The rapid development of technologies in the field of artificial intelligence has created conditions for the increase in the use of chatbots in business.
Further in our blog post, we will talk about what chatbots are, why they are becoming so popular, and for what reasons their implementation may be accompanied by some legal problems.
What are chatbots for in business?
A chatbot is a program that determines what the user needs and then helps to satisfy that need. The bot acts on behalf of the company and is used to replace a live operator or remove some of the load from him. Communication with consumers is carried out using voice or text.
The technology is very well suited for the consumer sector such as trade. It is chatbots that are considered the most common use cases for AI in trading.
The use cases for chatbots are expanding as AI improves, becoming more flexible and responsive to user requests, and getting closer to understanding the concept of human communication.
The popularity of chatbots is mainly driven by the savings in keeping employees online as consultants. However, savings are not the only advantage of chatbots. They have a high potential to improve the quality of customer service.
Businesses that are already embracing the technology to optimize online retail sales will benefit significantly over time as bots become much more flexible and more operational.
Legal issues related to the implementation of chatbots in business
Typically, merchants looking to bring AI technology into business must rely on external developers to integrate technology solutions. It turns out that in order to develop a chatbot for business, you first have to sign a contract with the developer on, in fact, the development, integration and licensing of software. Here you will clearly have to face a number of legal issues before putting the chatbot into operation.
Before moving on to an overview of the issues, it should be noted that before starting negotiations with a developer about designing a chat bot, it would be rational to seek legal advice on the implementation of artificial intelligence technologies in business.
Software upgrade
Given that technology is rapidly evolving, it is obvious that you need to think in advance about how the software will be upgraded, or change the developer to another whose product would better meet the business requirements.
Of course, you can always ask the developers to test their product first in order to get to know it better and determine whether the concept of a particular product is suitable for a particular business and how customers are responding to it.
The conclusion of a contract with an AI developer is possible for a short time. Nevertheless, apart from the shortest contracts, the solution must be viewed as a service, not a project, which should be reflected in the contract.
Further cooperation after the expiration of the trial period may also be accompanied by difficulties due to the fact that using the chatbot in the trading business on an ongoing basis will create new points of contact between the bot itself and other business systems.
Protection of intellectual property rights
It is necessary to determine in advance who will own the developed system: the developer or the client. In the future, this will make it easier to make decisions on future developments. In addition, it is also necessary to consider how the machine learning of the chatbot will be carried out, and who will own the developments obtained from the information provided by the customer company. It is perfectly normal that such a company would not want competitors to use its best practices and algorithms developed on the basis of corporate information. Therefore, such things also need to be considered in advance.
Who’s a true developer?
A lot of solutions used for chatbots are ready-made developments, especially with regard to the use of AI in trading and not only. If any developer offers a solution for introducing a chatbot into a business, you need to make sure that there is a clear understanding of who is actually providing the service, which third parties may be involved, and who you are contracting with.
Inadequate chatbots
Chatbots that use machine learning sometimes behave inappropriately. For example, a bot from Microsoft was created to mimic the language patterns of a 19-year-old American girl on Twitter. Over the course of a day, the bot accumulated prejudices regarding the race and gender of people, and turned into a troll, after which he was hastily closed. And this is not the only case.
In other words, it is necessary to establish who will be responsible if the bot behaves inappropriately: should the developer be responsible as the person who invented the technology, or the customer whose information is used for machine learning purposes. Be that as it may, it is important that the solution is reliable, and there is a certain level of control over the bot, so that if something happens, to completely nip any possibilities of its toxic behavior, and the benefits of the chatbot for sales are maximized.
Data protection and privacy
It is likely that bots will need to use customer personal data to make machine learning work. Of course, in the context of introducing a chatbot into a business in Europe, entrepreneurs should consider the issues of GDPR compliance. Customer service solutions will have to balance efficiency and GDPR compliance.
Final word
Nevertheless, careful planning and competent preparation of contracts are a guarantee that a further increase in the number of facts of the introduction of chat bots into the trading business in 2020 will continue.
We also draw your attention to the fact that this article has been prepared and published for informational purposes and should not be interpreted as legal advice. If the reader has any questions related to the implementation of AI technologies in business, it is better to discuss them together with the experts of IQ Decision UK and find their solution during the consultation on the legal aspects of chatbots utilization in business.
Order legal advice on business modernization, as well as find out more information about the legal aspects of implementing chatbots in a company, reach out to us directly using the contacts indicated in the form below.
