Cognitive Virtual Assistant

By Edgar Matamoros, IT Services Solutions Manager at Ricoh Latin America.

Today, in the business world of the digital age, agility is a sum of capabilities linking thinking, creativity, intuition, and execution. Innovation to achieve new and better results is a permanent quest among people who know that there are great opportunities in the ever-expanding and changing marketplace. Unlike the conditions we had just a few years ago, Artificial Intelligence is beginning to take on a role that is not only interesting but also accessible within more business processes.

According to recent research¹, 86% of business decision-makers are actively focused on improving agility as a business objective in 2018. In addition, a key element of improving agility is investing in technology that enables people to work differently. At this point, it is key to mention that there are now workplace solutions that enable businesses to make decisions quickly through simple visualizers with analytical capabilities. Unfortunately, there is still some perception that these technologies are science fiction and only within the reach of large budgets. However, the figures show that this is about to change. More than half (52%) of business decision-makers think that if their company does not introduce new technologies they will fail within 5 years.

Regarding workplace transformation, the technologies that will have the most positive impact on businesses are: 72% of leaders believe in automation, 64% data analytics, 62% believe in document management technologies and 56% think it will be video conferencing.

The cognitive era, an opportunity for business in Latin America

In terms of technologies for business shortly, cognitive intelligence is already making inroads. This technology is considered the 2.0 version of artificial intelligence. Its mission is, on the one hand, to improve the experience of organizations, collaborators, and customers through friendly and understandable interfaces where, whether by text or voice, interaction with the tool is extremely simple. On the other hand, the generation and amount of data to be considered in an analysis can be increased by having the opportunity to mix information from different data sources within your company. From historical sales, production, and complaints, mixed with information in various databases, ERPs, CRMs, and even Excel sheets. It also allows you to identify and quantify every action or event that is occurring in the plant, devices, environment, etc., through sensors (IoT) or exponentially by adding the information from the internet where we add libraries, social networks, stock markets, knowledge databases, etc. All of this tis o provide options to support decision-making.

Specifically about cognitive technology, machines now also emulate human cognitive faculties, processing information in a human-like way, through understanding natural language, generating hypotheses based on evidence, and learning what words, variables and circumstances mean in different contexts and how to use them. This new form of human-machine collaboration accelerates human knowledge on a large scale. Undoubtedly, the use of these cognitive technologies helps in the decision-making process, transforming the business model of companies. It is part of the digital transformation, a reality from which there is no turning back.

Reading millions of pages in seconds, understanding, correlating, sorting, and visualizing them from different angles are tasks performed by a virtual assistant equipped with only basic principles of Cognitive Intelligence. The sheer creativity of exploiting these advantages in different areas within companies is simplifying and accelerating decision-making.

What is Ricoh's proposition in cognitive technologies?

Ricoh is developing practical and customizable solutions for different use cases and markets. An example of this is RICOH Cognitive Virtual Assistant, a solution developed for environments where the intense handling of documents or specialized or technical information is supported by technology that searches and finds exactly what we need to know and apply in the field. This solution was initially implemented in Ricoh Brazil as a support in the support, maintenance, and repair of printing equipment, impacting considerably on the productivity of the technical team. RICOH Cognitive Virtual Assistant is now a tool designed to be used in all industries within any department of a company.

It offers tangible benefits in the short term, both in operation and in the business model. It is a 100% cloud-based solution, easy to install with no investment in hardware infrastructure. In addition, it is remotely monitored by Ricoh's support team, managing its continuous learning cycles and providing performance dashboards. Moreover, it incorporates a responsive interface for access via any mobile device.

How does ERICA (Enterprise Ricoh Intelligence Cognitive Assistant) work and what are its benefits?

1) Intentions: For each question, the solution tries to identify the corresponding intent within its knowledge base. Once it identifies the intent appropriately, it sends the entity response.

2) Entities: Entities are taught to the solution so that it learns to distinguish which answer to return.

3) Examples: For each recorded intent, it is necessary to teach the possible examples of questions or sentences, so that the solution can identify the user's intent each time it is asked.

4) Learning Cycle: Each user-generated record is analyzed within 48 hours. It helps to improve the comprehensibility and learnability of the solution.

It offers tangible strategic and operational benefits in the short term, both in the operation and in the business model.

• Reduced human effort
• Decreased average solution turnaround time
• Increased efficiency
• Relocation of human resources
• Reduction in average cost per service
• Increased profitability
• Possibility of self-service implementation
• Gain in business competitiveness
• Improved customer experience

In conclusion, the era of cognitive technology has arrived in the business world. Latin American companies must prioritize the optimization of their operational and business models in tune with the agility required by the markets. They must take into account the improvement of employee and customer experience and how crucial these solutions will be for the future competitiveness of their businesses. It is predicted that, by 2036, employees will be able to send virtual assistants or holograms (59%) to attend meetings on their behalf2. There's nothing to fear, at Ricoh, we can help you on the road to business transformation.

For further information, please contact

Edgar Matamoros

IT Services Solutions Manager

Edgar.Matamoros@ricoh-la.com