Charlot the chatbot
As an IT professional at CM, you contribute to educational, innovative agile projects with rapid business value, such as that of Charlot the chatbot. Read it here.
Charlot the chatbot is busy. She gets 1,000 questions every day.
CM
Charlot will eventually have personalized transactional conversations with our members.
Laurent
We only launch our chatbot after an extensive UX test with a varied audience. This is how we put the finishing touches.
Thierry
Our agile teams bring Charlot the chatbot to life
Since mid-October 2020, CM members have been able to talk to Charlot the chatbot. How do our IT people make that possible? They work in an agile way with cutting-edge technology and cleverly respond to the needs of the business. And Charlot herself? It gets better every day.
At CM we try to make life easier for our members and internal customers. We do this in our own, unimaginable way. And with success: at the start of 2021, Charlot the chatbot already receives 1,000 questions per day.
Every question that Charlot answers successfully helps our employees to provide targeted assistance to members with complex files. Result? Better services and more time and focus for our employees.
"In the meantime, our IT staff are learning a lot about innovative technologies," says Laurent, ICT Director at CM. 'And because they work agile, they immediately see the added value they create for our members and colleagues.'
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Agile brings business value at a rapid pace
How can we automate interactions with our members as much as possible? The story of Charlot the chatbot starts with that question in the spring of 2020. Our Business puts our heads together with our IT Architects. The terms 'artificial intelligence' (AI) and 'natural language processing' (NLP) are soon mentioned. And after a 'proof of concept', Charlot is launched. It's only October then.
How do you get such an innovative project on track so quickly? 'Agile working with a team of people who want to go for it. That is the key,” says Thierry, Senior Developer at CM. 'Agile works more efficiently, but it is also more fun, because you see your solution growing every day.'
Because chatbots are new to CM, Charlot is being developed in collaboration with chatbot company Oswald, Laurent adds: 'This collaboration means that our IT people learn faster and achieve tangible results.'
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Start modestly, grow ambitiously
As scrum master, Thierry puts together the agile project team. On that team? Product owner, IT developers, IT architects and marketing professionals. Colleagues from different departments. 'This way we can switch very quickly and speed up the process. With a clear structure and concrete objectives.'
The team focuses on a minimum viable product (MVP) from the outset. In the first phase, IT will develop the chatbot for 10 common themes, from the global medical file to questions about birth, disability and supplementary insurance.
Since its launch, Charlot the chatbot has been getting smarter with the help of the Business. "We want to eventually have Charlot conduct personalized transactional conversations with our members," says Laurent. 'More interaction and even more personal, that is. Our ambition? Ensuring that the chatbot can answer 90% of all questions in the future.'
New scenarios will be added to automatically answer even more member questions. Charlot will also point the way to relevant FAQs and web forms. In a final phase, Charlot will communicate directly with other tools, such as My CM .
Contribution to colleagues, members and society
'What do our IT developers feel when they work on a chatbot? Some are completely absorbed in the technical and analytical side. Others also see the bigger picture of their contribution,” says Thierry. 'But because we work in an agile way with the Business, we always keep the ultimate goal in mind: providing better service to our members.'
Charlot the chatbot ensures that people receive help more quickly with their health matters. For some, a well-functioning chatbot also removes the barrier to contacting CM.
'Working well' is crucial,' says Thierry. 'That is why we do not launch our chatbot without an extensive UX test with a varied audience of users. This way we dot the i's and cross the i's and improve where necessary.'
We want Charlot to grow together
"A chatbot is never completely finished," says Laurent. 'The possibilities are endless. That is why we continuously look at how the chatbot is used. Where he succeeds and where he fails. With that information we can help Charlot grow. Just like our human colleagues grow in their jobs.'
In the coming months, IT and Business will further enrich Charlot with new scenarios and features. 'The road is long, but fascinating.'
Participate in exciting IT projects at CM
We are always looking for different ICT profiles to realize our projects. Interested? Then be sure to take a look at our vacancies . At CM you get the opportunity to work on the projects that interest you most: from AI to apps, from OCR to NLP.
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