Lubricant virtual first

Shell claims to be the first company in the lubricants sector to launch an artificial intelligence-driven service for trade channels – Shell Virtual Assistant. It is an interactive one-stop-shop on the Shell website where distributors can ask common lubricant-related questions, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Distributors type in their question via an online message window, and avatars Emma and Ethan reply back with an appropriate answer within seconds. The interaction is similar to a chat conversation, but instead of a live person on the other end, it is all done through artificial intelligence via a technology known as Natural Language Interaction. This technology allows interaction using normal, everyday language and is also in use in certain popular personal assistant applications.