Differences between voicebots, chatbots, virtual assistant and voice assistant

Article Summary：With the advances in artificial intelligence (AI), there have been a lot of buzzwords going around: bot, chatbot, virtual assistant, voice assistant, and voicebot along with technologies used to build them, such as Speech-to-Text, Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Speech-to-Intent, and Text-to-Speech. The lack of standardization of terms makes things difficult even for AI experts. Let’s unwrap what they mean.

With the advances in artificial intelligence (AI), there have been a lot of buzzwords going around: bot, chatbot, virtual assistant, voice assistant, and voicebot along with technologies used to build them, such as Speech-to-Text, Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Speech-to-Intent, and Text-to-Speech. The lack of standardization of terms makes things difficult even for AI experts. Let’s unwrap what they mean.

What’s a chatbot?

A chatbot is an automated software powered by AI to simulate human conversation by matching keywords. A chatbot takes the keywords from users’ messages, mostly questions, figures out users’ intentions via a natural language understanding (NLU) engine and finds out the best possible answer. Chatbots are pre-programmed with tens or hundreds of intents, variations of expressions and pre-recorded replies.

What’s a voicebot?

A voice chatbot, or voicebot in short, works quite similarly to chatbots. They also simulate human conversation by matching keywords. A voicebot takes keywords from users’ utterances instead of text messages. To understand users’ intents from utterances, voicebots use Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology. In most cases, a voicebot first converts voice to text via Speech-to-Text (STT) and then runs NLU to understand the user intent. For context-aware voicebots, such as IT Help Desk IVRs, due to the high accuracy, Speech-to-Intent is preferred instead of running STT and NLU engines separately.

What’s a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant is an AI-powered software that assists humans in performing tasks. A virtual assistant also takes keywords from users’ messages, figures out users’ intentions via an NLU engine and performs a task. A chatbot is a version of a virtual assistant that answer questions of a user or help them navigate menus.

What’s a voice assistant?

A voice assistant is a version of a virtual assistant that takes user inputs in utterances, i.e. voice commands. A voicebot is a version of a voice assistant. With the increasing popularity of voice-based virtual assistants over text-based assistants, virtual assistants and voice assistants are now used interchangeably.

Where does the confusion come from?

It’s not wrong to say that chatbots and voicebots are different versions of the same core technology, conversational AI. Conversational AI is the discipline that allows humans and machines to engage in a conversation, written or verbal. In the past, both chatbots and voicebots were “dumb”. Users were asked to choose among given options and the accuracy of voicebots was poor. Now with the advances in voice AI, voicebots, voice assistants and virtual assistants are mostly used interchangeably.

When to choose a chatbot or a voicebot?

The decision between a chatbot and a voicebot hinges on the nature of the interaction and the user's preferences.

Chatbots excel in text-based communication, offering written responses and handling complex queries. They are suitable for customer support, information retrieval, and FAQ-based interactions.

Voicebots, on the other hand, provide a more natural and conversational experience, allowing users to interact with voice commands. They are ideal for tasks that require real-time responses, such as making reservations, placing orders, or scheduling appointments.

Ultimately, the choice depends on the specific requirements and preferences of the user or customer.

Voice bot or chatbot? Udesk has perfect solutions for both!

Udesk offers both voice bot and chatbot solutions to cater to different customer preferences and scenarios.

Our voice bot seamlessly integrates with your phone system, enabling customers to interact with a virtual assistant using natural language. On the other hand, our AI chatbot provides real-time support through text-based conversations, available on your website, mobile app, or social media platforms.

With Udesk, you can elevate your customer service strategy by offering a seamless and consistent experience, regardless of the communication channel.

Take our Voice Chatbot for a spin—for free—to see how it can work for your business.

Take our AI Chatbot for a spin—for free—to see how it can work for your business.

The article is original by Udesk, and when reprinted, the source must be indicated：https://www.udeskglobal.com/blog/differences-between-voicebots-chatbots-virtual-assistant-and-voice-assistant.html