Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) yesterday revealed “Alpha,” a customer service chatbot using artificial intelligence (AI) that it hopes will free up service agents to handle more complicated issues.
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) and Cathay United Bank Co (國泰世華銀行) in September began a trial of the chatbot on their Web sites and Line community groups, which have respectively helped an average of 3,000 and 10,000 users every day.
Cathay Financial said it has invested about NT$10 million (US$325,680) to improve Alpha’s understanding of natural language.
If a customer types “I want to pay my credit card bill,” other chatbots can only focus on “payment” or “credit card” to provide related information, but this cannot help consumers pay their bill, project manager Howard Wu (吳明陽) told a media briefing in Taipei.
However, Alpha could understand that the customer means to pay the bill now, and after their identity is authenticated, it would ask them if they want to transfer money online or apply for an installment plan, Wu said.
If the customer wants to pay their bill at a convenience store, the chatbot would show nearby stores on a map, Wu added.
The insurance firm has four staff responsible for labeling words such as “policies” or “loan” in conversations, helping Alpha better understand human language, Cathay Life Insurance executive vice president Winnie Fan (范千惠) said.
The chatbot can sometimes answer a question that it could not understand three days ago, Fan said, adding that JD.com Inc (京東) has more labelers to improve the efficiency of its chatbot.
“There is still limit to Alpha’s understanding and knowledge, and human agents will take over when Alpha determines that the question is out of its league,” Wu said.
Cathay Financial said that 91.4 percent of users felt satisfied with Alpha’s service, while 92.6 percent are content with human agents.
The conglomerate said that the chatbot is meant to help human agents rather than replace them.
“Right now, we do not plan to cut staffers who handle customer service and will not do so in the future. Human customer service can focus on more complicated complaints or more difficult problems, while Alpha saves their time on routine questions,” Fan said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS