Bots will be huge if ….

There’s a bot that helps me post gifs; one that gives me restaurant recommends; one that reminds me to leave for the dentist; and one that helps me order a taxi. There are thousands of bots already — and all of them are focused on accomplishing discrete tasks. 
 
Today, bots are much like a search engine. They help you when you know what you need. But, they’re useless when you don’t know what you need.

If bots are going to replace consumer websites or apps, they have to be fucking amazing at helping you waste time. If these are great tools for accomplishing discrete tasks, they’ll probably be big, but they won’t kill web or native applications — at best, they’ll be a funnel to applications; at worst, they’ll be a niche, tech tool. However, if a bot can help me find and engage with interesting pictures, cat gifs, random news stories, and funny videos based on my mood, they’ll be poised to take over the world!

I’ll know bots are here to stay when they start solving the boredom problem. When I’m watching a mediocre tv show and I think “this show is slow, let me see what XYZ bot has to offer” — that’s when I’ll know!