Microsoft is testing a new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot for its Xbox platform. On Monday, the company announced the AI-powered Support Virtual Agent which is aimed at assisting players of the gaming console with support-related issues. The rumors about the chatbot first started emerging in April, and now the company has officially released the AI bot in preview mode. Currently, it is only accessible to Xbox Insiders residing in the US with English set as the preferred language.
Microsoft Releases AI-Powered Chatbot for Xbox
In a newsroom postMicrosoft detailed its AI chatbot dubbed Support Virtual Agent. It is a new feature available on the support website of Xbox. While the AI chatbot can have fluent natural language conversation, it is specialized to assist players with support-related issues.
The AI chatbot has been rolled out to the US-based members of the Xbox Insider Program who have signed up for the experimental updates. Microsoft said eligible users will begin seeing the chatbot on the “Contact us” page on the platform's support page after signing into their account.
Xbox's AI chatbot accepts both text and voice as input and can respond with relevant information from the gaming platform's support pages. Users will also be able to choose between two different chatbots by clicking on the ellipsis menu icon. The company said if the Support Virtual Agent cannot solve an issue, users can request to speak with a live support agent during the company's normal hours of operation.
The Verge reported that the chatbot can appear either as an AI character that animates when responding to a query or as a multi-coloured Xbox orb. It is unclear whether Xbox plans to add more chatbot options for users or increase its capability to also assist users with their accounts, game catalogues, game reviews, and more.
Notably, the AI chatbot only supports the English language currently. The company has also asked for feedback from Xbox Insiders about the AI chatbot. Users can provide feedback directly within the chatbot interface by tapping the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” button on individual responses. Separately, they can also provide feedback by typing their opinion in the text field that appears after tapping the “Give feedback” button at the bottom of the page.