During Quest Forum Digital Event: Emerging Technology Day, a team from a variety of different Oracle areas gathered to discuss conversational AI (Artificial Intelligence) and digital assistants for Oracle applications. The speakers included:

• Joe Huang (Oracle Digital Assistant)
• Laura Melinte (Oracle CX Sales Cloud)
• David Bain (Oracle PeopleSoft)
• Ervin Rhodes (Oracle JD Edwards)

There seem to be several key factors that are important to enterprises today in regard to conversational AI, including seamless connections with both customers and employees, business agility, continuity, and recovery. Technology has a very important role to play in employee productivity, operational efficiency, work collaboration, speed to market, agile business, supply chain insights, and online engagement. These are all things that conversational AI and digital assistants bring to the table.

Oracle Digital Assistant Overview

Oracle Digital Assistant (ODA) is an AI-powered text and voice interface for user interactions with applications on any channel using the language of choice. A digital assistant uses AI and machine learning to combine independent chatbot skills into a single conversational interface that assists real users throughout their day. Surveys show that by 2022, 70 percent of white-collar workers will interact with conversational platforms on a daily basis. The reason for the rise in conversational experiences is due to that fact that is it is a natural conversation, has no app to download, is available all the time, has more channels, and uses only one interface.

Oracle began exploring the chatbot concept back in 2016. At Oracle OpenWorld 2016, Larry Ellison, chairman and Chief Technology Officer of Oracle, demonstrated ordering business cards through a chatbot during his keynote. During his 2018 keynote, Ellison demonstrated filing an expense report using Oracle Digital Assistant.

Conversational AI and Digital Assistant Use Cases

There are numerous use cases for conversational AI and digital assistants for enterprises with Customer Service, ERP, SCM, HCM, and CRM.

• In Customer Service, digital assistants can help with high call volume, reducing wait times, increasing satisfaction, and staffing resources.
• In ERP/SCM, digital assistants help with improving access to critical information, have actionable insights, and optimize processes and workflow.
• In HCM, digital assistants provide easier access, increase staff productivity, and automate recruitment and onboarding.
• In regard to CRM, digital assistants provide access to client information, increased quota attainment, and accelerated sales cycles.

Within the Oracle Digital Assistant, there are applications and different types of skills. There are SCM skills, ERP skills, HCM skills, CX skills, and third-party skills. Some of the SCM skills include Purchase Orders, OTM, and Manufacturing. Expense Approval, Procurement, and Submit Expenses are some of the skills for ERP. HCM skills include Employee Goals and Absence Manager. In regard to skills for third-party, Location Services is the primary skill delivered.

Integrations with Oracle Digital Assistant

Service Cloud and Oracle Intelligent Advisor

Another key integration that is happening is between Service Cloud and Oracle Digital Assistant. There are two different options within the cloud to utilize:

1. ODA in front
2. ODA as a Service Cloud Agent

There are two important things to note about Oracle Intelligent Advisor Integration. ODA+ OPA (Oracle Process Automation) + knowledge base enables automated complex policy handling. It also understands policy and deduces customer solutions in real-time.

Some of the features of the Service Cloud are knowledge articles and integrations. There is a conversational user interface for FAQs and Oracle Knowledge Advanced. There is also an out-of-the-box integration for Oracle Knowledge Foundation. Knowledge articles and integration allow conversational access to data and processes touching Service Cloud and back-end apps. Also, there is conversational access to data enabling activities like appointment setting and package tracking.

ComEd’s Use of Service Cloud and Oracle Sales Assistant

ComEd provides customer response at the speed of electricity utilizing the Service Cloud Integration. They have over 4 million customers, more than 90,000 miles of power, and 11,400 square miles of territory. They focused on customer service and delivering an instant response to frequently asked questions. They also utilize Pay My Bill transaction authentication and seamless agent handoff integration with Oracle Service Cloud.

ComEd’s Oracle Sales Assistant capabilities:

• Get a sales briefing of the number of opportunities, upcoming appointments for today, and number of tasks due today
• Get opportunities in the pipeline for the current fiscal quarter
• Get opportunities by closed period, revenue, or close date
• Follow up on appointment by creating call report, scheduling follow up appointment, creating follow up tasks
• Get current or next appointment briefing
• Get appointments for a specific date
• Reschedule appointment
• Get account details by account name and action on the account.
• Get opportunity details by opportunity name and action on the account
• Get contact details by contact name and action on the account
• Create tasks
• Get tasks details for tasks due a certain date or overdue and mark the task as complete
• Get open Service requests for an account

Conversational AI for Oracle Applications

Conversational AI for PeopleSoft

PeopleSoft has created and delivered a Chatbot Integration Framework to connect PeopleSoft with Oracle Digital Assistant. In order to create the Chatbot Integration Framework, they had to take a very close look at authorization, skills templates, integration, framework for services, user interfaces, security, and configuration.

Conversational AI for JD Edwards

JD Edwards leveraged Oracle technology to do a proof of concept mainly using Oracle Cloud Service and Oracle Digital Assistant to create a mobile app. They embedded a chatbot named Edward in their mobile app and also utilized Orchestrator Studio to create the mobile app.

Conversational AI for Oracle CX

Oracle Sales Assistant is auto-provisioned. ODA and Oracle Sales Assistant are readily available with Oracle CX Sales. Oracle Sales Assistant is an out-of-the-box configurable solution. Customers need to configure Oracle Sales Assistant by setting up channels.