Converting FAQs into chatbots

From FAQ to BOT

We read here that as companies are exploring the use chatbots for customer service, one of the first candidates of “content” that come to mind to “botify” are the existing FAQs 

However,  tools that promise to just absorb an FAQ section of a website and convert that into a conversational bot fail with simple real-world examples.

Why? 

• Humans don't communicate in question-answer pairs - real world communication is messier than that.
• A chatbot that just covers FAQ scan easily get frustrating.
• FAQs on websites can make you log in and after that they can give your personalized answer If chatbots do the same, they produce friction and a break of medium.
• Chatbots must be able to understand questions in more than one form, unlike FAQs on web sites
• Websites are much more rich in content than chatbots
• FAQS are an additional source of help, while users can throw everything at a chatbot, that must be able to hold a conversation

QnA Maker

There is already a tool that promises to turn your FAQs into bots : QnA Maker.
It is easy to get started, uploading one's FAQs and adding alternate wordings for the same questions.
It is not incredibly smart, to be honest.
This article describes the process in more depth - I will get back to it later.

Pesabot and Bottr offer a similar service.