Will 'Payments' Make Chatbots the Next Big Thing in eCommerce?

Earlier this month, Kik CEO Ted Livingston said payments are all that's needed for chatbots to live up to last year's hype. He says the technology is in "a holding pattern until we get mobile payments," but insists he's seen enough "magic" to know it's only a matter of time until bots become the next big commerce platform. Livingston's comments make a lot of sense, too. Not having payment on an eCommerce platform is a bit of a problem, for obvious reasons, but is this really all that's standing in the way of chatbots changing the way people shop online? All you have to do is look at China, where WeChat accounts for 35% of all time spent on mobile, to see what bots can do for commerce.