Is your chatbot Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader?

Chatbots are everywhere. Travel, entertainment, education, financial and ecommerce spaces are flooded with bots. Some of them are helpful like R2-D2, while others are as bad as Sith Lord’s servants.
Today, people own d̶r̶o̶i̶d̶s̶ chatbots, who assist them in their daily life. Literally, for everything a chatbot we have. :)
Technically, there are two kinds of bots: all-purpose virtual assistants (like Siri, Alexa, Cortana, etc.) and single-purpose apps for messengers.
Together, they are expected to turn into the next billion-dollar industry within 10 years and become a geek symbol of the 21st century like the Star Wars.
The Dark Side Bots
Chatbots can put a company right where people hanging out most — in chat and messenger apps like Facebook Messenger or Telegram.
However, it’s really difficult to find a good chatbot. Of course, we can dispute long about the nature of good. But a tool with a non-intuitive interface and high-error rate, deginitely uses the dark side of the Force through users hate and frustration.
Do you remember that buzz around the first shopping chatbots that failed? They were complicated and led users nowhere. Many people commented that searching through the catalog was faster and more convenient.

When the bot becomes a huge pain in the ass-istance:
- You click “Get Started” and it floods you with something irrelevant, asks question, sends pictures and you just sit back and think “What’s going on? Why on Earth I’ve been answering all those questions for half an hour already”.
- You need to find the flight/ t-shirt/ flowers/ concert in just a few clicks. But the chatbots aren’t as smart as you expect. So you dive into a long unnatural conversion, punctuated with frustrating silence and get irrelevant results. That annoys.

One bad chatbot experience can cost much. According to the DigitasLBi report, 73% of Americans won’t use a chatbot if it fails.
“Well, if droids could think, there’d be none of us here, would there?” — Obi-Wan Kenobi
The Light Side Bots
The legend says it: some bots make people shine bright like a diamond and feel satisfied. Smart answers, relevant results and humor. Such bots don’t spam you with ill-timed alerts. A miracle indeed.
We’re in love with bots that can do only one thing (like track the flight, order a dinner, find sunglasses by photo, etc.), but can do it perfectly cool.
For example, Poncho (weather assistant) or Instalocate (travel bot). Simple, clean and do exactly what they are supposed to do. Poncho even adds a great portion of humor like C — 3PO.


Oh, and here is our baby, Woxy the chatbot. If you’re a Magento 2 jedi (a store owner or developer), then this part is for you. If you’re an avid bot user, please share your thoughts towards the following shopping messenger.
Woxy is a simple bot that shoppers:
- save for later every product they like without a need to register on a website. So the desired products are always at hand in a Messenger.
- get alerts when the product is back in stock
- live chat either with a bot or human assistant right in Facebook messenger.

What do you think, guys: can such a bot become helpful in everyday shopping? The Force needs your opinion.
Summary:
We’ve got bots for everything: health, shopping, travel, news, porn, education, etc. To find a really helpful tool reminds us of Cinderella and her sorting peas duty. What do think of that chatbots hype: can bots make our lives easier?
