Umni no-code AI chatbot platform

Thanks to University of Library Studies and Information Technologies for inviting our CEO Elitza (Elly) Stoilova for the second year to give a lecture to students and faculty on the use of AI chatbots for marketing and sales. The topic is becoming more and more relevant, and the specialists in this field are... We can't think of such a specialization. "AI chatbot marketing" ("conversational marketing") is yet to come in digital marketing in our country, as there are Facebook marketing, LinkedIn marketing, SEO... And this does not only concern the use of AI chatbots as part of a business's marketing strategy and placing access to them (to info, to calls to action, to forms) at different touch points and at different levels in the funnel. This will also include, from 2025, training the big AI chatbots to promote your business's services and products when someone chats with them.

Oh, how time flies! Before we knew it, October was behind us, and we didn't say "Happy Birthday!" to the 1st AI chatbot of an educational institution in our country - the New Bulgarian University AI chatbot. We asked associate professor Dr. Kristian Postagian, Vice-Rector for Academic Activities - NBU, about the successes and challenges of the chatbot created by the university's team on our Umni no-code AI chatbot platform. The digital assistant is available on the NBU website to students and teachers for frequently asked questions and routine tasks. "For us, this is another new and modern way to communicate with our students, to facilitate them in their university journey and, of course, to learn more about who our student is and how he behaves in a digital environment," he says. Kristian, and shares the results of the chatbot's first months of operation. The digital assistant has been a guide to over 7,000 students in the sea of information the university offers, has reduced phone calls to the administration, increased general student awareness of the university's services, and improved communication with the administration. Posters with QR codes to specific information in the chatbot are located at key points in NBU, giving students instant access to it from a physical environment with a single scan. "The chatbot teaches us, we teach the chatbot", adds Mr. Postagian, and summarizes: "When the chatbot is regularly worked with, the challenges are solved". Summer was a time to diagnose the chatbot and plan to upgrade it with more useful content and functionalities. The name and avatar of the chatbot are also to be chosen, and the university is counting on these to come from the students. Link to the story in the first comment

This autumn is colorful with interesting events! Here's another one we can't wait to participate in. On 11.11.2024, the Bulgarian Chinese Chamber for Industrial Development (BCCID) will hold its annual event. The main objectives are to present the results achieved in the past year, showcase Bulgarian goods and services with high added value, and attract the attention of Chinese consumers and economic experts. The event will include an exhibition of high-value-added products and services, where our no-code AI chatbot platform Umni will participate with a booth. Tea Bar by Mama Herb and Better Half Garage Wines will welcome guests with a tea ceremony and a Wine Bar. The centerpiece of the evening will be the certificate ceremony for new members of the BCCIR, which will be led by Mr. Kong Liu, Commercial Consul of the People's Republic of China in Bulgaria. The event will be complemented by a keynote lecture by Mr. Terry Li, Director General of Huawei Bulgaria, who will present "Innovation and Leadership in the Global Market". The lecture will offer valuable insights on Huawei's technological successes, its role in the global economy, and how innovation drives international business development. An additional highlight of the program will be the cultural program with performances by Chinese artists who will introduce attendees to China's cultural traditions and add to the atmosphere of the event. Part of the money raised from the tickets will be used for charity to support Betige Osmanova Akova, a Bulgarian girl studying at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The funds will help her cover her expenses for the second semester of the academic year, thus supporting the development of Bulgarian young talents in China.

Welcome to our big smart family, Nora! Nora is the digital assistant of RILUS, a brand for refined Italian furniture with an online store, offices in 3 cities, and a huge showroom in Plovdiv. Nora is on hand to help you choose a piece of furniture or make an appointment for a consultation, as well as answer your questions. Although the website is in 2 languages, Nora is ready to assist customers in 4 different languages 24/7, with unlimited conversations instantly. The Umni's team is happy to welcome to our platform another AI chatbot from a company that works in an industry considered conservative. Good luck Nora! RILUS is not just an innovator with their AI chatbot. Since its inception in 1996, RILUS has redefined luxury interior design with a passionate dedication to authentic Italian craftsmanship. Founded by two visionary entrepreneurs with a deep appreciation for aesthetics, RILUS has grown into a leader in the world of high-end Italian furniture, delivering an immersive design experience that goes beyond the visual—it's a journey of touch, atmosphere, and elegance. RILUS partners with Italy's most prestigious brands to curate exclusive, high-quality collections, showcased in their stunning 3000 m² showroom in Plovdiv. Here, clients are invited to explore a uniquely Italian ambiance, featuring distinguished selections of furniture, lighting, wall and floor coverings, doors, and bathroom solutions, designed for those who seek exceptional quality and style. From personalized interior consulting to 3D visualization, every RILUS service is tailored to provide an effortless and luxurious experience. With over 25 years of expertise and more than 3000 completed projects, RILUS remains devoted to creating spaces that beautifully express individuality and refinement, whether for a private home, office, or hotel.

What a nice surprise to be mentioned by one of the top professionals and experts in hospitality digitalization, Max Starkov, in his publication on Hospitalitynet online media. Offering hoteliers-readers to consider two technologies as a matter of priority in 2025, he mentioned "I will implement an AI-powered hotel-specific chatbot like Asksuite, Quicktext or Umni AI on the property website to handle 24/7 customer service, trip planning, and booking assistance", featuring our Umni no-code AI chatbot platform as one of the 3 solutions he recommends to hotels in search for a smart solution in the next year that understands and anticipates the unique customer needs. According to Max, except for the major hotel chains, hotels do not have the financial, technological, or talent resources to select, train, implement, and maintain AI applications on their own. Using a no-code platform like Umni's is not only lowering the technical barrier for hospitality professionals eager to implement digital assistants into their team and on their website to save on cost and resources, and boost direct reservations and hotel services sales but also giving the hotel teams the flexibility to operate with an AI chatbot as hotel own super-app in a personalized manner according to the hotel employees and customers needs. Max Starkov is teaching a course on Current and Future Hospitality Technologies at New York University, Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism, to create the next generation of tech-savvy hoteliers needed to meet the challenges of the digital world. Link to his article in the first comment.

Wow! In December 2021 our CEO Elitza Stoilova published an article on the topic "AI chatbots as a customer service and support tool" in ROBONOMICS: The Journal of the Automated Economy - an academic type paper, and it became the most cited paper of this Journal up to date, every year doubling the citations! 42 citations in scholarly papers may not sound a lot for many, but it is an accomplishment we are proud of that proves the growing interest in the topic. Now Elitza is planning on working on an update of the paper as for less than 3 years a lot changed in the world of AI chatbots and Umni no-code AI chatbot platform have collected a lot of data and insights that have empirical value. We are sure that she will keep the paper conclusion as it is because it sounds like written today: "Due to the variety of tasks and services that an AI chatbot can perform and automate, today the questions are not about the technology (could it do it or not) but to the businesses that add digital assistants to their list of service solutions: What will the chatbots do? Is the business ready to implement a chatbot into its daily operations? While chatbots can answer frequently asked questions and automate routine tasks, such as the collection of information for orders, inquiries, and appointments, or perform other tasks through integration with business platforms, the overall quality of the self-service through a chatbot is based on the thorough planning of all steps and details in the chatbots implementation. Companies with a focus on creating, maintaining, and training AI chatbots for their businesses need to go through proper planning to automate, and answer their frequently asked questions and routine tasks for improving customer service and support. The business has to consider the level of technology adoption of their customers, optimization, and simplification of all steps in the customer path through the self-service via chatbot, the promotion of the chatbot, and customers’ education on how to use it. Last but crucial also is the need for continuous chatbot data monitoring and AI training to ensure its proper development in accordance with customers’ usage and needs."

"Businesses need to analyze their processes to see where a chatbot would do a better job than a human and free up a human resource." This was shared by Elitza Stoilova, co-founder and CEO of Umni, the platform for creating and managing AI chatbots, during a conversation on the air of the Digitalk podcast on "Capital". "There are no dumb bots," she adds. "There is poor planning and a lack of analysis and maintenance of the chatbot afterward. The quality of the bot's work depends on the team behind it." Digitalks is a podcast that looks for the answers to digital transformation. In the focus of the podcast is new technologies and all issues related to innovation and digital business, refracted through the opinion of the visionaries of the Bulgarian IT sector. In this episode of the podcast, the focus was on chatbots with artificial intelligence, ace Elitsa talks to the host of the podcast Alexander Glavchev. You can see the episode itself in the first comment:

Another conversation that is hard to recount. This time our CEO, Elitza Stoilova, was in the frame of the "Faces of Business" podcast - NON-corporate dialogues with leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs. The voice-over is by Plamen Nikolov, a film director and screenwriter with many years of experience. Maybe that's why the conversation became very personal, at times philosophical, and at the same time dynamic - from Elitza's life path to chatbots and why their time has finally come, from the AI chatbot platform Umni to the AI chatbot with millions of Chinese in love with it, from the lessons learned along the way from others to her insights. Speaking of insights, after editing the episode, Plamen shared that while the entire conversation was very interesting, his favorite moment was the story about the invisible suitcase - one of Elitza's insights that she shared with her staff as a recommendation and applies to our meetings with people in general. You'll find this communication lesson in the list of key points in the Youtube podcast description. Plamen himself commented: "A well-told story contains the wisdom of life and it reaches people most naturally - through the soul." Often life itself tells the most interesting stories, you just have to see their outlines, reach out and take them. Business also has its true and inspiring stories, and they are just waiting to be shared.” We thank Plamen Nikolov and Georgi Marinov (cinematographer) for sharing this story - of Elitsa, the wonderful conversation and the perfect filming. The podcast is a production of Match Frame Studio, which produces feature and documentary films, video commercials, corporate video films, music videos and television productions. The production company is a leader in the filming and post-production of corporate video and video advertising production. In 2013, the company's corporate film won the prize for the best video for Eastern and Central Europe in the global consortium ABB group. Link to story in the first comment

AI: AN ENEMY at the gate or a tireless TEAMMATE in the team? It was only logical for Green Path to invite us to participate in an event with such a focus. Our CEO, Elitza Stoilova, will be one of the 5 navigators on the topic of the event on 22.10 with a specially developed format. Event participants will explore 2 topics of value and challenges for the future of HR to find the real opportunities and pitfalls of AI integration, proactively identify the necessary transformations of HR activities and responsibilities, and changes in HR policies, and generate ideas and possible solutions to cope in the new environment. For 4 hours of focused work, the participants - HR professionals will understand if they can harness AI to successfully perform given HR functions, how it will transform them and how this will affect the business and employees. 🔗 The event will be held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Sofia. See details in the link in the first comment. Because fate loves the brave, and the future loves the PREPARED.

Happy first birthday, Paka! Hundreds of questions were answered and many requests were received - from protective film to machine maintenance, from film sizes to packaging and machine prices, Paka is an AI chatbot on the Umni platform and works around the clock - in a field you would not expect to see a chatbot. PAKIN EOOD's AI chatbot is still learning, but the company's team can already assess the successes of its digital colleague: "The qualification and flexibility of our employees is the most valuable resource for the company. We settled on the http://umni.bg chatbot because we knew it would significantly improve our customer service by providing quick and accurate answers to their queries. Thanks to it, we reduced the response time and freed up a team resource, which allowed us to focus on strategic tasks. We increased customer satisfaction and optimized processes, resulting in better results and increased sales. An excellent tool to improve business performance!" PAKIN EOOD is a company specializing in the import and distribution of machines and consumables for industrial, individual, and group packaging - metal chamber, plastic chamber, polyester chamber; stretch film, aero film, shrink film; self-adhesive strips - tape; cartons, packaging and corrugated cardboard; protective packaging materials and accessories. The company is a representative and distributor of leading manufacturers of packaging machines and consumables from Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Taiwan, etc. PAKIN EOOD is an exclusive representative and authorized service partner of SIGNODE Industrial Group for Bulgaria and a trusted partner of companies such as Teufelberger, Messersi, Transpak and Smigroup. The company has a highly qualified team to perform warranty and out-of-warranty service. We offer specific solutions for each industry, automated production lines, pneumatic, electric, battery, and manual tape (chamber) and foil packaging machines, as well as all types of packaging consumables. #aichatbot #umniAIchatbots #digitaltransformation #digitalassistant