The state of conversational assistants in Italy, according to CELI's report

[nusratjahan]

CELI, the H-FARM company that designs and develops artificial intelligence systems based on machine learning and neural networks, has mapped the world of conversational assistants , producing the most comprehensive report on the sector in Italy.

The report analyzes over 130 conversational assistants (both text and voice) made available by Italian companies in 13 industrial sectors, showing how these technologies are now part of customer contact and interaction strategies , even though their true potential, particularly voice, has shop yet to be exploited. The most widespread use cases are relatively simple (requesting information and simple transactions) and integration with customer operations systems is still relatively undeveloped. Furthermore, they are primarily used as digital-first tools, employed in pre- and post-sales customer management (never during the sales phase) and are limited to performing rather simple tasks , such as providing information, but without managing transactions.

In Italy, the sectors that make the most use of chatbots and voicebots are public services and public administration , followed by banks and financial services. The media sector is the one that makes the most use of voice apps, followed by utilities .
Conversational assistants are usually gender-neutral , with a neutral style, providing simple responses, and only a small portion of chatbots are integrated into business processes . Mostly implemented on the company website, over half of conversational assistants are of the answerbot type —with little or no conversational capabilities—as a result, the predominant mode of interaction is through buttons or limited text, not allowing for natural language interaction.