Chatbots Are About To Change New Brunswick (And The World)
Have you heard about chatbots yet?
If not, you will. They are about to change everything (all over again).
You’ll probably encounter them first through Facebook Messenger. You know, that app you thought you would never use but now probably do. Well so does everyone else.
Today Facebook Messenger has 900 million active monthly users, a figure that will continue to climb as Facebook adds new users at an extraordinary rate.
Messenger is where many of the first bots are being launched. A chatbot is software that uses natural language processing to answer questions or perform tasks within the Messenger framework. It’s a quantum leap from yelling “Operator” as you fight your way through a telephone voice recognition system.
It’s also the beginning of what could be a massive change in how people use digital technology.
“Everybody wanted websites when the web was launched. And then everybody wanted apps,” Facebook’s VP of Messaging David Marcus told Wired. “This is the start of a new era.”
Marcus left a job as CEO of PayPal to take on his role at Facebook. He told Wired he believes the Internet is reorganizing itself again, with bots leading the post-app world.
Facebook unveiled its first chatbots last month at its F8 conference. Facebook says bots can provide anything from automated subscription content like weather and traffic updates to personalized communications like receipts, shipping notifications and live automated messages.
Facebook’s David Marcus at the company’s F8 conference.
It’s already happening in China, where the popular WeChat service now offers a number of features, including payments within the app for its nearly 700 million users.
While the first bots may be clumsy, the potential for radical change is there, particularly when it comes to scaling customer service or support. Mike Swanson of Silicon Valley Software Group writes that:
Chatbots are poised to fundamentally change the way humans interact with machines within a five-year horizon. The starting point will not be personal assistants, or chatbot “apps,” but rather the investment that businesses make in order to drive their topline and bottomline metrics (starting with support, and moving into sales/marketing). This will lead to a treasure trove of data that will allow for further disruptions in how humans and machines interact and will completely change the way people interact with the Internet as we know it today.
Video: Facebook
So what does that mean for New Brunswick?
Well, many of the call centres that Opportunities New Brunswick continues to lure to the province with financial incentives could find themselves out of business, replaced by much more efficient chatbots as the technology quickly matures.
But the emergence of bots also creates opportunities. Remember that the “app economy” went from nothing to a marketplace worth billions in a matter of a few short years.
That means New Brunswick IT companies could get an early start on building tools for the emerging chatbot ecosystem – if they move quickly.