不可不知道有關Voicebot的事 Voicebot — All you must know
當你聽到「Voicebot」這個字，你會首先想起甚麼呢？Amazon Alexa？Apple Siri？還是OK Google？沒錯，這些都是Voicebot。
When you hear of the name ‘voicebot’, what is the first thing come up in your mind? Amazon Alexa? Apple Siri? Or Ok Google? Yes, they are voicebots. These voicebots serve in a sound box.
但我們今天不全是 給大家介紹Voicebot，而是介紹一個不單是家居助手，還可以存在於熱線電話裡的Voicebot小幫手。
Today, nevertheless, we are talking about another voicebot. Voicebot is not only in soundbox and serves for smart home purposes, but it can work on phones providing customer service like hotline.
Google Duplex是近期較為有名的電話Voicebot，於2018年的Google I/O推出。Google示範了如何在電話上為用戶預約美髮服務，其人工智能的像真程度教人讚嘆，完美示範日後用家可如何在日常使用人工智能。
The most famous phone call voicebot is Google Duplex. Debuting at Google I/O 2018, Google demonstrated how to use A.I. to make reservation in a hair salon. It was impressive as the natural voice created by A.I. was highly human-liked. It was a great demo and a peak of future how to use A.I. assistant in our daily lives.
Voicebot的不足
The Limitation of Voicebot nowadays
Voicebot的核心是聊天機械人Chatbot，Chatbot可在聊天平台如Facebook Messenger、微信、Line、Telegram和WhatsApp運行。若想要知道更多有關Chatbot的資訊，可以瀏覽 XX。那代表Chatbot加上聲音元素就是Voicebot了嗎？理論上，是的，但仍有不少問題需要解決。
The core of voicebot is chatbot. Chatbot is running on instant messengers like Facebook Messengers, Wechat, Line, Telegram and even on WhatsApp. To know more about whatsapp chatbot, read this article XXXXX. So is it simply converting a text bot with voice elements, then you will get a voicebot ? Technically yes, but there are much more needed to be considered.
首先，你的Chatbot必先為擁有人工智能自然語意處理(natural Language Processing)、語音識別系統(Automatic Speech Recognition)和語音合成系統，Chatbot和Voicebot使用的方式和構造也不同，若不先重新設計產品，最後只會失敗收場。
Your Chatbot has to be A.I. based with Natural Language Processing unit, equipped with Automatic speech recognition ASR and Text to speech TTS engine. The environment of chatbot and voicebot is very different, if you just simply turn your text bot into voice without redesigning your product, is definitely a failure when it is used.
Voicebot沒有可見的元素，如按鈕、列表、建議答案和選項等文字Chatbot的元素，Voicebot僅利用聲音導航。在建立Voicebot時，人們應該要清楚了解Voicebot要幫你處理甚麼難題，它不能幫你處理所有的事務，而事實上它也不應該需要。
There are no visual elements like menu button, list, quick reply or carousels like the CUI provided by text chatbot. Instead, voicebot is simply a voice user interface (VUI), voicebot cannot answer everything you ask, and infact, it should not be. Producers have to carefully consider how users could understand what particular services voicebot can serve.
簡單就好
Keep it Simple
A.I. Voicebot可處理具清晰目標的任務，如處理預訂服務及回答常見問題。由Google研發的A.I. Duplex曾被報導以人工處理訂位服務，因人工智能難以處理人類複雜的對話內容，看起來要建立一個完美的Outbound Call，在設計其流程暫時仍需不少努力。但另一方面，處理Inbound預訂電話則簡單多了。
The value of A.I. voicebot can best be seen at tasks with clear and preceises purpose, such as making reservation and handling FAQs. AI Duplex developed by Google is reported there are some calls are made by human, not A.I., the main reason is the complexity of the reaction and reply of real human. Making a perfect outbound call by AI still needs much effort on the flow and design. On the opposite, traning A.I. to handle inbound booking call can perform much better.
你可以看一下我們以下分享由Asiabots研發的A.I.預訂專線，由於Voicebot可處理的問題範圍清晰，用戶僅需回答一系列的問題，Voicebot即會進入預訂步驟。
Referring to below demonstration on A.I. handling booking inbound calls created by Asiabots, the scenario is having a clear purpose. Users are required to answer a series of questions and the voice bot will guide them to complete the booking procedure.
為甚麼Voicebot這麼重要？
Why is it important to consider of building a voicebot?
人口老化亦可能是原因之一。2030年，美國所有Baby Boomers時期出生的人口都會超過65歲，中國四分之一的人口亦會超65歲，勞動力開始下跌。為保持高質素的生活品質，重覆性的工作由機械人處理會較佳。爆發新冠肺炎後亦留意到，當有大量查詢時往往有些企業難以處理如此大量的電話查詢，如旅行社難以處理突發及大量的緊急查詢。
Aging problem could be one of the reasons. In 2030, all baby boomers will be older than 65 in the United States, and a quarter of people in China is over 65. There are not enough young people to work. To sustain the high living quality, repetitive work have to be passed to robots to handle. The outbreak of Covid-19 reveals that there are always not enough people to handle telephone calls in emergency situations.
Medium Chinese version: https://medium.com/@asiabots/voicebot-chi-9bde8fe16f44
Medium English version: https://medium.com/@asiabots/voicebot-eng-b936aa099b78
Read more about Voicebot in https://www.asiabots.com/aivoice