Do You Have a Conversational Interface?

We think the next era will belong to "the conversational layer" -- both text- and voice-driven -- that will use chat, messaging, or natural language interfaces to interact with people, brands, services, and bots. This interaction will occur at the exact time the user demands a product or service, and in the exact terms she thinks of that product or service, in the language and communication methods she typically uses (intent, words, shortcuts, emojis, etc.). In order to reach user conversations today, brands will need to decide which platforms to target and build on. Many of the tools that are provided by the messaging and bot platform providers are from the open-source space, and companies can perform low-cost experiments with a reduced set of users to learn more about conversational interactions and use cases that yield the desired results.