People all over the world have been impacted by the COVID-19 virus either medically, financially or mentally. The Pandemic has created a lack of basic needs like food, water and medical facilities. This has led to panic around the world and authorities are fighting against the spread of the virus, spread of panic, and spread of misinformation. Many countries have imposed lock down requirements. Technology can have a positive impact during these trying times. Companies and governments are deploying chatbots to provide critical information and provide services to the public while human-to-human contact is reduced.
Chatbots are helping people in these times by providing critical public health information such as number of infections, number of recovered and number of deceased. Besides that basic facts of the Pandemic, chatbots can also provide locations of testing facilities, medical/safety recommendations, information about the disease such as symptoms and steps to protect yourself from contracting the disease. The chatbot can provide this information in two ways, either when asked a question or through push notification on mobile or web devices.
National statistics are easily shared by media outlets but what about data for specific neighborhoods or counties? Tech companies are working with local authorities and governments to provide information such as updates about local cases and where the nearest testing centers are located. This information is at the public's fingertips without having to find the information online, possibly from unreliable sources. Chatbots connect to reliable government and medical sources. Chatbots can also provide information about the disease such as symptoms and steps to protect yourself from infecting yourself.
One disturbing aspect during lock down is the disruption of supply distribution of essential goods and services. There are many different types of needs from basic needs like groceries and also dire essential needs like medical facilities. Conversational AI in chatbot can help relieve some of these needs.
Grocery stores and retailers are adding chatbots and eccommerce options to limit contact of their employees with the public. Customer service chatbots can coordinate orders, payment and delivery or pickup methods. Likewise, restaurants that are forced to close their dining rooms have had to pivot to delivery and pickup orders and as order volume increases, chatbots can handle every step of the process.
If a person starts to show symptoms of COVID-19 and they don't have medical facilities nearby, it's not advisable to travel to consult a doctor. Especially now, when medical staff are overburdened and wait times have skyrocketed. Conversational AI resolves some of these barriers. Virtual doctor's visits or telemedicine/telehealth, can replace in-person visits. Patients can connect to a hospital system, enter their symptoms and get advice from healthcare chatbots without physically visiting the facility. These services can give critical medical advice. AI-powered chatbots can determine when symptoms require a visit to the hospital and can help schedule appointments or emergency services. Chatbots can also provide administrative statistics of the hospital, like number of patients admitted and waiting times.
How can we trust chatbots with critical medical questions? When a bot is asked about a particular symptom, the bot connects to trusted background systems to present us with the correct information. These background services are called a deep learning black box, and are built by loading various articles, journals and books specific to the topic, in this case medical information. The chatbot also considers reviews and suggestions from licenced doctors. The concept is called Knowledge Graphing and it uses all this information to generate accurate insights. Knowledge Graphs are a proven deep learning technology that relies on document material as well as qualified user reviews.
Mankind is facing huge challenges during these unprecedented times. Medical staff, police, businesses and front line personnel are doing their best and technology can help fill any gaps. There are number of uses for conversational AI chatbots and it they can be crucial in supporting essential services while also being 100% reliable by providing information from credible sources.
Aravind Kota works as a Data Scientist in V-Soft Digital. He has profound knowledge in developing applications using Neural Networks concepts in the fields of computer vision, natural language processing, and statistics. He has hands-on experience with tools like MATLAB, Python, and LabVIEW. Also, he is very enthusiastic in developing AI and IoT applications and mentoring many others in this field.