Starting in July, when customer-service employees at are too sick to come to work, they’ll tell Mila they’re not feeling well using an app.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Mila will respond. After a short exchange about logistics, Mila will send a message to the appropriate manager, who will adjust the employee’s schedule.
It sounds like a typical interaction with an office assistant, but Mila isn’t an assistant. She’s a chatbot.
Chatbots, the much-hyped future of the Internet, have had a rough start in the consumer world, but many of us might have our first taste of robot communication at the office. Millions of workers already interface with chatbots in the popular group chat platforms Slack and HipChat.
HipChat offers bots with different “personalities,” including Sassy and Karma, that can accomplish different tasks, such as finding photos and counting things.
Slack’s bot — conveniently known as Slackbot — can be programmed to do work-related tasks, such as setting reminders and answering basic questions. Anticipating a bot boom, Slack last winter released Botkit to help developers build their own.
The hope is bots will make internal employee communications faster, easier and more fun — and, in turn, save money.
At , for example, Mila will replace a more cumbersome call-in hotline for ill employees. Currently, when any of the 450 employees in the company’s Salt Lake City call center feel under the weather, they pick up a phone and leave a message. Someone has to check those messages and tell a manager, who replaces the worker on the schedule.
Chat’s way is easier: Now the company can fill schedules and replace workers faster, which ultimately saves money.
“Those seconds for each employee turn into dollars,” said president Stormy Simon.
In addition to chatting in sick, employees can use Mila to schedule time off, check their schedules and do a variety of other tasks that used to require making a phone call, sending an e-mail or talking to a fellow human.
