Why Chatbots are the Future and People who Doubt it are Wrong

Chatbots seem to be all the rage now. There are multiple frameworks released for the purpose of building bots and new ones keep getting released as we speak. I have personally built a few bots and really enjoyed the process. I have even played around with a few bots and it was a lot of fun. Top companies in the industry like Facebook and Microsoft believe that chatbots are the future and I agree with them. But there have been a lot of reporters, self-proclaimed pundits and other such people who claim that this is just a fad and chatbots won’t lead to anything substantial. They are wrong and here’s why.

They don’t get what chatbots represent

Chatbots are at a really early stage now and are pretty dumb. Some have even called them drunk bots and I don’t blame people for doing so. But what people don’t get is chatbots are not the destination or the final goal. You certainly won’t have messenger bots replacing all your apps on your smart phone. They are a gateway to a future where the way we connect and work with technology is more natural.

If you think about it the way we interact with technology is still pretty pre-historic. We still click on buttons and switches. Sure we have our fancy touch screens or laser projected keyboards (not very common, but they exist), but we are still essentially clicking buttons. Yuck!

I am huge believer in Steve Jobs’s philosophy that technology should be a natural extension of who we are and buttons don’t cut it anymore. I think this is where chatbots come in. They are a gateway to a new form of interaction. A conversational interaction.

Satya Nadella talked about it at the recent Build conference where he said conversation as a platform is the future. Truer words haven’t been said. In the future computers will be able to understand us and talk to us in a conversational non-robotic and human way. But I believe it won’t stop there. We will be able to interact with all technology in the same way. You will be able to talk to your car, electric appliances in your house and maybe even with your furniture.

This future is very exciting, atleast to me. Chatbots are just the first step in this process so don’t underestimate them.