What the EU’s latest data protection law means for chatbot makers and marketers

GUEST: What follows is an overview of the upcoming GDPR legislation and, above all, an invite to anticipate the consequences of this new regulation and start thinking about the actions you need to undertake. It is absolutely not legal advice; GDPR is a pretty serious matter (keep reading to see how serious it is) and […]

Digital immortality? Funeral agency wants to ‘revive’ the dead in AI chatbot project

A Swedish funeral agency is looking for volunteers for an ambitious Black Mirror-esque artificial intelligence project that will give the deceased digital immortality and pave the way for communication with the dead. The Fenix funeral agency wants to create digital copies of the deceased so that grieving loved ones can still communicate with those they […]

CHATBOTS EXPLAINED: Why businesses should be paying attention to the chatbot revolution (FB, AAPL, GOOG)

bi intelligence This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here. Advancements in artificial intelligence, coupled with the proliferation of messaging apps, are fueling the development of chatbots — software programs that use messaging as the interface through which to […]

Insurers in the U.K. could be the first to cover chatbot consultations

GUEST: People use chatbots to find homes, interact with their favorite brands, and schedule appointments. Many consumers are onboard with using chatbots to gather instant, personalized information. In many cases, chatbots are the first point of contact for individuals who feel unwell and need to decide whether to head to the doctor. As this technology becomes […]

2018 will be the year chatbot conversations get real

GUEST: As we enter 2018, it’s clear the expectations of intelligent assistance providers and enterprise practitioners are more in balance than ever before. It’s also clear that the number of “known knowns” is growing rapidly. Here are five examples of how and why we will learn more about the complex workings of conversational commerce in the coming […]

5 small changes that drastically improve chatbot conversations

GUEST: The current chatbot renaissance has provided a revolutionary new way to connect consumers with brands and with each other. That said, chatbots are still in a bit of a growth phase. Bot makers are still learning how to make their bots successful, and users are still getting a grasp on what bots can do […]

Microsoft’s “Zo” chatbot picked up some offensive habits

It seems that creating well-behaved chatbots isn’t easy. Over a year after Microsoft’s “Tay” bot went full-on racist on Twitter, its successor “Zo” is suffering a similar affliction. Despite Microsoft programming Zo to ignore politics and religion, the folks at BuzzFeed News managed to get the bot to react to the restricted topics with surprising […]

What it takes to build a compelling chatbot

GUEST: Here’s what we know: Chatbots have enormous potential. With bots, brands can have millions of simultaneous one-on-one conversations with fans without sacrificing the quality of the user’s experience. But not all chatbots are created equal, and not all chatbots were made for the same purpose. Today, there are two major categories of chatbots: utility […]