Top Latin-American AI firm leverages Botcopy and Google Cloud Dialogflow
Latin-America based software company enhances its AI platform with Botcopy and Dialogflow to create super-smart virtual assistants.
Companies use the Dialogflow & Botcopy stack worldwide to add smart chatbots onto websites. But when Anastasia.ai combined this powerful stack with their own larger AI platform, they raised virtual assistants — and Latin-American businesses — to new heights.
We recently spoke with Felipe Saxton, CEO and co-founder of Anastasia.ai, a software company and pure player in AI with offices in Chile, Mexico, and Austin, Texas, where the company will be moving its headquarters.
Anastasia.ai serves dozens of national and global clients, and have created virtual assistants for many of them, including two prominent real estate and construction companies in Chile: Siena and Sencorp; The Ministry of Economy in Chile, and for Concreces, a financial institution that lends for home purchases.
Anastasia.ai’s roster also includes notable companies such as Unilever, Deacero, Sodimac, Farmacias del Ahorro, and the US-based Janus, to name a few.
The Anastasia.ai Platform offers a strong core of enterprise-level AI solutions for productivity, processes, planning, connectivity, and more. Their Intelligent Virtual Assistant is just one solution in their product suite. Their virtual assistants achieve astonishing results, which we’ll get to in a minute.
The difference between virtual assistants & chatbots
Felipe said something smart that hadn’t occurred to me before:
“There’s a difference between a chatbot and a virtual assistant.” — Felipe Saxton, CEO, Anastasia.ai
Felipe explains:
“I think of a chatbot as something that can be created without an AI component. To deploy an automated conversational experience capable of assisting with hard problems, or personalized ones, you’ll need AI and machine learning – which goes hand in hand with NLU. [Natural language understanding.] That’s why we call it a virtual assistant.”
Well said. For years, I’ve been struggling to articulate what Felipe expressed so effortlessly. But I’ve been guilty of using the moniker chatbot and virtual assistant interchangeably.
I may borrow his virtual assistants & chatbots distinction for future presentations. Thanks, Felipe! 😜
Latin America loves AI
We always tell people that NLU frameworks are table stakes for having a good bot. But in general, Latin-American countries don’t need to be told this. They already know.
When we launched Botcopy, we noticed disproportionate signups flooding in from Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, and Chile. There are a lot of smart people in those countries looking to cut costs and boost efficiency.
But after talking with Felipe, we learned that in areas where there are myriad dialects and friendly, chatty people, AI-powered chat takes on an extra layer of importance.
Felipe explains:
“Latin America is not JUST Spanish. There’s a lot of slang in each part of Latin America. That’s why we offer specialized virtual assistants that can understand and communicate in a dozen regional language variants across Latin America. Culturally, people here tend to like to chat, say hi, how are you, and establish that personal connection. For all those reasons, we needed an advanced NLU framework like Dialogflow that incorporates AI and machine learning.”
Virtual assistants let users chat naturally, instead of scouring a website FAQ or dealing with an antiquated IVR (interactive voice response) phone system. Given Felipe’s insights, it makes sense that Anastasia.ai chose to enhance their core technology with Google Cloud Dialogflow.
Dialogflow is excellent for creating friendly, non-linear, humanlike banter in many languages.
Products by Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, and Rasa are also suitable but at Botcopy, our favorite NLU framework has long been Dialogflow. Partly because of our comfort-level with Google Cloud Platform, but more due to the uncommon ease-of-use, power, and price-point unique to Dialogflow.
Keep in mind, you can leverage Dialogflow regardless of which cloud service you use. Example: companies that use AWS can, and often wisely do, use Google Dialogflow, which is omni-channel and integrates with any database.
(We should mention, Botcopy integrations for Microsoft Luis and Rasa are in the works.)
Google Dialogflow is Anastasia.ai’s preferred NLU framework. Here’s why:
“We looked at all the other major NLU frameworks and felt Dialogflow was most effective and flexible in designing the agent in terms of creating packaged data and keeping context in non-linear flows.”
Yep — at Botcopy, we had the same experience. Felipe continues:
“You can program [Dialogflow] with various response types, but also switch to other components that are not part of the base Dialogflow components. You can switch between databases, use third-party software [like Botcopy], so it’s easy to integrate. We ran all the frameworks through queries in different languages, and Google performed the best.”
Let’s see an example.
Here’s a virtual assistant by Anastasia.ai, designed for the residential real estate firm, Siena.
The website-based assistant has a Dialogflow back-end and Botcopy’s rich, custom web chat UI. Anastasia.ai finessed the solution such that the assistant integrates with Siena’s databases, and the UX is one of the coolest we’ve seen for any chatbot, anywhere. 😎
Why Anastasia uses Botcopy
“We searched for vendors or partners who could help us create the frontend part really fast and offer the flexibility to customize the chat window both in terms of cosmetics and functionality. We determined that it didn’t pay for us to do all of that in-house if a subscription SaaS existed that was flexible enough.”
Botcopy is the SaaS Felipe was looking for, and we weren’t hard to find. If you search for “Dialogflow web chat ui” we usually hold the top three organic results on Google’s page one.
Botcopy is the UI of AI
Our niche as the UI of AI means our software is designed to do one thing really well: churn out whip-smart frontend UIs for the best AI tech on Earth, e.g., the kind built on Google Cloud Platform.
While virtual assistants running on Botcopy have a Dialogflow brain, our chat window has a brain of its own, too. It can “read the room” and respond in personalized ways.
Just as important, Botcopy is committed to user-friendliness. The last thing any Cx designer needs is more hassles. (We know because we used to be a Cx design agency before we became a software company in 2018.)
Felipe values Botcopy’s user-friendly aspect:
“Botcopy is so configurable and easy to use. Every one of us on our team, including me, can configure Botcopy almost without any assistance. We decided to use it because it gives us all those features we don’t have time to develop. Sometimes clients want to modify this or that detail. Botcopy provides us with more than enough flexibility to make our clients happy.”
Yup, that’s the goal: A fluid and flexible UI that doesn’t require coding. Here’s a glimpse of the branding section in our portal. You can customize to the nth degree while monitoring the WYSIWYG preview in real-time.
What about the results?
The proof of Botcopy’s value comes down to whether it helps companies boost their bottom line. Felipe shares some impressive results:
“Our virtual assistants double the number of leads while saving time. For example, in real estate, we’re in a lockdown and no one can go to showings. Thanks to the VA, our clients have a backlog of leads and data, and customers learned what they need to know and did a virtual tour through the bot. As the lockdown eases up, our clients will close these deals because all that’s left is to show the product. The rest was handled by automation.”
That’s excellent news. Anastasia.ai has created more than just a virtual assistant, but a lead generation manager. According to Felipe, everything happening between the bot and user is recorded and passed to the sales team, who can see the next step for moving a specific customer through the funnel.
“The virtual assistant is an essential part of a full sales origination solution. Many real estate companies stick with a traditional sales process. But our clients see that the virtual assistant can nurture relationships with buyers and renters and make them happy while adding to the bottom line.”
“[Botcopy] doubles the number of leads while saving time.”
A few key takeaways
- Anastasia.ai’s technology has doubled the leads for Latin-American businesses.
- Anastasia.ai’s virtual assistants solve challenging problems, like keeping context and personalizing experiences. That’s why Felipe refuses to call these solutions “chatbots.” Love that. 😄
- NLU frameworks make it easy to meet cultural expectations regarding tone while respecting the regional language variants in Latin America. This versatility is useful for any company looking to communicate across multiple linguistic demographics.
Last but not least
It makes sense for software companies to layer third-party tools like Dialogflow and Botcopy into their stack instead of reinventing the wheel. Botcopy’s paid subscriptions start at $19/month, and allow you to remove our branding element, as shown below. Plus, our rich media header gives you the freedom to add your image, name, and tagline.
Meaning, if you want to add “Powered by (your company name)” to your front-end web chat UI, nothing’s stopping you. 😎
Thanks to Felipe Saxton and Anastasia.ai for your trailblazing work and sharing your story!
Looking for help designing an outstanding virtual assistant? Visit Anastasia.ai.
Building your AI solution in-house and want a Botcopy UI? Sign up free at Botcopy.com.
