Sony MAX forays into the world of Artificial Intelligence with Filmykaant

Creating a meaningful connection with customers, fans, and followers is a major ask to measure success for any campaign. Instead of a passive, one-sided push notification, website, or social update brands now prefer artificial intelligence (AI) to stay connected with its users. 

Brands are using chatbots in lots of exciting ways, with an aim of creating meaningful conversations with the audiences. People can order food, schedule flights, and get recommendations for pretty much anything one can think of. Chatbots and virtual assistants are the future of marketing and customer support. 

In a bid to engage with viewers beyond their TV screens, Sony MAX, the Hindi movie channel, from Sony Pictures Networks India, has adopted new technology to launch Filmykaant – the first NLP based chatbot of the television industry. Developed with advance NLP technology with an in-built ability to read Hinglish, Filmykaant will engage with nation-wide cinema lovers 24x7. 

As Sony MAX forays into the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Filmykaant, in an email interaction with Adgully, Vaishali Sharma, Head - Marketing & Communications, Sony MAX Movies Cluster & Sony SAB, decodes the objective, technology and plans involving the Filmykaant chatbot. 

What was the objective behind introducing the Filmykaant chatbot? 
Sony MAX has been the undisputed leader of entertainment in the Hindi Movies genre and is known to give its viewers the best of entertainment. To continuously innovate and create a new benchmark has become the ethos of the brand. As leaders in the category, we sought out to create a unique and one to one engagement for our viewers. While Sony MAX follows a very strong social media presence, we wanted to create a new scale of innovation. Filmykaant was launched to bring to life the madness for films and transform it into tangible interface that connects the brand with its viewers. 

Filmykaant is one more attempt of the brand to bring out the essence of Deewana Bana De. 

How will this chatbot work? How do you plan to engage viewers with this chatbot? 
NLP is a technological process that allows computers to derive meaning from user text inputs. In doing so, it attempts to understand the intent of the input, rather than just the information about the intent itself. There are several different ways in which this function can be built. These vary, and can be chosen based on how you intend to implement and utilise NLP. For Filmykaant, the model used is for language identification. It will detect whether the user is talking in English or Hindi. Once the language is detected, another model detects users’ intention. 

Filmykaant is Bollywood’s first of a kind NLP based Bot that not only supports English, but also Hinglish. If the chatbot doesn’t understand the intention behind a message sent by the user or doesn’t know how to respond, it will respond with a default message that it didn’t understand and needs clarification. The idea is to train him as he converses. 

The Bot will engage with Sony MAX’s audience on the FB messenger through interesting Trivia, Quiz and even latest filmy gossip and engage with users during key movie premieres. 

What is the TG that you are targeting with this Bot? 
Filmykaant is a one-stop destination for every Bollywood lover across age groups and demographics. 

Apart from English and Hinglish, does the chatbot recognise regional languages? 
As of now, it recognises only English and Hinglish languages. 

What is the idea behind foraying into the world of AI? 
MAX has always been at the forefront of creating breakthroughs and setting new benchmarks. We realise that engaging with online users is the way forward. With Filmykaant, we are being futuristic and driving engagement with our audience around latest topics, trends, etc. As a technology, chatbots have become one of the most emerging technologies of these times and today, AI can create extremely engaging conversations. The technology has enabled businesses to leverage inexpensive and wide reaching technology and continue to engage with increasingly more consumers.  

How do you see such new age tools increasing traction for the television industry? 
With Alexa and Siri, we have had our first brush with how artificial intelligence will seamlessly integrate in our lives. According to a recent PWC report, globally 55 per cent of consumers would like to select their media by curating a list that draws heavily on AI recommendations or simply have it completely selected by a bot. AI today has the ability to create extremely engaging conversations and thereby has enabled businesses to leverage inexpensive and wide reaching technology to engage with increasingly more consumers.  

Apart from Sony MAX, will you extend the chatbot experience to other channels in Sony’s bouquet? 
As of now, the chatbot will engage with Sony MAX’s audience on the FB messenger through interesting Trivia, Quiz and even latest filmy gossip and engage with users during key movie premieres. 

Can viewers also put in their request to show the movie of their choice via the chatbot? 
No, but it does update viewers on the tune in details of that particular day. 

How can GECs benefit from using chatbots? 
Chatbot is a consumer engagement tool, it will have similar kind of benefits for all the broadcast channels.