Wait-and-See Could Be a Costly AI Strategy

Did AI write this? Just kidding. But really, this article is pretty much the battle cry of every Chatbot startup out there. The reality is there’s never a “right time” to start your Conversational Strategy--you’ve just got to get your hands dirty and get started, because waiting will be the trillion dollar mistake you make. Sure there are certain conditions that make starting out easier (like a big treasure trove of conversational training data sitting in your live chat provider) but if you don’t have that, then even better--you know exactly what your step 1 should be: start collecting it. How many VCs will receive *this* article in the mail, hmm?

Georgia State Uses A Chatbot To Attack 'Summer Melt'

Super simple, super powerful. This article explains the bot that Georgia State created to answer their students FAQ. This content already existed elsewhere, they just made it accessible via a conversation. Reminds us of the reason we started Reply: people are happier when they understand things better, and the best way that people have to understand things is asking questions. And--like in this case--questions make otherwise dense and difficult to navigate content personal, actionable.

Apple Business Chat lets you order beer at baseball games from your iPhone - Business Insider

Seems Kik’s Ted Livingston’s wish came true. There’s finally a bot that lets you order beer to your seat at a ballgame 🍺⚾! This article talks about this as evidence of Apple encroaching on FB Messenger territory. But anyone in the enterprise Bot space might have a different take away from this article--and that’s the realities of what it takes to bring a bot to market. This use case--stupid simple, a nice-to-have almost--was first talked about over 2 years ago, and it took this long to make. Not because the actual bot was challenging--what is this, like 6 flows?--but because it takes that long for organizations to identify who are the right people to move this type of project together. What other bots that have been 2 years in the making will debut soon?