No question technology has dehumanised commercial relationships; but machine learning chatbots as part of your online offering make transactions seem human again. We like to call them digital employees because it helps position them in your team and will help you understand what investment in time is needed along with the returns you can expect.

Digital employees have conversations with your users and learn to deliver answers with empathy all in your brand voice. This means we get ever closer to offering a consistently good customer experience with no human intervention, but how much do machine learning chatbots cost?

In this article I’d like to give you an idea of the costs associated to developing a bespoke machine learning digital employee. Before getting started you may want to read the step by step process when creating a chatbot as your first digital employee.   

How much do machine learning chatbots cost? 

Digital employees are managed by Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning technology. They are so powerful they can absorb limitless amounts of information. I’ve broken down the process into three simple steps with associated costs for each; 

  1. Listen and Define.
  2. Invent and Prototype
  3. Test and Improve 

1. Listen and Define. 

Your first digital employee will interact with either internal teams or external clients. Either way we listen directly to those who use them and listen to how your law firm business is run. We start to build a picture of what your users need. 

We then look at how the digital employee will deliver its services; is it in a support or sales role? We learn what elements of your services can be automated and what internal systems it needs to integrate with. We then look at how the conversation should flow, understand what reporting you need and what success means for your users. 

For the listen and define steps we’d estimate you’d need a budget between £4000 - £7000.

Next we get inventive and start developing a prototype for you. 

2. Invent and Prototype 

This is the clever bit - once we’ve listened to you and your clients we use our not inconsiderable brains to invent and solve their challenges. 

In this step we create use cases and implement the measurements you asked for. Then we create the different pathway conversations that are going to solve the challenges your users face using content and people focused scripts. The next step is to make it come alive and develop the minimum viable digital employee - you’ll love this part, because you get to see progress. This prototype has all the basic functions you need in place, visualise it as a working version of your launch solution. 

The cost for developing a minimum viable digital employee can range between £20,000 – £90,000, depending on complexity and what other systems it may integrate with. 

Next we start testing and making sure it works well for those who use it.

3. Test and Improve

The final development step converts the vision into reality based on requirements, goals and brand experience.                             

We can now start usability, task and quality assurance testing with a small group of users then we gather feedback. Complete any revisions and optimisation with a feedback loop. Internal training starts.

So when you’re happy we set your digital worker idea free to do its job and start improving, making sure it works well for those who use it.

We keep an eye on you. We’re not the type to love you and leave you. This is a new digital worker we made with you and we want to care for it. We’ll keep an eye on it so you can plan for the future, things like;

  • Questions it’s been asked and can’t answer yet.
  • Law changes and how that impacts on conversation flow.
  • Answering your questions and technical support.

Similar to any employee a digital workers effectiveness depends on the knowledge and experience it gains. The AI machine learning technology develops its intelligence from ongoing training until it does all the things you need it to do.

The final cost of a sophisticated machine learning digital worker varies as each instance is different. Consequently prices range from £20,000 to £150,000 because of the many factors involved. At this stage your budget provides a chatbot that communicates in natural language, improves over time, is available 24/7 and conducts multiple transactions simultaneously. You can start with a simple application that automates frequently used routines in your company. 

Support and training your chatbot

Like any of your team their skills depend on experiences and knowledge gained, the effectiveness of a chatbot depends on its knowledge base and training. Machine Learning chatbots learn from information they are given by you and end users. Training is ongoing until it’s at a stage when it becomes very profitable. 

Got any questions?

Chatbots can completely automate routine work even when that work involves interacting with your existing and potential clients. To learn more or start a conversation – call 0131 454 3311 or give us your details and we’ll have a chat on how we can help you.

 
 
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Founded in 1995, based in Edinburgh’s tech community, WEB is a company with a focus on simple digital products designed for Law Firms including AI and AI & machine learning chatbots – The team includes designers and software engineers.
 
 

Work in progress since 1995.
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