The making of an intelligent virtual agent (IVA)

For years, businesses have sought to provide customers with more self-service options and increase automation rates in their contact centers using speech-enabled interactive voice response systems (IVRs). They have also invested heavily in developing web chatbots. However, these systems were complicated to develop and required organizations to purchase, host, and manage a vast array of software, hardware, and equipment. Applications were also created in silos, requiring multiple development projects while making it difficult for applications to share data and context. A number of disruptive innovations have made it easier and more affordable to deploy AI-and-speech-enabled self-service.