virtual agent

Customer response to the use of virtual agents has been largely positive. Typically, people talk to a virtual agent longer than they do to an actual person, perhaps because talking to a responsive, personalized computer program is a novelty. Virtual agents are usually scripted to respond to a wide variety of questions and remarks. (For example, they occasionally receive proposals of marriage.) If a customer becomes frustrated by the scripted responses and is rude, a virtual agent, like its human counterpart, may appear to lose its patience. For instance, when a customer calls a virtual agent stupid, one of the possible responses is: "I'm an inanimate object. You're hurling insults at an inanimate object. Which one of us is more likely to fit Webster's definition of stupid?"

According to eGain, a virtual agent provider, an automated representative can reduce support costs, encourage self-service, encourage customer loyalty, and serve as a branding tool for the enterprise.

2) Virtual agent is also used to refer to a human agent who works over the Internet at some distance from the employer's organization.

Read more about virtual agent: - The Industry Standard has an article called "Talk to the Bot." - CNET Tech Trends provides links to some active virtual agents in their article, "How Virtual Agents Make the Web More Human." - The eGain Web site lets you talk to their eGain Assistant, a virtual agent product.

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