Just Ask ABIE: Allstate Business Insurance shares an innovative tool to help small business owners & consumers with top-of-mind questions

NORTHBROOK, Ill., May 22, 2018 - Opening a small business is no easy feat. With an average of 400,000 startups[1] each year, new small business owners, or those thinking of becoming one, likely have lots of questions.

That's where the Allstate Business Insurance Expert, ABIE, comes in. ABIE, pronounced 'Abby,' is an artificial intelligence chatbot that can be found in the business insurance section of Allstate.com. ABIE provides answers in real time to questions about small business needs and insurance solutions.

'We know small business owners are savvy business people who do their research when looking for solution providers,' said Mike Barton, president, Allstate Business Insurance. 'That's why we developed ABIE - to help answer their initial questions and make the conversation with their Allstate agent even more productive.'

ABIE provides real-time insight into topics on the minds of small business owners. And since this artificial intelligence expert learns on the go, ABIE will regularly add questions and answers to continue to meet the evolving needs of entrepreneurs.

ABIE is based on an award-winning chatbot previously developed for Allstate agency owners. Agents, who are small business owners themselves, use it as a resource for commercial insurance information. 'Allstate agents are uniquely qualified to help small business owners because they understand what it means to own a business and they know the local business community,' said Barton. 'ABIE helps supplement the agent/customer relationship.'

Allstate and Jorsek worked together to develop ABIE with the use of easyDITA, a leading structured content platform created by Jorsek.

'ABIE is a shining success of what chatbot technology can do when it's built on structured content and a platform like easyDITA,' said Patrick Bosek, cofounder of Jorsek. 'Many chatbot implementations struggle to scale because they're built on single purpose content that is expensive to build and maintain. Structured content provides a scalable input for chatbots to ensure long term success.'

ABIE is just one example of Allstate's ongoing mission to support small business owners through customized insurance products, trusted local advisors and supportive technology. For additional information and access to resources that help small businesses succeed, check out the Small Business Connection website and the Allstate Blog.

About Allstate Business Insurance
As a provider for more than 250,000 small-business policyholders distributed through 10,000 small-business insurance agency owners, Allstate Business Insurance provides insurance solutions and shares resources to help American small businesses prosper. Products and coverages include Business Shield (Business Owners Policy), Commercial Auto, Inland Marine, Umbrella and Cyber Security. For more information on Allstate Business Insurance, visit: www.allstate.com/business.

About Jorsek LLC
Jorsek specializes in structured content software and solutions, its flagship product is easyDITA. easyDITA is everything you need to successfully create, manage, and publish structured content. As a cloud-based authoring tool and component content management system (CCMS), easyDITA makes it easy for your organization to implement and leverage structured content.

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[1] U.S. Small Business Administration, 'Frequently Asked Questions about Small Business,' August 2017, https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/advocacy/SB-FAQ-2017-WEB.pdf