Chatbot Courses

A Chatbot acts as an electronic version of a sales associate, concierge, or representative, and is powered by AI software. There are various use cases for Chatbots, with customer service likely coming to mind first for most people. In this use case, customers communicate with the Chatbot to purchase products or services, or to check whether or not a product is available.

Aside from being of assistance to customers, Chatbots can share important information. For example, the World Health Organization built a Chatbot on WhatsApp that was designed to educate users about COVID-19.

Being able to simplify the interaction between humans and computers is an important reason to learn about Chatbots. For companies, they also help to improve customer engagement and reduce costs associated with traditional customer service.‎

Anyone who has ever interacted with a Chatbot has probably felt that it could’ve been more helpful—and that’s exactly why there are growing opportunities related to the technology. In 2020, the Chatbot market is expected to grow in part thanks to the 80 percent of businesses expected to adopt them. This is where Data Scientists, Developers, and Writers come in to make this particular AI experience feel more intuitive and natural.

While Chatbot-related roles may vary, PayScale lists the average salary for those with Chatbot skills at $99,197 USD per year.‎

Chatbot courses offered through Coursera equip learners with knowledge in creating: Chatbots with Rasa and Python programming; simple AI-powered Chatbots; Chatbots with Dialogflow tools; code-free Chatbots; plans, tests, and deployment for Chatbots using IBM Watson; and more.

Lessons on Chatbots are taught by instructors from major tech names, including Coursera Project Network, Google Cloud, IBM, and other organizations. Learners can enjoy exploring Chatbots with instructors specializing in Software Development, Programming, Cognitive Computing, Online Marketing, and other disciplines. Course content on Chatbots is delivered via video lectures, hands-on projects, readings, quizzes, and other types of assignments.‎

The skills or experience that you might need to already have before starting to learn chatbot include a high command of programming languages, including JavaScript, HTML, Python, SQL, and C++. These are all used extensively in designing chatbots. You may also have a computer science degree or some background in machine learning and artificial intelligence. More importantly, as you move forward to learn chatbots, you might try to acquire experience in designing, developing, implementing, and testing chatbot applications. In this kind of work, practical work experience and successful chatbot results often mean more to a potential employer than a college degree.‎

You might know if learning chatbots is right for you if you are already excited about AI and machine learning. It’s still an emerging area, and only just growing in use by companies and organizations around the world. Another clue that might lead you to feel that learning chatbots is right for you is if you have a computer programming background that includes Python, Java, and other languages involved in this new machine learning technology. Maybe you’ve also already experimented with trying to create a chatbot using tools like the Google Dialogflow tool or Wit.ai. If so, then you may be ready to pursue this career direction.‎

Those people best suited for roles in working with chatbots are often technology-focused persons with strong analytical skills gained in working as a software developer on websites or in back-end systems for companies. Having a strong communications background may also help a chatbot developer, as the work involves thinking through the language process for the chatbot. Having a sense of the customer experience journey with a chatbot is also a talent shared by those best suited to work on chatbots. Ultimately, the kind of people best suited for roles in working with chatbots are those with communications skills, critical thinking ability, and problem-solving talents.‎

The types of places that hire people with a background in chatbots include online retailers, banks, auto companies, and other product or service-focused organizations. These are the types of places that use chatbots, which generally show up as simple greeting messages on a website like “Hello, what can I help you with today?” As you type in answers, the chatbot understands your query and moves to answer you appropriately. As more companies are using chatbots to have automated interactions with customers, the need for programmers to work on chatbots has increased, leading to more career opportunities. Naturally, there is a high demand for chatbot developers with good experience. If you have the enthusiasm, passion, and coding skills to work in this area, you may find places that need someone like you to create chatbots.‎