Conclusion

For many people, the first interaction with NLP is with virtual assistants. Even while the technology is far from perfect, it still is quite useful—especially for answering questions or getting information, say about a nearby restaurant.

But NLP is also having a major impact in the business world. In the years ahead, the technology will become increasingly important for e-commerce and customer service—providing significant cost savings and allowing employees to focus on more value-added activities.

True, there is still a long way to go because of the complexities of language. But the progress continues to be rapid, especially with the help of next-generation AI approaches like deep learning.