Global Messaging Trends 2 - When are chatbots actually useful?

Grata.co September 2016 Chat Shanghai | Global Messaging Trends

Global Messaging Trends

In search of intelligence

Andrew Schorr Founder @ Grata.co

Image Credit: Kathleen Wilson/Baltimore Academy of Illustration


Peak Messaging Hype ©REUTERS

We recently hit

Facebook F8 Developer Conference 12 April 2016


Suddenly texting a

weather cat is better than opening a

weather app


vs.

Slack Tacobot Tacobell.com

…and typing pico de gallo is faster than a screen tap


Evidence everywhere of a hype cycle

Source: h)ps://betaworks.com/botcamp


It lasted about 10 days…


Since then, I’ve been drawn back

to a chatbot once.

A chatbot promoted by Facebook, representing the White House, failing

both on and off script, phishing for contact

information from within a messaging app. Ugh.


But there must be something there, with 11,000 bots at last count.

Source: h)ps://medium.com/@Deepoma>c/visual-‐chatbots-‐to-‐revolu>onize-‐interac>ons-‐1f8693e27639#.mb0yjyn9d


Venture Capital Funds

Retrieved from h)ps://www.cbinsights.com/blog/bot-‐startups-‐>meline/ Facebook F8 April 2016


$150M

$80M Platform Funds

$50M

$100M Source: h)p://venturebeat.com/2016/08/30/amazon-‐ibm-‐and-‐other-‐tech-‐giants-‐want-‐to-‐pay-‐you-‐to-‐create-‐bots/


I did a quick survey of travel chatbots to see how things are going. It’s still easier to find a

bad example than a good one.

Travel should be easy since it is a limited

domain: booking a flight or a hotel.

Image Credit: Sara Klementovic saraklem.com


Cheapflights stays on message with a cheap bot.

No kidding, you actually have to type out the words “check in” and “check out”


Angel.ai does a better job.


Parsing my request on Angel.ai


But none of these are as easy as AnyTravelWebsite.com

Pictured: skyscanner.com


h)p://investorplace.com/2016/07/pizza-‐hut-‐emoji-‐menu-‐yum-‐stock/#.V7XWe5P5iRt

I love this sub-headline.


So when is a chatbot useful?

Image Credit: Benjamin Jancewicz, zerflin.com/services/illustration


An Extensible Script

Chatbots that can react appropriately to multiple correct

answers are perfect for language

learning.

Pictured h)ps://blog.mondlylanguages.com/2016/08/25/mondly-‐chatbot-‐press-‐release/


Context Switching Chatbots that can interpret inputs in a series can consolidate complex tasks.

The Robot Lawyer has helped void over 160,000 parking tickets worth over $4,000,000. Now it’s helping the homeless.

More at h)ps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/11/chatbot-‐lawyer-‐beat-‐parking-‐fines-‐helping-‐homeless-‐do-‐not-‐pay


Non-Textual Inputs

Whole Foods is on to something, but

it’s still more difficult to find the

eggplant emoji than to type “eggplant”.

Note: Be careful whom you text the eggplant emoji.


Image Credit: Alex Kazanas alexkazanas.com

What if I could just point my camera at any item in the supermarket?


Value

Effort

The golden equation for chatbot utility.

More at h)ps://medium.com/art-‐marke>ng/the-‐hidden-‐homescreen-‐70c794ff9ada#.91l3z7wzl


Visual Bots


Voice Chatbots

1 Voice message

to a WeChat Official Account

2 Tap your itinerary from instant response

3 Select ticket

type and book


An always-on microphone in every room of your house.

+

More at h)p://venturebeat.com/2016/08/30/sonos-‐is-‐puZng-‐amazons-‐alexa-‐voice-‐assistant-‐tech-‐inside-‐its-‐connected-‐speakers/


In summary, get excited about

Language Voice

Vision Intelligence

None of these are easy, so…


Most Likely to Succeed?


Messaging Channels

Acquired 21 Dec 2015


Facebook is the clear leader in messaging channels globally


60 billion messages/day

3x peak volume of SMS

+


Apple is opening up iMessage


Google makes inroads on iOS

with the Gboard in May 2016.

Microsoft acquired Swiftkey

in February.

More at h)p://www.cnet.com/news/google-‐gives-‐iphones-‐and-‐ipads-‐slick-‐gboard-‐keyboard/


M Assistant Cortana Siri

Virtual Assistants are all about reducing inputs and effort.


Apple’s Siri is opening up to

integrations with launch of

Sirikit.

More at h)p://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/06/the-‐abili>es-‐and-‐limita>ons-‐of-‐sirikit-‐siris-‐olive-‐branch-‐to-‐other-‐apps/


OS

Search

AI ML NLP

The backend stack could be the deciding factor

Google Research

NLP API

Cognitive Services

Bot Framework


“Apple is the NSA of AI.” -Jerry Kaplan

Teaches the history of artificial intelligence at Stanford

Despite missing search, Apple has a powerful stack: controlling

the hardware, the operating system, and having defined the

virtual assistant with Siri.

Thanks to www.crunchbase.com for informa>on on acquisi>ons More at h)ps://backchannel.com/an-‐exclusive-‐look-‐at-‐how-‐ai-‐and-‐machine-‐learning-‐work-‐at-‐apple-‐8dbc131932b#.aozc4dn52

Machine Learning Acquired

5 Aug 2016

Speech Interface Acquired

2 Oct 2015

Image Processing Acquired

5 Oct 2015


“We think of this as each user building their own Google.”

-Sundar Pichai CEO, Google

at Google I/O May 2016

The shift to AI is perfectly aligned with Google Research’s activities and Google’s mission to organize the world’s information.

Image Recognition Acquired

23 Oct 2014

Gesture Recognition

Acquired 2 Oct 2013

Image Recognition Acquired

6 July 2016

NLP Acquired

23 Oct 2014

Machine Learning Acquired

26 Jan 2014

Visual Translator Acquired

16 May 2014


Keyboard AI Acquired

2 Feb 2016

Don’t count Microsoft out. The last peer-to-peer connections on

Skype are being removed to enable connecting Azure Cognitive Services

to chats.

Virtual Assistant Acquired

22 Aug 2016

3D Input Processor

29 Oct 2010

More at h)p://www.theverge.com/2016/7/7/12111028/microsod-‐bot-‐framework-‐ar>ficial-‐intelligence-‐satya-‐nadella-‐interview

"This idea of using conversation, using contextual information about you, with your permission, to make you speedier and make you feel like you’re in control, that’s the stuff we get really excited about. A lot of our user experience work is around simplification, removing friction, and really showing the power of intelligence.".


Microsoft might have had some very

public stumbles...


…but the Microsoft Bot Framework is overcoming channel weakness with a cross-platform solution.


…and Project Murphy is hands down the most fun you can have right now with a chat bot.

This is pretty impressive NLP on display


Proving that chatbots can be sexy, even though it’s still early days.


Thank you!


Grata is the leading provider of enterprise contact center software for WeChat.

grata_co [email protected] grata_co

Global Messaging Trends 2 - When are chatbots actually useful?

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