Embracing the chatbots: how direct to consumer advertising is about to change forever
In this crossposting from The Conversation, Kate Letheren and Charmaine Glavas of Queensland University of Technology argue that the tech revolution is coming to advertising, with chatbots replacing humans a key change
Soon, advanced computers won’t just be driving you to work, they’ll be selling you stuff as well. We can already see this in the form of chatbots.
Chatbots are artificially intelligent pieces of software, capable of maintaining a conversation with a human. While they aren’t perfect yet, they have markedly improved in recent years, leading some to claim 2017 will be the year that we finally see mass adoption.
Chatbots can already do some incredible things, such as operating a medical helpline, helping you plan your vacation, and even talking with you when you can’t sleep.
In the world of advertising, this represents a huge step. Chatbots are personalised, to the point, and all knowing, thanks to consumer tracking, big data, and machine learning. With the likes of Facebook jumping aboard, all of this is right in your pocket.
Great overview. Appreciate all the links.
Australia has been very slow on the uptake of chat-bots. The US is a long way ahead here.
I’m wondering whether there are cultural norms we have that, say the US, doesn’t?
I understand that chat-bot side of things on, e.g., a website that helps you make a purchase based on info you give. So this work would previously have been handled by a sales assistant or booking agent…who is now out of work. But is the personal assistant bot just one all-knowing bot? Who does it work for? Who gets the “commission” on the sale it makes? Who pays for its development? Who pays for me to get one?
And for those of us in sales of any type what are we going to do when “85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human by 2020”. This statement was made ahead of the Gartner
Customer 360 Summit in 2011 – I wonder if we are still on track?
So when most of the planet’s workforce has been replaced by robots or AI what will we be doing for work? Where are we going to get the money to buy anything?
Remind me again … what was Microsoft’s paperclip called?
Having been literally forced to interact with chatbots on the websites of three major Australian brands in the past week and a bit, I must say they are the most useless thing foisted upon customers or potential customers in living memory. Sterile. Useless. Soulless. Slow.
What’s worse with all three I didn’t get the information I was after. Fortunately their competitors did so guess who I went with (well only to of the three so far).
Chatbot = couldn’t give a shit about customers. You’d get better service at Centrelink!