Techies: In 5 years, chatbots could become a govt customer service norm

Booz Allen Hamilton and Conversable are teaming up to tackle what could be government's next big move to improve customer service -- chatbots. Booz Allen announced Monday that the two companies have a "joint strategic focus to advance, test and deliver world-class automated interactive messaging, tools, services and experiences that fundamentally enhance and transform customer care in all channels." "The federal government is uniquely positioned and motivated to seize the opportunity and deliver on the promise for self-service," Michael Isman, vice president in Booz Allen's Strategic Innovation Group, told FedScoop. The companies plan to leverage advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing to advance the capabilities of chatbots -- automated software programs developed to converse with people, usually via messaging. "The idea is -- we believe that the gains [in artificial intelligence, machine learning, automated next-gen analytics, crowdsourcing] can be most readily realized through the deployment of chatbots," Isman said, "to improve client, customer and stakeholder access, listening, responsiveness, [and] service delivery."