The bots are coming, the bots are coming

A few years ago, everyone that wanted to build a brand new company or grow their existing infrastructure was trying to replicate Groupon.

Shortly after that, came the Uber revolution of everyone wanting to create an on-demand company or feature for what it was that they wanted to provide.

After that came the crowdsourcing and sharing economy environments of Airbnb, DogVaycay, and everything in-between.

Then came the live-streaming period of Periscopes, Meerkats, Facebook Live…

You can probably think of the countless companies that followed the trends and well, failed. That could be a kind way of describing this.

So… the title of this article should make a lot of sense.

The bot revolution is here.

Automating our messaging, our tasks, the way we interact with our software and applications are about to change. In fact, I am such a believer in this happening, I know for a fact the next several big companies in our space that we will work with will be in the bot game.

That’s awesome. It makes a lot of sense too.

Bots are going to make things a lot easier for us as consumers. It is going to give us more time. It is going to make our existing time more valuable. It is going to make us closer to becoming robots… in a good way.

Businesses, enterprises, startups, consumers — we are all about to be impacted by this and just like how Uber changed the way we look at transportation, bots will change the way we look at getting things done.

So why the warning? Why the doom and gloom at the beginning of this article?

It is because we see it every year. People follow the trends and try to iterate off of what is already existing instead of creating a stand-alone solution. The companies, the startups, the entrepreneurs that will succeed in the next five years as bots become mature and established, will be creating solutions that didn’t exist prior or will be solving major problems that only bots could truly solve. They will see the rewards, the financial gains and the successes that will come along with it.

Unfortunately, for every success story, you’ll have hundreds of people who more than likely, will reach out directly to us, looking to just imitate an existing idea that’s building traction or trying to create a small iteration of something that truly don’t need to be iterated. Do not let your company, your enterprise, your startup — or most importantly — yourself fall into this trap.

This is the time to get into the bot game… but this is the time to execute on something that’ll be ground-changing. Don’t just wait until a great bot exists and say… I can do that just slightly better. It’ll be months before you’re even up and by then, you’re just riding the wave instead of being the one that created it.

Bots are going to be a lot of fun for us as consumers and perhaps, even more fun for us as startups, and businesses. The possibility of B2C and B2B bots are endless. Don’t get caught up in all the hype, though. If you’re seriously considering getting into the game, no matter how much financial backing or passion you have for your venture, make sure you’re getting into it for the right reasons and with the right idea that isn’t just an ounce better than the rest. This is the time to act and attack a growing opportunity head-on.

About Joshua Davidson: I build apps and help grow companies as Founder of ChopDawg.com & co-host of #thePawdcast on iTunes. I love to help!