Using Chatbots in Extension Programming

Chatbots & Extension
Are they the new virtual agent?
Amy Cole, Digital Media Program Director
University of Arkansas, Cooperative Extension Service

What is a chatbot?
• Chatbots are computer programs that mimic
conversation via text-to-text or text-to-chat methods.
• They can automate tasks to reduce the friction and
streamline activities in our daily lives.
• They can be conversational, engaging, and personal.

There are two primary programming
styles for chatbots.
Retrieval based (ask it a question it looks up the answer)
OR
Generative (uses AI to get smarter as it learns from commands)

There are 7 categories of chatbots
(chatterbots):
1. The Optimizer - largest category (all others are spinoffs)
2. One-Trick Pony - (adding sunglasses to a photo)
3. The Proactive – provide right info at the right time (“Weathercat Poncho”)
4. The Social – Slack bots (use crowd/messenger platforms)
5. The Shield – help you avoid unpleasant experiences (fight bureaucracy,
“DoNotPay” bot)
6. The Chatty – only exist for the sake of conversation
7. The Super Bot – Alexa, Siri, Cortana: intelligent personal assistants
Source: https://chatbotsmagazine.com/

The first chatbot, Eliza, mimicked
psychotherapy-based conversations.
• Developed as a satire of psychotherapy by MIT researcher Joseph Wizenbaum who wanted to show
the superficiality of therapy.
• Eliza was a “Chatty” bot to which people quickly bonded.
Source: http://www.csfieldguide.org.nz/releases/1.9.9/ArtificialIntelligence.html

SIRI was originally designed as an app
for all mobile phones, not just Apple.
• Developed by an AI center, SRI international as an app then sold to Apple in 2010.
• “Superbot” chatbot and virtual assistant.
• First bot with personality, uses machine learning to function.

Why develop a bot instead of an app?
• Chatbots meet the client where they are.
• Chatbots do not have to be updated to comply with a certain platform.
• Non-tech savvy people can build one!
• Bots could potentially replace/support employees as triage support for general questions.
Source: https://chatbotslife.com/chatbots-vs-apps-the-low-down-3f8ac0a172c0

Reasons why app development may not be ideal:
• App fatigue. Average users only access 9-10 apps daily.
• It’s hard to get noticed in a busy app marketplace.
• Subjective platforms: hardware, UI changes, payment requirements, etc.
• Who has time and resources to maintain apps?
Source: https://chatbotsmagazine.com/chatbots-vs-apps-the-final-frontier-a0df10861c48

Most for-profit industries use chatbots.
Source: https://medium.com/@humansforai/exploring-chatbots-they-are-here-to-stay-916d0fca498a

Examples of how industries use chatbots:
• Sales – browse and purchase items using a chat feature with no human interaction.
• News – users navigate questions via a chatbot to customize their view
• Travel – bots can assist with pricing, book flights, update users with weather and travel
delays
• Banking – finding out balances, transfer money, answer basic questions
• Healthcare – answer common questions and locate professionals. This is similar to how
Extension can utilize bots!
Source: https://medium.com/@humansforai/exploring-chatbots-they-are-here-to-stay-916d0fca498a

Build your own chatbot, just like we did!
• Snatchbot: https://snatchbot.me/ (easy setup, no programming knowledge needed)
• Dialogflow (Google): https://dialogflow.com/ (better with AI, more technical)
• Flowxo https://flowxo.com/
• PandoraBots https://www.pandorabots.com/
• Motion http://www.motion.ai/

VeggieBot: Our Extension Bot Journey

Steps to building a chatbot:
1. Choose a platform based on your team’s capabilities
2. Decide on user journey/scope and chatbot type (retrieval or AI)
3. Choose your bot personality
4. Select a must-have list for bot functionality
5. Establish the bot’s “flow”

Choose a narrow - but relevant - subject
for your first bot.
• We had to narrow the scope of our bot to
ONE section of our site so we chose the
most popular page: vegetable gardening!
• We surveyed our ag agents (using Microsoft
forms) for input on their most frequent
veggie questions. http://bit.ly/veggie-survey

Disclaimer: Limitations on staff and
resources will dictate the type of bot and
how you build it.
• We had to narrow the scope of our bot to ONE section of our site.
• We had to work without the use of a specialist or agent.
• We used existing content as a data source.

1. Choose a platform.
• Choose software based on goal (AI or retrieval)
• Choose software based on resources and skill set.
•bit.ly/extension-chatbots

2. Decide on client journey and bot type.
• We initially explored AI chatbots using Dialogflow – discovered it was too time consuming and
resource heavy.
• Goal: use fact sheet FAQs to answer common veggie questions and reduce calls or emails about
repetitive questions.

3. Give your ‘bot a personality!
• We wanted our bot to be friendly like an agent would be.
• We used personal terms and emojis.
• We deferred as often as possible to the agent.

4. Decide on a must-have list.
• Must give veggie options
• Must allow for clicking
• Must be user friendly
• Must allow for photos
• Must connect the user to a county agent
• We disabled typing. Why?

4. Decide on
chatbot “Flow”.
• I used draw.io to create initial user
flow for an AI bot.
• We later decided this was too
much programming!

5. Choose a platform.
We began bot development using Dialogflow, Google’s chatbot platform.

Dialogflow: AI was better
https://dialogflow.com/
For creating queries, this platform would learn from
interaction with the user. It could match the answer better
and “learn” based on the user input in the dialog box.
Speech-to-text option for paid platform.

Dialogflow: “cons”
• Poor documentation.
• Had to program each action under the first action so we
couldn’t loop it and reuse an action.
• Our CMS (OU Campus) didn’t like embedding it onto the page.
• It was not intuitive to use.
• Needed PHP programming skills.

Snatchbot was a better option for us.

Why we chose to use SnatchBot.
• https://snatchbot.me/
• Ready, out-of-the-box modules.
• No programming skills needed!
• Better documentation than Dialogflow.
• Easy to embed onto our website.
• Pay $30 if you want to remove their branding.
• Easier learning curve.
• More features we would use (text to call, PayPal integration, etc.)
• Option for custom CSS.

SnatchBot dashboard shows analytics.

Perform internal user testing before
launch.
• You need to get agent and
specialist review an buy-in
before launching.
• Ensure data is correct and
“flow” works.

What are possible future uses for
Extension?
• Answer inquiries related to program content.
• Report technical issues to staff.
• Grant access to systems.
• Simplify complex IT processes.
• Alert users to incidents and outages.
• Provide self-service support anytime, day or night.
• Links to recipes
• Links to canning options
• Links to nutrition options

How could we cross-promote Extension
programming with VeggieBot?
• Links to recipes
• Links to canning options
• Links to nutrition options

All further questions can be directed
to Siri or Cortana.

Thank you!
Amy Cole
Digital Media Program Director
University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service
accole@uaex.edu
@AmyCole501 (Twitter and Instagram)

Data
https://snatchbot.me/brochures/Brochure-SnatchBot.pdf

Using Chatbots in Extension Programming

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