“The conversational world”:
What is it and what is the Chair of Conversational Business of the Universitat de València for?
Index
In this article we explain the key points of the Chair of Conversational Business and the role it will play in the current context of constant and rapid technological change.
Technological changes and business
We are currently immersed in the 4th industrial revolution, which is characterized by two essential aspects:
The advance of digitalization processes in most of the productive environment (to which the spread of Covid-19 throughout the world has undoubtedly contributed).
The unstoppable development of what is beginning to be called “conversational business”, i.e. business activity that is developed through multichannel conversations.
Much has been said about technological change or disruption. However, “the conversational business” is a vast unknown, and we are going to explain it below.
An introduction to conversational business
The development of technology and communication systems has led to a new way of doing business through multichannel interaction (conversation). All this by means of technological platforms between organizations, companies, customers, suppliers, etc.
This is what we call “the conversational business”.
Here we also include as a use case the field of public organizations and their relationship with citizens.
In short, we are moving towards a conversational society in which it will be essential to learn how to build conversations that generate trust and facilitate communication between parties. This new society demands that professionals from the worlds of psychology, linguistics, law, journalism, marketing, etc. be incorporated into this process, without forgetting the importance that conversations closer to their territories, contexts and specific realities have in this society.
The development of specialties such as conversational marketing or conversational commerce is already a reality.
And this means that in order to do business, we all need to learn to communicate more effectively and persuasively with our customers and suppliers.
Conversations already exist at all levels in social networks or instant messaging applications. However, conversational business requires a great technological and communicative leap that takes a company or organization to a higher level in terms of operations and results.
Conversational business and the need for talent
The strong digitalization process we are experiencing is demanding transversal professional skills in all graduates of the education system.
In other words, “digital talent” is urgently needed. This talent is necessary and essential to successfully face the challenges of the digital era.
There is, undoubtedly, an appreciable lack of this talent in the labor market. The development of the business that uses conversational communication channels requires the articulation of a system that not only generates talent, but also attracts and trains it in the conversational dynamics.
Today, almost all businesses and even government institutions are going through a digital transformation, and therefore, talent has become a more important asset than capital.
Due to the professionalization of social networking and instant messaging applications, the job market is already seeing a significant demand for talent with conversational business knowledge. With their release for business use expected in the next 1-2 years, there is going to be a storm where organizations will suddenly need many more conversational business management specialists.
That’s why the challenge is doubly stimulating, since it is a digital talent trained in the conversational world.
The Conversational Business Chair as a necessity and opportunity
In the context of the digital talent shortage we have just mentioned, the Chair of Conversational Business represents a unique opportunity to find answers to the challenges of the conversational world.
On the one hand, it will generate the necessary knowledge for the inclusive development of conversational business at all levels: IT, psychological, legal, journalistic, linguistic, ethical and business.
On the other hand, it will be a welcoming and meeting point for all those interested in generating and developing conversational business. In other words, it will provide knowledge, attract and enhance talent and contribute to create the scientific-ethical and legal foundations that this emerging sector needs.
The Chair has been created to help generate and attract the aforementioned talent and facilitate their insertion into the labor market. Likewise, the Chair as an agglutinator of science and knowledge must attract the most relevant influencers in the conversational world (software providers, digital transformation consultants, chatbots platforms, etc. ).
The goal is to become a bridge for young people who want to develop their digital talent and consolidate their careers in the best organizations in the sector, and also for those who want to recycle themselves professionally: whether they are mothers who want to reconcile their family life with their work or freelancers who want to acquire new professional skills or others who want to obtain a new profession and change their professional field.
In short, it will be a place to visualize all the opportunities that may arise from the conversational dynamics and to define strategies to successfully take advantage of them together.