Infographic: Chatbots vs IVAs (intelligent virtual assistants)

This infographic shares a one-to-one comparison between chatbots and intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) to help clarify some of the important differences between these two technologies.

Chatbots are simple, rules-based systems operating within a single channel. They are well-suited for answering predefined customer service questions. Lately, more organizations have adopted chatbots to gather lead information for marketing and sales teams.

Intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs), on the other hand, are focused on generating top-line growth across the entire organization. IVAs deliver human-like, two-way conversations that are convincing, personal and powerful.

IVAs serve as virtual team members and autonomously engage contacts, prospects, customers, or partners in human-like, two-way interactions at scale to drive towards the next best action whether that’s scheduling a meeting or providing additional information. IVAs automate repetitive, time-consuming tasks and actions that people don’t like to do or don’t do well today, freeing people up to focus on the high-value work they prefer to do.

In short, intelligent virtual assistants for customer engagement are the next generation of intelligent automation helping organizations scale human interactions that attract, retain, and grow customers.

Depending on the provider, chatbot adoption is fairly straightforward and usually requires little more than inserting JavaScript code into your website or adopting a plugin. Dialogue is then managed and updated by the provider or managing company along with well-defined parameters.

Hiring an intelligent virtual assistant takes less than two weeks to get up and running. IVAs come with many pre-built conversations out of the box which allows for near-immediate implementation. IVAs can also be customized to meet unique business needs.

Chatbots vs IVAs

Rashmi Vittal is CMO of Conversica.