Facebook is going huge on improving their AI assistant M.

They've just acquired AI assistant startup Ozlo to help build “compelling experiences within Messenger that are powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning”.

Ozlo initially focused on helping users sift through restaurant listings in a conversational format.

But they've eventually expanded to include not only restaurants but also weather forecasts and more local business services, like movie listings, leveraging popular APIs like Yelp.

As we can see guys from Ozlo were doing pretty the same thing Facebook AI assistant M is trying to build and became a pretty valuable asset.

So happy to see all of these acquisitions started emerging in a chatbots space 💪🏻

https://venturebeat.com/2017/07/31/facebook-acquires-ai-assistant-startup-ozlo/

Oh, sh*t. That’s the Hook Model!

Have you ever spotted a popular framework in action?

It’s a strange yet reassuring feeling!

Realising someone has implemented a strategy, textbook perfect. Nir Eyal would be proud.

Well that happened to me yesterday when I was reviewing Champ for our #botoftheweek series.

Champ has stormed to success in the last couple of months, processing over 25 million messages on Messenger, here's my review as to why.

Full review here, made by Matthew, one of our BDDM community admins:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E1FPlwEF4ZBFFe8NonVbiPPySM0rZne4E4fsggeV1pg/edit?usp=sharing

Smart speakers market is growing rapidly.

Google and Amazon have already sold millions of their smart speakers in the last year.

Xiaomi, Alibaba, Microsoft, Apple and many others have already launched their own smart speakers recently.

Facebook doesn't want to miss the opportunity.

Their research lab is reportedly working on a device about the size of a laptop for video calls, similar to Amazon Echo Show, and a separate smart speaker.

The devices could be available as soon as spring 2018.

Something big and completely new is coming.

Amazon Echo has only 15000 skills, Google Home has something around 400 and Microsoft Cortana has only about 70 apps available.

Can you imagine that App Store, for example, has only 70 apps available?

That's crazy.

Don't miss the train, it's going super fast.

https://venturebeat.com/2017/08/01/facebook-is-reportedly-developing-a-video-chat-device-and-smart-speaker/

When we were launching our first chatbot project I was building the whole system from scratch manually.

I was coding about 12 hours a day.

Our only competitors were doing the very same thing using Chatfuel.

"They won't be able to scale. If they need to add some custom functionality - they're dead" - I thought.

That project hasn't worked out.

Our competitor's product is still alive and acquiring top clients.

You don't always need a custom solution, you can start from using bot building platforms to build the prototype or MVP.

Here is the list of about 50 bot building platforms with the detailed comparison.

Here you go:

https://goo.gl/Z4SXuo

I used to hate Skype even before it was acquired by Microsoft.

It was buggy, ugly, old-fashioned and completely unreliable.

We've moved our internal team communication to Slack about 2 years ago.

But I see a lot of positive changes there for both common users and chatbot developers.

Microfost is really pushing Skype in chatbot direction with new releases of Microsoft Bot Framework, web chat plugin, releasing a separate tab for chat extensions and plenty of other stuff.

And right now they're adding a new feature there - payments.

The feature is pretty similar to what Facebook Messenger released a couple of months ago together with PayPal - you can easily split any bill across a number of people via chat extension.

Skype’s choice to partner with PayPal was a smart one, as it’s an established name many people have already signed up for.

Considering many business sessions happen via Skype too – like tutoring or singing lessons – it could make it easier to collect payments from clients.

I hope Microsoft will continue pushing Skype in this direction so I can start using it for some of the business communications again 🙏🏻

https://thenextweb.com/apps/2017/08/02/skype-now-lets-send-money-via-paypal/

Shopify is entering chatbots and voice assistants game.

It wants for their 500,000 merchants to be able to run their business almost entirely through the use of bots or voice apps like Alexa.

The ability to run a business through a conversational interface at Shopify began with Kit, a text-based marketing virtual assistant Shopify acquired in April 2016 a day after the launch of the Facebook Messenger platform.

“We have a vision of really simplifying the way a merchant starts their day like getting up, having a cup of coffee and just being able to ask: What is the context I need to know to start my day off well, and how many orders do I need to fulfill right now? What are those products, and how many sales did I have the day before?”.

The company will also consider the launch of services on other text or voice bot platforms such as a Google Assistant action or Cortana skill.

https://venturebeat.com/2017/08/04/shopifys-plan-to-let-400000-merchants-run-their-business-via-alexa-and-bots/

Hey Telegram community,

Today’s #botoftheweek shows the perfect example of how to create a captivating product on Messenger.

Forksy is a bot that keeps a food diary, tracks calories, and provides basic nutritional tips based on your eating habits.

“But there are dozens of similar products for nutrition, why the hell did you choose this bot?”

They are not good enough.

Why?

Read the full review here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IgETqbjM39bSxqdGkqYxVBU-UzFAb2n8-EX_ARwE-qU/edit

Hey bot makers,

We are in Riga for 3 days, would love to meet up to discuss bots!

Message me here: @flreln

How do you imagine a typical voice assistant user?

A 20-something-year-old millennial spending the whole day with his phone or laptop? 👨🏻‍💻

That’s not true.

According to the research, the average user of personal assistant apps is a 52-year-old woman.

Interesting, right?

More of that, voice-activated apps become integral to assisted living communities.

For example, a community of San Diego retirees is using the personal-assistant gadget to listen to audiobooks, keep current with family news, and control home appliances.

The majority of the people in this Alexa focus group are in their late 80s, some use walkers to get around, and some have visual and/or hearing impairments.

They can make calls via voice commands using Amazon’s Alexa-to-Alexa calling service, send and receive text messages and much more.

In a few weeks, this organization will connect the residents’ Echoes to smart plugs and thermostats so they can adjust their lights and room temperature via Alexa.

If all goes well after that two-month test, the company will explore possible deployments of Alexa devices to its other communities.

https://venturebeat.com/2017/08/05/why-the-typical-voicebot-user-is-a-52-year-old-woman/

More info about retirees using Alexa: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608047/the-octogenarians-who-love-amazons-alexa/

Have you ever bought sex online?

A new bot built by Microsoft employees in their spare time is designed to discourage you from doing that.

The chatbot lurks behind fake online ads for sex posted by nonprofits working to combat human trafficking and responds to text messages sent to the number listed.

It initially pretends to be the person in the ad and can converse about its purported age, body, fetish services, and pricing.

If a would-be buyer signals an intent to purchase sex, the bot pivots sharply into a stern message.

Quite an interesting use case for a chatbot, right?

To be honest, every day while researching the internet for a new content for the channel I come across plenty of different ways to use chatbots.

What’s the most interesting you’ve seen so far?

Let’s discuss in our chat - @botcubechat.

https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-chatbot-trolls-shoppers-for-online-sex/

Hey folks, I think I need your help right now.

I curate one of the biggest resources containing everything about bots - https://github.com/BotCube/awesome-bots.

But the main part of it was created about 3-4 months ago and I see that many of you have created a plenty of useful services, tools, frameworks, articles helping to build great bots during this time.

So I need your help to add the content I've missed.

Please share any piece of value related to bots you've created and I'll add them to the list.

It can be anything from guide to bot building platform.

You can contact me here - @maximabramchuk.

Let's go!

What is the best platform to build a Facebook Messenger chatbot without coding?

That’s quite hard to say.

But there are definitely 2 leaders in this field - ManyChat and ChatFuel.

But what’s the difference? Pros and cons? Unique features?

Article below evaluates both platforms with a list of 14 criteria.

Super comprehensive, right?

The main purpose of the article is to help you pick the platform that works best for your business.

It covers everything from pricing and plans to AI/NLP support and payments integration.

Guys, it’s a golden gem that will save you days of work.

Enjoy!

https://www.thinktuitive.com/comparison-manychat-vs-chatfuel/

I have a lot of buzzwords for you today, guys.

Most of you probably knows the bot called Sensay - a bot that connects users with other people for anonymous advice.

They decided to monetize their bot by creating their own cryptocurrency based on Ethereum - SENSE.

Today, advice givers can receive tips in the form of tokens, and roughly 20 million coins have been awarded already.

Once SENSE becomes available, “coinholders will be immediately rewarded on a 1:1 basis”.

The currency may be made available to bots, apps, and services beyond Sensay in the future.

SENSE is the second cryptocurrency launched for the bot ecosystem in recent months.

This spring, chat app Kik also announced plans to create its own cryptocurrency, called Kin.

I love this trend when you can transform your virtual coins/tokens inside the app/bot into a real cryptocurrency.

I think it will help a lot of products to solve the monetization issues.

https://venturebeat.com/2017/08/12/sensay-advice-bot-to-launch-ethereum-based-cryptocurrency/

Intercom has launched Operator, which is a #botoftheweek for customer experience.

Why do they need a chatbot?

Intercom makes products that help businesses to communicate with their customers. The bot’s goal here is to automate some extremely simple tasks around this communication, which the bot can handle better/faster than live operators.

For example, if someone is texting business on a website, and that business is now overnight, nobody will pick up the chat. In this case, the bot could clarify the situation and ask for the best channel to follow up when the team will be back in the office.

Just like Amazon Alexa, Operator has a growing set of skills, including:

- Set expectations based on your team’s availability
- Collect contact information
- Intelligently suggest help articles to answer questions
- Automatically close answered conversations for you
- Measure customer satisfaction

It’s just the beginning, the next step is to add some kind of SDK/framework available for teams to build their own skills 🤖

https://www.intercom.com/operator-bot

Landing pages are not working anymore as well as they did.

Abundance usually leads to inefficiency, which is precisely what’s happening in the landing page landscape.

When everyone makes good looking landing pages, the user expectation is changing.

That’s why companies is suffering from an average conversion rate of 2,35%.

But here is the thing that can help - conversational interfaces.

There are different ways conversational interfaces could make a big difference in your landing page conversion:

1. Increasing user engagement - in the case of conversational inteface, we have a simple and in crescendo storytelling flow where information is provided progressively under user’s request.
2. Greater user personalization - with conversational interfaces we could make each user interaction as personal as possible via asking questions and using this data further.
3. Real-time lead qualification - in a conversational interface, the information flow works in both way by providing and asking data from users in order to validate the fit with your company’s current focus.
4. Differentiation from the crowd - using a conversational interface can help to position yourself as an innovative company and stand out from the crowd.

Take a look at the article below explaining all these points, it’s a golden gem 😉

https://chatbotnewsdaily.com/landing-page-as-chatbot-why-lead-generation-is-the-killer-app-for-conversational-interfaces-1d2c60d2ddfa

Why Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant beat Cortana and any others? 🤔

Microsoft’s former AI expert, Qi Lu, has provided some rare insight into Microsoft’s struggles to compete with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant.

“I worked on Cortana four and a half years ago. At the time we all were like, Amazon, yeah, that technology is so far behind”.

“Google and Microsoft, technologically, were ahead of Amazon by a wide margin. But look at the AI race today. The Amazon Alexa ecosystem is far ahead of anybody else in the United States.”

Lu believes Microsoft and Google “made the same mistake” of focusing on the phone and PC for voice assistants, instead of a dedicated device.

Microsoft first introduced Cortana ahead of Alexa as a promising digital assistant for its Windows Phone devices, then expanded it to be built into Windows 10 for PCs and into the company’s Xbox One console.

Cortana will also run on various Internet of Things (IoT) devices like fridges, toasters, thermostats, and even cars in Microsoft’s latest bid to catch up and beat Amazon’s popular Alexa voice assistant.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/14/16142642/microsoft-cortana-amazon-alexa-qi-lu

Amazon is going huge on building community around their voice assistant 📈

Amazon Alexa team has recently launched a program in partnership with Arizona State University (ASU).

The program itself is designed to enhance students’ ASU experience by giving them touch-free access to information and services tailored to campus living — and prepare some of them to become leaders in voice-technology development.

Incoming freshmen engineering students will be able to build their own Alexa skills or capabilities and join the growing community of voice developers.

“Our focus is putting this technology into the hands of our students in a way that will build an ecosystem that supports voice technologies throughout the ASU campus.”

I’m pretty sure that ASU is a perfect fit for Amazon because it has been ranked No. 1 in innovation by U.S. News & World Report for two years in a row, staying the course by embedding innovation into its schools, departments, athletics and student experiences.

I’m really pumped to see how Amazon is building an ecosystem around voice by doing such a program, that is a really smart move from these guys 👍

https://asunow.asu.edu/20170817-asu-news-asu-amazon-dots-tooker-house

Here’s one video from the last F8 conference that everyone missed.

It deeply covers the death of decision trees, webviews, structured menus, and chat extensions.

Incredibly helpful for beginners.

Here's the link: https://developers.facebook.com/videos/f8-2017/how-to-build-a-great-bot

Zendesk has just released their new #botoftheweek for customer support automation.

Boom!

I’ve seen a lot of startups trying to do the same thing, but it was only a matter of time before the big players made it a feature.

What’s interesting here is that both Intercom and Zendesk position their bots less as bots or conversational assistants and more like a knowledge base products.

That makes a lot of sense — there’s so much value in the content assets that customers have already created and sometimes it's just about helping connect the dots.

Top 4 features of Zendesk bot:

1. It works wherever your customers are: Answer Bot already works across several channels including email and API which typically don’t have great automated self service experiences. They’re also extending Answer Bot to create new in-channel experiences for web form, web widget, chat, and our SDKs in the near future.

2. Activate and go: They’ve removed the complexity to make it as easy as possible for anyone to start using Answer Bot straight away. No training time or massive data sets needed. (You’re wondering how? Because it’s trained on over 12 million customer service interactions to deliver accurate and reliable responses. And it’ll continue to learn and grow.)

3. Learns from customers and agents: Interactions between Answer Bot and your customers are clearly presented to your support team, allowing them to see the actions customers have taken to avoid suggesting the same content again. Your support team can also provide pointers to Answer Bot to help it learn over time.

4. Optimize performance with reporting: Generate amazing insights into where Answer Bot performs well and where you may need to create or improve your self-service content.

Let the automation battle begin! 🤖

https://www.zendesk.com/answer-bot

Have you always been thinking about creating a bot for Google Home?

It’s never been easier!

A couple of Google Assistant Developer Program engineers has just launched a template tool to create trivia games for the Google Assistant.

The template turns your questions and answers from a spreadsheet into a fully functioning game without writing any code.

Isn’t that cool?

1. Pick a Persona.
2. Enter your data to a Google Sheet template.
3. Set up your project in Google Actions console.
4. Test your app.
5. Submit your app.
6. Let the game begin.

It is also open-source so you can add your own features too.

Enjoy and have fun building voice bots 😉

https://medium.com/@leonnicholls/google-assistant-trivia-template-d0e5d12fc200

Template: https://triviatemplate.com/
Template source code: https://github.com/actions-on-google/apiai-trivia-game-nodejs

Over the past few months, it’s been all but impossible to escape the growing buzz around voice technology. From Amazon’s Echo to Google Home to Apple’s HomePod, it seems like everyone’s getting into the game.

Here is an article from Alon Bonder, VC at Venrock, that presents an overview of how space has evolved, and a few areas he is excited about for investment.

The most interesting part of the article for me personally is a list of native advantages of the voice in general with areas that worth trying to build project in.

If you’re interested in voice - really worth reading or at least adding to your Pocket to read during the weekend, I promise 😉

https://medium.com/startup-grind/why-voice-tech-is-about-to-see-major-love-from-vcs-341a9b05cc2b