Completion Date
12-2018
Advisor(s)
Franz J. Kurfess
Abstract
Customer service is an important aspect to maintain a loyal customer base and to improve profitability for business. Automated customer support systems including Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered chatting bots (Chatbots), have emerged as an alternative to human-based customer support to reduce the labor cost and improve efficiency. However, current Chatbots utilizing Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning are largely focused on processing open-end questions which could lead to inaccurate answers that resulted in poor customer experience. In this project, we are proposing an innovative AI customer support system with a model-based program to provide customers with very high accuracy responses. The model will be developed using the domain knowledge from business; that is, the commonly asked questions will be used to initiate model building; then the crowd-sourcing input data will be processed continuously to update FAQs. The system will be implemented in an online platform that allows users to interact with the program that constrain and guide them to obtain the right answers. Also, the program will deliver instant answers while predict consumer intents and behavior patterns. The deliverables of this project are an online platform and will be tested by several local industries, including food stores, clinics, automated vending, and restaurants, which have agreed to be pilot testers. The interdisciplinary team is from computer science and college of business. We anticipate the commercial adoption of the platform at the end of the project. The results will be disseminated at a national conference.
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/bkendowments/49
Copyright
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.