Facebook is ‘tripling down’ on its chat bots
Social media giant has about 33,000 bots up and running — with more on the way
At its annual conference for software developers in 2016, Facebook trumpeted chat bots as the next big thing in tech.
A year later, users of Facebook Messenger are still waiting.
Chat bots, those automated robots that respond to human queries, had an underwhelming debut. Many of them were buggy or annoying. They didn’t catch on with consumers, and critics were unkind. But Facebook hasn’t given up. “We’re doubling down and tripling down on bots,” David Marcus, Facebook’s vice president of messaging products, told USA TODAY last week. “We’re fully invested in this and in it for the long haul.”
Marcus says Facebook currently has some 33,000 bots up and running, and that number will grow. Announcements about chat bots will be a major focal point again this year at the F8 developers conference in San Jose, which begins April 18.
In launching chat bots, U.S. companies took a page from huge social networks in Asia, where businesses have been able to insert themselves into the growing volume of conversation on texting platforms. On China’s WeChat, for instance, doctor’s appointments and shoe shopping can take place alongside conversations.
“You have so many different channels to communicate with services and businesses, and all of those things are imperfect, but they all bring something,” Marcus told USA TODAY in 2016. “What we have been able to do is bring the best of each of these methods inside one conversation that happens in Messenger.”
Forrester Research analyst Julie Ask says it’s still very early for bots. Just 9% of Fortune 500 companies currently work with bots, and “we’re on a long journey,” she says.
“It will take five years-plus before these bots are intelligent and can make smart suggestions for us.”
One possible change coming: Facebook will introduce bringing bots to group conversations, according to TechCrunch. The idea is that a bunch of sports fans could bring in a bot offering score updates, or friends could welcome the Domino’s Pizza bot where everyone could chime in together on what kind of pizza to order. Facebook declined to comment on the group bots.
The idea of having simulated conversations with computers seems a little off-putting to some.
“I don’t use any bots,” says Michael Schneider, who runs the Service app, which helps consumers get money back from airlines for missed flights and other travel related woes. “I find it easier to just go to Twitter or look at a website.”
He says if he wants to order something, “I could use my voice and get it done in 10 seconds with Amazon Alexa. If I want to order flowers, chatting with a robot takes longer and isn’t a good experience.”
Chaim Schuman believes the early bots were buggy and not that useful. But he hasn’t given up on the medium.
He just launched a new bot on Messenger, AskWiz, which is half-bot, half-human. Bots, he says, are a natural evolution from text messages.
“Normally we wait a long time on the phone to get our questions answered,” says Schuman, who is based in Tel Aviv. “This is a quick solution.”
Announcements about chat bots will be a major focal point again this year at the F8 developers conference in San Jose, which begins April 18.