Chatbots won’t replace people. They’ll replace apps
Chatbots are popping up everywhere. When this started the Venn Diagram above went viral.
Originally I 100% agreed. I’ve 100% changed my mind now.
For the initiated, a chatbot is just a robotic chat interface where you use your natural language to interact with. You’re meant to talk to it like you’re speaking to a human, and it’ll talk back like a human, even though it’s not a human. King Quest 1 was a kind of chatbot.
Chatbots don’t replace people — they replace interfaces.
80% of our time is spent in 5 apps. For most of us ALL of these apps are Google & Facebook Apps.
Google:
- Gmail, Chrome, GMaps, YouTube, Hangouts
Facebook:
- Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger
The app market is crowded. We don’t want an app for one time use. I don’t want to download an app to track a courier service booking that I rarely use. I don’t want to download an app to request a taxi in a new town (that doesn’t have uber yet). I don’t want to download a new app to order a pizza.
We don’t need to anymore, and we can bring the context to what we are most familiar with.
Take a courier service. I can either track an upcoming delivery on their webpage, their app or I can phone the company. Users are already in Facebook Messenger and SMS all day. Rather let a chatbot be your interface:
Facebook Messenger is the interface here, but you can put it wherever your customer is. SMS, Twitter, Slack, embedded in an app. The screenshot below shows some of the options from my bot agent api.ai. (a google product)
There are lots of other benefits: being able to see what people are asking, creating a relationship with customers, intelligent routing that will direct it directly to a real customer service agent if it can’t be solved.
Right now customers are too conservative to purchase directly over a messenger interface, but I believe there are still so many ways we can use this without it being commercial just yet.
- When does the next train arrive?
- What time are you guys open on Boxing Day?
- When is my electricity due to be turned back on?
- What is my current home loan interest rate?
- When will fibre internet be upgraded in my area?
- Is the Olympus OMD-EM1 a mirrorless camera?
- Where is the camera in stock?
- Can I reserve that camera? My wife Kim will be able to pick it up at 1pm
- Is the bbq meatlovers pizza vegetarian?
- Can I book a table for 4 for 5pm?
- My pet is panting heavily and very lethargic.
- You said my macbook would be ready today, can I get an update?
This isn’t a techy post so I won’t go into the details (ps. it’s api.ai, heroku and other stuff).
If you live in Australia please check out the Domino’s website (or download the app) and use DRU Assist. This is a great bot! These were the request I all successfully threw at it on Saturday night. Check out some of our exchange:
Later I’ll write on why this is now so achievable and how it works.
(hint: it uses artificial intelligence/machine learning. another hint: if you don’t train your bot well enough it’ll be crap)
