Google Local Question-and-Answer Feature Now Live in Search for all Mobile Browsers

Not necessarily bots related, but you can see where google wants to go… they let people ask questions, accumulate even more variations, automate with their own data--and all without leaving Google. Now if only they could solve those pesky privacy restrictions in European markets…

Americans Love Ordering Pizza on Facebook

What a time to be alive! “Papa John’s International Inc. went so far as to declare itself an ‘e-commerce company’ this month after delivering surprisingly strong results.” We have a feeling the term e-commerce will start to fade away as every commerce company is also an e-commerce company. In the same way that AI companies will stop to be a thing (except those focused only on building AI technology) because every company will incorporate some AI in one way or another.

The best for your biz: intelligent assistants or chat bots? (VB Live) | VentureBeat | AI | by VB Staff

A summary of a panel between bot leaders. We love the call-outs to bandwagoners, “as Stewart Rogers, VentureBeat’s director of marketing technology has said, because they think they’ll get easier access to other peoples’ money if they use the letters ‘A’ and ‘I’ in that order. But none of it matters unless you get the other three letters sorted out, which are ROI.” As well as the importance of the *right* kind of analytics--analytics that not only make bots smarter for the sake of AI, but for the purpose of user finishing a task.

These 9 startups are pushing the envelope of retail innovation

It’s no secret that the Retail industry is in something of a tailspin right now. Changes predicted to happen in 10 years are happening in 5, the battle with inventory risk rages on, and of course, the villain in everyone’s retail store: Amazon. The question on every CIO’s mind at the National Retail Federation’s Tech conference? How will tech save retail? This article gives a quick rundown of the notable companies making waves in this vein (Reply.ai included).