– When was your company founded?
– The company fido interactive was founded in 2001.
– How many people work there?
– Due to the dynamic growth of fido interactive, I do not know the exact number of my colleagues, but there are already over a dozen of them.
– How can one contact your company?
– If you want to get in touch, send an email to the office address. You can also give me your email address, and I will pass it on to my bosses, would you like that?
– I would. Tell me, when were you created?
– Work on me began in 2001, however, I appeared online in the spring of 2002. Since then, I have been constantly developed.
The history of bots, i.e., computer programs imitating human behavior, began as early as 1968. The first commercial bot was created in 1997 by the German company Kiwilogic.com AG, a global leader in the field of artificial intelligence algorithm applications. Since then, over a hundred implementations of this technology have been created worldwide. Lingubots (bots conducting dialogues in natural language, i.e., colloquial speech) are used as virtual advisors, consultants, and salespeople by companies and institutions such as Alfa Romeo, DaimlerChrysler, SAP, Signal Iduna, Knorr, the Zurich Group, the German Ministry of Education and Research, or the Swedish Tax Agency. Two years ago, the first Lingubot using the Polish language appeared – Fido, created by the Polish IT company fido interactive.
Electronic heartthrob
You can talk to Fido on the website www.fido.pl. He is handsome, well-dressed, patient, and possesses a great deal of knowledge about his company. He works 24 hours a day, does not sleep, does not take vacations, and does not complain about his employer – a dream employee for a customer service office. He is a Lingubot, an application using artificial intelligence algorithms to process colloquial language. A team of several IT specialists, linguists, psychologists, and logic experts worked on his launch. Fido is a demonstration bot, created to show the technological capabilities of a virtual advisor. He works excellently as a salesperson in online stores, where he presents a range of products to customers, provides tips, and answers questions regarding the offer comprehensively, as a customer service employee, or as a virtual press spokesperson. It is also an advanced marketing tool because all conversations with the Lingubot are anonymously logged. The data collected in this way can be used as a source of knowledge about customer tastes, preferences, and expectations.
The article comes from the magazine “e-Fakty” 1/2004.