Bank of America launches AI chatbot Erica

BofA announces that it will be launching it’s in-app bot next year. A thoughtful step into the bot world, in that it represents a sector (banking) seeing the true value of what bots can provide--personalized, 1:1 attention and communication at scale. And, with banks so commoditized and restricted by security requirements, etc., bots might just be the way banks can compete on the Customer Service/Experience battlefield. 

PayPal payments and notifications are coming to Facebook Messenger

Another step towards frictionless, automated actions! Excited stuff as it helps to build trust in this new medium (just as PayPal did in early .com days). While some might leap at the potential for diving into commerce, we see this more as a way for bots to facilitate maintenance and upgrades potentially for existing purchases, e.g. “I see there’s a lot of traffic on your way to the airport, would you like to purchase a fast pass through security??” vs. “here, buy these shirts now”

Chat is where it's at for KLM as it finds customers on new platforms

In this article, KLM CEO, Pieter Elbers, talks about bots as a means to an end--meeting customers where they actually are. And beyond that, that bots allows them to “offer more functionality” vs. just driving to some website (I’m looking at you, traditional advertising). Interesting to see how notable travel-related companies (in this case, KLM) are approaching bots, (next up, you’ll see how folks are actually responding). 

How travel chatbots work better than travel apps

And here we have the “consumer” side, seeing the fruit of travel-related bots’ labor (“consumer” in quotes since this journalist is upfront about having made the conscious decision to try these out). Interesting how he describes the role trust plays in the adoption of these new tools, but ultimately, the time-savings and personalization pay off big time. Oh, and, bots needs humans.

The Ultimate Guide to Chatbots: Why they’re disrupting UX and best practices for building

Very thorough and thoughtful guide to chatbots, written by one of the (very talented) collaborators on Reply-powered GoVoteBot. Helps also to answer the question of ultimately, who are the best Bot creators? And is this the beginning of the rise of “Conversation Designers”?

Raheem | Chatbot that listens to your stories about police interactions

Bus Uncle | Simple bot for bus schedules, but with personality + context