What is NLP? a natural language for your chatbots

What is Natural Language Processing?

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the field of study that investigates how machines communicate with humans. This with the aim of improving communication between both points and thus optimizing the process that machines do when processing information, a science that has evolved thanks to the availability of data and technology so that machines make use of human language in a more precise.

In NLP the computers analyze the language and give an interpretation so that it can be used in a practical way. Using NLP we can do tasks like automatic text summarization, dictation, language translation, sentiment analysis, speech recognition, and much more.

Virtual assistants or chatbots are one of the most used applications of NLP, although there are many others – the interaction that humans have with certain assistants such as Alexa or Siri – are just examples of how language processing is applied in everyday products.

What uses can we give it?

• Summary of texts : Helps to synthesize concrete ideas about a specific idea, understand the central concept and present the texts related to the search
• Automatic generation of keywords and text generation following a particular style
• Sentiment analysis : Process of understanding a text, translated into positive or negative emotions. Widely used in Social Networks, in politics, product reviews and in recommendation engines
• Automatic Language Translation: Recognize written language and translate accurately
• Chatbots : to be able to maintain a fluid chat with the user and answer their questions automatically

How are our customers applying it?

One of the great challenges when creating a Chatbot is to connect effectively with the user, provide clear information and make the conversation flow organically. The inclusion of natural language processing in a chatbot makes this connection much more real and close.

Estafeta Mexicana provides its customers with top-quality service through multiple messaging channels, serving them 24/7 and answering their most frequent questions with a chatbot that is always available. With our technology we have been able to improve different processes within their conversational flow, integrating NLP in the branches of: Tracking of guides where it helps its users to quickly locate the status of their orders and shipments; Collections, to effectively synchronize the collection of packages, and in the Quotations branch, where it makes the process very efficient that in different circumstances a human agent would have to solve.

The natural process begins with an open question or phrase from the user. The chatbot feeds the phrase to the NLP engine, processes the sentence or question, and generates an interpretation. This can be high, that it found a match that would take it to the next part of the conversation flow, or low, that it did not understand what the user wanted to say and then request a new response. Regardless of the interaction, the NLP is constantly giving itself feedback to improve its prediction model.

In order to better understand the user and improve the conversational experience, all chatbots with NLP require training powered by an engine of the most popular phrases and sentences, and automatic and semi-automatic updates are periodically made of the improvements obtained in the learning process.

In NLP it is not enough to understand the individual meaning of a word, but the set of them in a sentence and in turn in a paragraph, in order to generate a precise conclusion of what the text is expressing. A single language has millions of idioms, ambiguities and cultural expressions with different meanings that make this task an incredible challenge to master.

In conclusion

Our language is full of cultural richness expressed in words, gestures and expressions that connect beyond words, to the extent that we can create a more natural interaction between a human and a machine, we can create more meaningful connections. This applied to our line of business, in conversational experiences and chatbots, represents a great opportunity for brands and companies to converse with their customers automatically and naturally. If you are looking to enter the world of artificial intelligence applied to customer service and sales through messaging channels, at Auronix we are ready to implement NLP solutions for your conversational experiences and chatbots.