The president of the business you picked in week 1 has hired you to manage a new project to implement chatbots like the ones shown in the videos associated with this assignment. You can decide exactly what the chatbot will do. Put together a high-level implementation plan and operational policies for this chatbot project. The plan should describe the business goals, the scope of the effort, the timeframe for the implementation, what resources are needed for the project. Please explain how the new chatbot will be used by your business and customers. You should also analyze the risk factors of using chatbots (e.g., deteriorated morale among customer service representatives, poor service for customers) and how those risk factors can be mitigated. In the operational policies, you should describe when people will use chatbots and what other options will be available. For instance, will a chatbot be the required first stop for all customers, or one of many mechanisms for customers to interact with your business? Will “preferred” customers have additional service options? If so, please describe the process for identifying “preferred” customers.

This paper must follow the formatting guidelines in The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association [APA Manual] (2020), (7th ed.) using Times New Roman 12-point font. Remember to support your statements, including opinions, with factual information (i.e., attribution/citations). The paper is essentially an research driven, executive summary and, as the minimum, must contain:

Three to five pages of text-based content

• At least, one paragraph for each bulleted item below. (A paragraph in academic writing normally has at least three sentences: beginning, middle, and end.)
• One or more reference pages 
• Links for your business and the competitor in a separate section on the reference page (do not include the links in the reference list)
• Business Goals – What is the business strategy and how does the chatbot fit with the strategy? How does this project potentially give the business a competitive advantage?
• Scope of Project – What is the chatbot expected to do? What is out of scope for this project, meaning what will the chatbot not do? (For instance, the chatbot might document a customer’s problem, but notify the technical service group to actually solve the problem.) Will the chatbot be targeted at all customers, or a specific subset? How many people in your business are expected to interact with the chatbot? Will your bot be English only or multilingual? Will the chatbot use text or voice recognition or both?

Project Timeframe – How long do you expect the project to take? Will the chatbot be rolled out for the whole business at once, or will it be piloted for a small group first? If your business is large, will it be rolled out for specific regions or certain product lines? Will certain features be rolled out first and other features implemented later?

• Implementation Resources – Who will implement the chatbot? Will company resources or outside resources by required? If training is needed, who will do that?

Expected Benefits – What specific benefits, such as increased sales, improved product quality, higher customer satisfaction, reduced costs, do you expect? How is the chatbot expected to deliver those benefits? What is the timeframe for achieving the benefits? How will this system give your business a competitive advantage?

• Communication Plan – What groups in the business need to be informed about the progress of the project? How will each group receive updates, e.g. weekly meetings, newsletter, emails, webinars, project website, etc.?

Risk Analysis – What could go wrong with the chatbot project? How will you avoid or minimize those risks?

• Operational Policies – What will be the terms of service for use of the chatbot once it is implemented? Who can access the chatbot data? How will customer information in the chatbot be secured to protect the privacy of the customer?

Critical Success Factors – What criteria will you use to judge the success or failure of this project? How are the critical success factors for this project tied to the business strategy and business goals?