The Rise of the Virtual Agent: Q&A With IntelliResponse, ‘Siri for the Enterprise’

IntelliResponse is a provider of virtual-agent technology (“Siri for the enterprise”) aimed to help businesses deliver the best answers to customers’ questions asked across various channels. The self-service tool improves the customer experience, which can lead to improved conversion rates and lower customer service costs. It also helps enterprises collect customer data and draw key insights into their behavior.

“Virtual agent” might conjure visions of digital faces with eerie artificial intelligence, robotic voices and awkward blinking patterns appearing on your computer screen. To clarify this, David Lloyd, CEO of IntelliResponse, took some time to answer some questions about what the company’s technology actually does. Read on to learn about which of his company’s products excites him the most, what he thinks the adoption of virtual-agent technology will look like in the near future and what enterprises need to be wary of when shopping for this kind of solution.

Please introduce yourself.
Oh wow, where do I begin? Well to start off with, back in 2009, I was appointed CEO of IntelliResponse. However, even though I’m now responsible for setting the company’s strategic direction and driving new growth, I still have a deep passion for technology. Let me elaborate: Prior to 2009, I was the CTO and vice president of client services for IntelliResponse, and before that I was CTO/CIO with Dexit, an RFID payments company. Go back a few more years and you would have found me at Carlson Marketing Group (CMG), where I was senior director, technology services after we sold our ASP solution to Carlson.

I don’t think I’ll go back any further, but I’ve been in the business for quite some time (I was at the original JavaOne conference) and I can say I have the unique vantage point to see what has worked for businesses and what hasn’t. Thinking back, I saw a lot of potential in IntelliResponse. I decided to take a look at their underlying technology and patents and found the way they solved the problem was both simple and elegant, which was what drew me in. But the potential to capitalize on this technology platform and further improve on it is what keeps me, and my entire team, motivated each day.

As for hobbies, I think I might be one of the few Canadians who misses winter, but I absolutely love getting time in to snowboard, especially with my son. My wife Kim and our daughter prefer two planks rather than one, but I’ve forgiven them. I also like to slip into a good game of “CoD” on my Xbox when time allows and try to workout regularly to maintain my love of chocolate.

To start, can you please describe what IntelliResponse is in one sentence?
IntelliResponse provides virtual-agent technology solutions for the enterprise, through the omnichannel (Web, mobile apps, social media and agent desktops), delivering highly accurate answers and relevant offers, which improve conversion, as well as capturing key voice-of-the-customer insights.

OK, now without restrictions, how would you describe IntelliResponse to someone hearing about the company for the first time?
When describing IntelliResponse to someone for the first time, I tell them, “Think Siri for the enterprise.” Today’s Web-savvy consumers have very high expectations when visiting a corporate website or interacting with a brand via their smartphone or favorite social media channel. Consumers want instant answers to their questions, and often their journey begins online (on a website, a mobile device, or social media channel like Facebook or Twitter). Just like the Siri personal assistant helps answer our personal questions, IntelliResponse Virtual Agent technology empowers customers of banks, utilities, airlines or retail (to name just a few) to access information in a fast, easy and intuitive manner, 24 hours a day, seven days a week on their terms, while also reducing service costs for the organization and relieving strain on the contact center.

Can you describe how IntelliResponse parses questions and finds the best answers for them? Are there any examples that come to mind?
If you think of typical products that are search-based, they depend on the content to be indexed and then matched to the text typed by the end user. This results in large sets of results being presented to the user that they then have to self-select from. The accuracy is terrible, as most everyone knows from using search.

At IntelliResponse, we always say, “It’s not about the answer