How Intelligent Virtual Agents are Revolutionizing Knowledge Delivery

Brian Ritchie, kama.ai, Felicia Anthonio, #KeepItOn coalition, and Dr. Moses Isooba, Executive Director of UNNGOF for Forus Workshop on AI Activism

How Intelligent Virtual Agents Are Revolutionizing Knowledge Delivery

In today’s enterprises, speed and accuracy are key. Knowledge delivery is an important competitive differentiator. Large organizations need to efficiently ensure customers and employees have access to timely and critical information. This information may be product or service information or other client-facing insights. 

The challenge? Traditional knowledge management (KM) systems just can’t keep up with modern demands. This is where intelligent virtual agents (IVA) step in. IVAs offer a cutting-edge solution to revolutionize SAFE knowledge delivery with AI-powered precision.

Why Efficient Knowledge Delivery Matters

Access to accurate, real-time information is essential in large organizations. Whether it’s for decision-making, compliance, or customer service; every interaction hinges on doing things right. Getting the right information to the right people at the right time is the bare minimum requirement. Yet, a Harvard Business Review study noted, knowledge workers waste 50% of their time hunting for data, fixing errors, and validating sources. This isn’t efficient. It costs the enterprise time and money.

Enter Intelligent Virtual Agents. These AI-powered assistants streamline knowledge delivery by automating inquiries and providing accurate, real-time answers. These advanced systems ensure that employees and customers get the information they need, right when they need it, with zero manual effort.

Intelligent Virtual Agents: New Era of Knowledge Management

While chatbots were once considered the peak of automated service, IVAs have taken the concept far beyond basic scripted interactions. Powered by Natural Language Understanding (NLU), IVAs understand context, deliver personalized responses, and even handle complex through Robotic Process Automation. They do this by combining human experience with the power of Artificial Intelligence.

The whitepaper Knowledge Management in the Virtual Agent Era explains how kama.ai’s IVAs leverage Large Language Models (LLMs) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to organize and deliver knowledge accurately and efficiently with human-backed insight and best practices. By combining human expertise with flexible and scalable AI powered knowledge graphs, these Agents ensure information users receive is not only timely but also fact-checked and aligned with the organization’s business goals and values.

The Power of Knowledge Graphs

At the heart of every effective Intelligent Virtual Agent is a knowledge graph trained by human experience. These are sophisticated AI-based datasets that connect data in ways similar to that organized within the human brain, but in this case, the minds of many experts across the organization. Knowledge graphs enable IVAs to retrieve and deliver precise information from the vast experience and information possessed by humans, not just by data ingested from various enterprise documents and writings that may or may not be relevant or even truthful regarding any particular contextual situation. This approach ensures users get the most relevant and reliable answers that are grounded in human knowledge and wisdom.

For example, if an employee asks about the latest company policies on remote work, the IVA delivers the approved policy directly from the knowledge graph. It provides an immediate, verified response that is actionable without the need for verification or fact-checking. This eliminates guesswork and doubt, drastically reducing the time employees spend searching for answers and wondering if they are accurate. As emphasized in the whitepaper, knowledge graphs are integral to ensuring that knowledge delivery is consistent, accurate, and scalable. 

Addressing the Risks of AI with Human Oversight

As powerful as LLMs are, they come with risks. LLM-based AI systems can generate false or biased information. This erroneous information, known as “hallucinations,” can be damaging to an enterprise’s brand and lead to regret arising from improper actions or decision-making. Errors made on inaccurate or untrue information impact trust and confidence that employees and customers have in a brand. This is why human oversight remains critical is critical;  the white paper discusses how only knowledge bases can be trusted to power knowledge delivery IVAs since LLMs are prone to hallucinations that undermine the inherent principle of ‘knowledgeable agents’.

In the whitepaper, kama.ai discusses the concept of GenAI’s Sober Second Mind®. This is a governance framework designed to ensure that all IVA-provided content is fact-checked, and based on pre-approved sources, before it reaches the user. This “governed-in-advance” approach ensures that the IVA’s responses are accurate, trustworthy and aligned with company values. It is especially important in industries like healthcare, finance, or legal services; here, even minor inaccuracies can lead to serious consequences.

Real-World Impact of Intelligent Virtual Agents

The potential applications for IVAs are vast. In customer service, for instance, they can deliver personalized and accurate responses 24/7 allowing human agents to focus on more challenging issues improving overall customer satisfaction. Research shows that 61% of respondents expect chatbots to provide accurate and dependable explanations. Intelligent Virtual Agents can exceed these expectations by delivering enhanced, human-like interactions that are both accurate, empathetic, and timely.

For an internal example, employees can access critical information on HR policies, IT troubleshooting, or product specifications simple natural language inquiries. This means that a good portion of questions can be resolved immediately with IVAs while more complex ones are funnelled to human experts. 

The Best of Both Worlds

Empowering enterprise knowledge managers with Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), kama.ai’s Intelligent Virtual Agent platform integrates with existing enterprise systems, such as SharePoint, OneDrive or AWS S3 Buckets, to combined with the power of GenAI with human oversight providing GenAI’s Sober Second Mind® delivering trustworthy actionable information. This ensures that employees can access organizational knowledge from various sources, easily. Using kama.ai’s ‘Draft Assist’ feature, enterprise knowledge managers can easily search enterprise knowledge repositories to generate responses and knowledge article drafts, and review and fact-check them to ensure accuracy based on their own knowledge and experience. This way, only human verified information, not hallucinations, biased, or otherwise brand-damaging information is delivered to employees or customers. 

Intelligent Virtual Agents and RPA: A Powerful Combination

Intelligent virtual agents don’t just stop at providing answers—they can also automate complex workflows. By integrating with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) platforms like Blue Prism or AWS Lex, IVAs can handle tasks like updating an employee’s home address or generating service quotes. 

The seamless integration and orchestration between IVAs and RPA lets enterprises not only answer inquiries but also automate processes that would traditionally require human intervention driving further efficiency and return on investment.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Knowledge Delivery

The future of enterprise automation lies in the continued innovation and advancement of Intelligent Virtual Agents. As this powerful technology advances, these agents will become even more adept at handling complex interactions. However, at kama.ai, we believe that the best advances will through AI systems that leverage direct human knowledge and experience regarding enterprise best practices and processes. The white paper discusses how LLMs are excellent at curation functions like drafting emails and summarizing reports, only human defined knowledge bases can deliver mission critical information where there is no room for error. 

For enterprises, the shift toward AI-driven knowledge dissemination and conversational process automation represents a huge opportunity. By investing in IVAs, companies can significantly reduce operational inefficiencies, enhance employee productivity, and improve customer experiences and satisfaction. All this while ensuring their operations and knowledge systems are scalable, reliable and trustworthy.

Conclusion

The way organizations deliver knowledge and work product is undergoing a profound transformation; Intelligent Virtual Agents are leading this charge. By combining advanced AI technologies like LLMs, RAG, and knowledge graphs, IVAs offer scalable, efficient, and accurate solutions for modern enterprise growth through a hybrid of human and IVA cooperation.

As highlighted in the white paper Knowledge Management in the Virtual Agent Era,” by incorporating GenAI’s Sober Second Mind®, kama.ai’s IVA interactions are fact-checked, trustworthy, and aligned with enterprise values. For senior executives looking to streamline operations and improve knowledge and compliance across the organization, kama.ai’s Intelligent Virtual Agents offer clear and transparent solutions that satisfy AI governance requirements while delivering measurable results with predictable and favorable return on investment.

Ready to revolutionize knowledge delivery at your organization? Download the whitepaper “Knowledge Management in the Virtual Agent Era” to learn more about how intelligent virtual agents can transform your business.