When I first saw Mark Zuckerberg showcase the bot platform for Messenger, I was taken aback by the use of buttons. It was a totally left-field idea for AI.
Until then, I only thought of AI in a messaging platform as a natural language processing or speech synthesis application.
So when I saw Facebook’s approach to AI, I thought they turned the traditional idea of AI on its head.
But they didn’t.
WeChat did.
They’ve already been using buttons in their bots and have been extremely successful in China.
Guess who isn’t in China?
Facebook.
Thus, one of the reasons I believe bots on Messenger were born.
See what’s going on China:
[video:https://youtu.be/EF-E841WYe4 autoplay:0]
Some developers remain disappointed in the current state of chatbots because of their limited functionality.
Others rejoice in the idea that chatbots will improve over time.
While both positions are reasonable, I suggest more of us think of chatbots beyond a technological standpoint.
As an entrepreneur, I’m constantly viewing artificial intelligence from a marketing and business perspective.
On a daily basis, I ask myself “How can I do a better job at marketing my chatbots to the general public?”
Marketing matters.
Because no matter how good the technology is, people won't use it until they trust it.
As a marketer, that’s where I come in. I’m the guy who wants to figure out how to make chatbots mainstream.
Aiming in this pursuit, I started Persona with my co-founder, Christina Milian, to build chatbots for public figures.
Our underlying goal is to bring chatbots to the masses by leveraging the influence public figures have with their followers.
If we can achieve this, I believe it will ultimately make it easier for all other kinds of chatbots to succeed.
But beyond our work, I think it’s our collective duty to help spread the idea of chatbots to people around us.
Share your favorite chatbots with friends, talk about chatbots often — not just yours, offer feedback to other bot developers and debate less about buttons vs NLP.
Aside from making a profit and learning from users, why should we really spread the idea of chatbots?
I think in the future, we’ll look back and appreciate chatbots as being the crucial stage in the evolution of social acceptance towards artificial intelligence.
