Over the past half year, bots have been a widely discussed topic. Experts and the media heavily discussed all the possible benefits, the future, and the value bots could create for businesses and consumers. Arguably, the tipping point was Facebook’s F8 conference in April. Since then, many developers and consumers have massively experimented with bots and tested their limits to find the most suitable use cases for bots. During this trend, the U.S. market has proven to be high

China’s top messaging app, with over 840 million active users, is trying something radical. WeChat is today rolling out “mini programs,” embedded apps which require no download or install. Tencent chose to use “mini programs” because Apple would not permit the use of the word “app”, according to Ma Huateng, CEO of the US$240 billion firm that runs WeChat. After months of beta testing, many companies have these instant apps ready for use within WeChat. “Mini programs are delib

Weekly live show where we talk about what is going on in the world of bots. This week's show includes an interview with Qwazou (m.me/Qwazou) inventor Shane Gau. #messengerbots #chatbots #bots #facebookmessenger #qwazou

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas just debuted a virtual concierge with an attitude. As more hotels adopt virtual concierge apps to meet guest needs, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas has taken it a step further by creating a uniquely designed robot concierge with a distinct personality. In early January, the hotel unveiled Rose, a flirty chatbot with a sense of humor. When guests check in to the hotel, a front desk representative gives them a card that reads: “Know my secrets. Text

Sky Sports presenter, Jeff Stelling, has become the face of a new virtual recruitment ChatBot launched today by online operator Sky Betting & Gaming. The company is the first to use an AI ChatBot for candidate engagement to enhance and support the recruitment experience. ‘Ask Jeff’ on Facebook is able to pose and respond to questions with the use of interactive buttons in chat on the company culture, an applicant’s status, business locations, benefits and social opportunities

Over 2.5 billion people have at least one messaging app installed on their phone. According to the consulting firm Activate, by the end of 2018 a total of 3.6 billion users will be using messaging apps to connect with friends and businesses. Messaging really is the new social media. Many hotels already offer messaging options, giving their guests the ability to text them through proprietary apps or messaging channels on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or even SMS. The real revo

Chatbots have not seen the success in non-spamming application that we had once hoped. Microsoft's Tay experiment was a massive failure thanks to human interference. Microsoft is trying again with Zo, focusing on the future of chatbots being your best friend. That future is fluid interaction with a programmable and learning artificial intelligence without the assistance of humans. Conversely, In the case of Sensay, the future of bots is one that is just as human as a bot coul

2016 was the year when chatbots emerged as a new interface for consumer interaction. NB: This is a viewpoint by Scott Crawford, vice president of product management at Brand Expedia. Advances in artificial intelligence technologies – such as neural networking and natural language processing – have allowed brands such as Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon to offer conversational products, letting consumers order products or map their journeys through speech or messaging. As we

I was talking to Eric Bahn from 500 Startups the other night. He was telling me how he had once missed an investor meeting because his flight out of London got delayed — a scenario I’ve heard multiple times before. But Eric concluded with something that stood out to me: “I think the worst thing in all of this was the feeling of betrayal because of the complete absence of empathy or even slightest desire to help on behalf of the airline staff. Knowing that you’re at the mercy

You already know that bots are one of the hottest topics since mobile apps. That’s already clear. With major announcements from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon, the bot craze has grown dramatically over just a few months. But one question that is being discussed in boardrooms, amongst makers in Slack channels and in Facebook groups around the web is this: How will these things make money? Well, that’s exactly what I’m going to dive into with this post. Over the last c