Chatbot uses AI to make conversations more natural

Moveworks has moved beyond IT requests to help companies communicate more effectively with remote team members

Spotted: Most people have used chatbots at one time or another, and many of those have found the automated services less than helpful, especially when it comes to understanding and resolving IT issues. The startup Moveworks is aiming to improve this experience with an AI-powered platform that uses natural language processing to interpret the contents of in-house IT tickets and take actions to resolve them automatically.

The company initially decided to focus on help desk tickets after seeing data that suggested most addressed a common set of questions. This made them easier to interpret and resolve autonomously. During the pandemic, Moveworks realised that not only did remote-working employees need a lot of support, but that employees were more often accessing the Moveworks chatbot inside collaboration tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams.

In response, the company has developed a new tool that allows companies to use the Moveworks bot to communicate directly with employees on a variety of issues. For example, rather than email employees to update their password, the bot provides a link and walks them through the process. Moveworks reports that, in beta testing, there has been a 70 per cent increase in responses using the bot, compared to email.

Moveworks suggests its system will also lead to greater user satisfaction by helping to resolve queries immediately, even when IT personnel aren’t available. Company co-founder and CEO Bhavin Shah points out that while it has been a tragic year, it also “coalesced a lot of energy around people’s need for support, people’s need for speed and help.” He added that the large-scale adoption of collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams has also sped up Moveworks growth.

According to Insider Intelligence, by 2024, consumer retail spend via chatbots worldwide will reach $142 billion—up from just $2.8 billion in 2019. This is clearly a market that is expanding in all directions. At Springwise, we have also seen this trend in innovations such as a chatbot that answers mental health questions and a WhatsApp chatbot that helps customers find uncrowded times to shop.

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