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![1105 Media [valor]](/images/ds1_pntmlogo.gif "1105 Media [valor]") |
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home > February, 2007 issue > article
Virtual recruiter on duty at goarmy.com
By Patience Wait
Staff Writer
“Lean, clean and lantern-jawed,” Sgt. Star is alert and battle-ready 24/7 to answer any questions prospective recruits may have about the Army.
Designed to appeal to the tech-savvy, Sgt. Star is the new “Strong, Trained and Ready” virtual guide on the Army’s recruiting Web site at https://www.goarmy.com/ChatWithStar.do .
“We’ve tested Sgt. Star for several months on GoArmy.com, and in comparison to the site without him, we’ve seen longer session times, excellent accuracy and increased questioning among users,” said Gary Bishop, deputy director for the Strategic Outreach Directorate in the Army Accessions Command.
Metrics back up Bishop’s assessment. Since Sgt. Star debuted in August, the average length of a user session has grown from four minutes to 16 minutes. And since his activation, the virtual sergeant has fielded more than 500,000 questions, with a 92 percent accuracy rate.
Sgt. Star is a creation of Next IT Corp. of Spokane, Wash., and its ActiveAgent software, which uses natural-language conversation and follow-up questions to provide answers personalized for each visitor. The software recognizes situation context, concepts and other information keys, letting it provide accurate information and identify the user’s intent.
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