is thatvirtual assistance users won’t have to worry about maintenance. It’s the solution provider who takes care of maintaining the automated chat. Failing that, there may be a delegation of skills to take care of this task. You can host your virtual assistance using a single-tenant or multi-tenant solution. In the first case, a bot is equivalent to a database. With this type of hosting, you can create your conversational assistance in SaaS mode on a private cloud.
The other hosting solution available for a chatbot is the company’s own website. This is an on-premise hosting solution. With this type of hosting, you have total control over the management of the tool. When it comes to maintenance, it’s up to your in-house teams to take care of it, on a regular basis. If you want confidentiality for your corporate data, this chatbot hosting solution is the one for you.
It is also possible to choose a combination of these two forms of hosting. In other words, one part of the chatbot is handled by the SaaS software via the cloud, and the other is managed by the company. In this way, you separate the processing of your information from the other functionalities offered by the solution. This applies, for example, to livechat management or language processing through artificial intelligence. Of course, to implement this conversational solution, you need to have the necessary skills and competencies. Open source or not, make sure your in-house teams can support you in implementing these solutions.
