Companies Rally to Build Chatbots for Messaging Services

Six months ago, Facebook Inc. said it would open its Messenger service, making it possible for businesses to build virtual assistants that can chat with the one billion-plus real people who use the communications platform each month. Since then, developers have created more than 33,000 such "chatbots," which have icons and nicknames that at first glance might not appear that different from a friend or relative in a user's contact list. Last month, Mastercard Inc. launched Kai, a bot for banks that makes it possible for Facebook Messenger users to check activity on their credit, debit and loan accounts and set up financial-management tools. Another Mastercard bot for merchants lets customers make purchases by sending a Facebook message and paying with Mastercard's digital wallet. Such capabilities may be just the beginning for bots.