When I had just entered my final year in College way back in 1991, Artificial Intelligence was the Buzzword. I had picked up a book on Artificial Intelligence by an American Publication, hoping to execute a project in that realm. I had also got to hear that LISP (standing for LISt Processing) was essential to programming for Artificial Intelligence, and was on the lookout for a Center that would provide training in LISP Coding. I neither got to learn LISP nor execute my Engineering School project in Artificial Intelligence. I had to settle for C programming in the area of Control Systems (a simulation of sorts of a Programmable Logic Controller). It was very early days for AI and understandably I did not find much help within the academic community.
Today, when I look back, it has been a quiet journey towards intelligence and smartness, for a host of products, without the bravado and hurrah that surrounded the early efforts. A case in point is the Support Web. For a long time, Product Companies have utilized a Support Website, enhancing them with useful information categories, from time to time. What started with contact information of Support Centers and online Product Manuals and troubleshooting guidelines, soon had software patches, driver upgrades and fancy applications that would deliver greater value with their products, available for download. But this is nothing compared to the development that has been demonstrated in recent years. Today’s Support Website belong to a different genre altogether.
Today’s state-of-the-art Support websites have diagnostics that talk to embedded applications on Products. They receive diagnostic error messages from the devices connected to network, use complex rules to diagnose the problem with the product and provide remedial measures that the user can apply to solve the issue. Soon, web-borne diagnostics would be fixing issues on Products that connect to them over the network, without human intervention.
Just the year after I entered college, I had heard about experiments to build a Computer System that could defeat the World Chess Champion. Deep Thought had been pitted against Gary Kasporov but had lost.
About 7 years from then, somewhere in 1996, Gary Kasparov got to try his human intelligence against artificial intelligence once again over a game of Chess, this time with Deep Blue. Betraying a prolonged infancy, artificial intelligence could not hold fort against Kasparov’s genius. It also spawned a lot of debate about Man Vs Machine. Questions like “What would Deep Blue do, if it won over Kasparov? Would it take Deep Pink for a date?” emerged. The world was stunned when Kasporov lost the subsequent year 4-2 to a heavily upgraded Deep Blue. A machine had finally defeated a Reigning World Champion in a match under standard Chess Tournament time controls. AI had dawned in a big way.
About 7 years from then, somewhere in 1996, Gary Kasparov got to try his human intelligence against artificial intelligence once again over a game of Chess, this time with Deep Blue. Betraying a prolonged infancy, artificial intelligence could not hold fort against Kasparov’s genius. It also spawned a lot of debate about Man Vs Machine. Questions like “What would Deep Blue do, if it won over Kasparov? Would it take Deep Pink for a date?” emerged. The world was stunned when Kasporov lost the subsequent year 4-2 to a heavily upgraded Deep Blue. A machine had finally defeated a Reigning World Champion in a match under standard Chess Tournament time controls. AI had dawned in a big way.Today, when I look back, it has been a quiet journey towards intelligence and smartness, for a host of products, without the bravado and hurrah that surrounded the early efforts. A case in point is the Support Web. For a long time, Product Companies have utilized a Support Website, enhancing them with useful information categories, from time to time. What started with contact information of Support Centers and online Product Manuals and troubleshooting guidelines, soon had software patches, driver upgrades and fancy applications that would deliver greater value with their products, available for download. But this is nothing compared to the development that has been demonstrated in recent years. Today’s Support Website belong to a different genre altogether.
Some of the Smart Support Websites allow you to register your purchase and use that to customize your default support page. This saves you time when you look of troubleshooting information that applies to the model that you own. More advanced Support Websites remember your clicks, profile you based on your preferences and web-usage pattern and use that to customize your default page. All these Smart Support websites leverage community participation to varied degrees in support content creation. Most of them have Discussion Forums and Wikis where Subject Matter Experts (SME) respond to User Queries. Some of them allow the user community to provide solutions too. “Crowd-sourcing” as it is called, results in creation of pertinent support content. This is so because when users provide troubleshooting tips, it addresses a problem that they have faced and is therefore likely to be faced by another user. It results in scratching where it itches. Any amount of intelligence from SMEs can not address the field requirement with such accuracy.
The advancement in Smart Support Websites and the competition among Product Companies to leverage the web technology for Customer Service & Support has spawned 
a host of recognitions and awards. Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) announces STAR Award for Best Online Support. It recognizes Support Websites that leverages Web-based technologies and knowledge management processes to provide an effective Web self-service experience, including driving customer adoption of online support, personalizing the experience, using customer feedback 
for improvement, and measuring customer success for ongoing improvement. Another group, The Association of Support Professionals (ASP) rates 10 Support Websites each year as the “Ten Best Web Support Sites”. Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) is yet another group that announces Awards in various categories such as Best Online Communities, Best Online Support, etc.,
Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) announces ‘Best International Web Support Sites Award’ recognizing customer support provided in multiple languages. The Honors list for each of these awards point to excellent Support Websites that are the smartest in the world today.
a host of recognitions and awards. Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) announces STAR Award for Best Online Support. It recognizes Support Websites that leverages Web-based technologies and knowledge management processes to provide an effective Web self-service experience, including driving customer adoption of online support, personalizing the experience, using customer feedback for improvement, and measuring customer success for ongoing improvement. Another group, The Association of Support Professionals (ASP) rates 10 Support Websites each year as the “Ten Best Web Support Sites”. Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) is yet another group that announces Awards in various categories such as Best Online Communities, Best Online Support, etc., Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) announces ‘Best International Web Support Sites Award’ recognizing customer support provided in multiple languages. The Honors list for each of these awards point to excellent Support Websites that are the smartest in the world today.
Dell, Intuit, Cisco and Xerox have some of the best in class Support Websites that have revolutionized the support industry. Web 2.0 has indeed become a reality over the last few years. We could very well be standing on the threshold of yet another internet wave – Web 3.0. Watch Out!
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