There has been a lot of buzz about bots lately. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella declared bots the new apps, and the “next big thing.” Satya is even putting his money where his mouth is by investing in Skype Teams, which is a direct competitor with Slack, the messaging platform that has hundreds of bots. Both Skype Teams and Slack are team collaboration tools that most non-tech startup folks would never use. The real opportunity for the rest of us is through Facebook Messenger and its 1 billion active users. That’s how I stumbled upon ChatClub — a chatbot platform for Facebook Messenger -- more on that later.
What Exactly is a Bot?
Before we dig in, let me explain a little bit about bots because there are different types for different applications. For our discussion, we’ll split bots into two basic forms — the Artificial Intelligence (AI) based (think Amazon Alexa) and Automated Help (AH) based (like ChatClub or dedicated applications like Airline apps).
The AI-based bots use natural language processes of either text or voice to figure out what the user wants. The classic example is asking Alexa to play your favorite smooth jazz hits on Prime. The computing horsepower and skill required to deploy such bots is beyond the average brand manager or entrepreneur.
AH-based bots are more like your automated phone system where you press 1 for sales, press 2 for customer support, etc. They are more logic trees of menus with potentially some AI to recognize voice commands but that’s about it. ChatClub falls into this category with more functionality akin to an actual app but all within a chat platform. In the case of ChatClub, that platform is Facebook Messenger.
Messaging is the Next Email
Bots have been getting a lot of attention lately because of investments in AI. According to CB Insights, funding for startups that build the AI behind bots recently reached a quarterly high. This means that some smart money is betting that bots will soon find there way into all sorts of applications like customer service, financial transactions, and healthcare. Furthermore, since messaging is a more interactive experience than email or even a website, you can start to see that Facebook Messenger’s 1 billion users will start to demand a more user friendly chatting experience.
This trend is actually starting to become reality among Millennials who spend almost 200 minutes a week on WhatsApp, another popular messaging platform. The reason seems to be that most people are accessing the Internet on mobile and among the top applications on mobile are chat or messaging applications. In fact, US app downloads have declined 20% over the last year, which shows that users just don’t want to download yet another app. This is an opportunity for messaging apps to become more useful to users, which is why chatbots are starting to catch on and you are starting to see conferences like Talkabot popping up.
Getting Started with Chatbots
Honestly, all this bot stuff is kinda complicated, and it’s daunting to figure out where to start. Thankfully, I stumbled upon ChatClub, a chatbot platform for Facebook Messenger. It’s what I consider an entry-level chatbot in that you don’t have to know anything about AI, logical trees or anything like that. It’s simple enough to get going yet it has some powerful features like group chat. I’m still experimenting with it but so far, it’s been easy to build menus and connect it to a Facebook page.
What Problem Are You Trying to Solve?
All of this bot stuff is pretty cool yet you still have to ask yourself the question — what problem am I trying to solve? This is where I think a lot of the bot hype will start to get questioned. I mean do you really need TacoBot to order your Chalupa Beef Supreme or print photos via HP’s Print Bot. Maybe. One thing is for sure, AI-based tools that make our lives easier are here to stay.
Alexa! Play smooth jazz prime.