APAC Thinks Good Things About Artificial Intelligence

Conversational commerce–the intersection of messaging apps with brands and services–became the "dominant trend" of consumer computing in 2016, according to product and UX developer Chris Messina, formerly of Google and Uber, who coined the term. Chatbots have provided the foundation for this rapidly emerging sector, providing consumers with an open, on-demand dialogue with brands. However, chatbots are an "incremental innovation," according to Kiyoto Tamura, vice president of marketing for data management firm Treasure Data, whose clients make 7 million data queries a month. "They implement a much better UX for APIs but can't replace humans for now," Tamura said. "All the customer support use cases I see should have been automated years ago. For example, you shouldn't need to go through five questions before you can check your bank balance. There are many customer-support scenarios that require human ingenuity and empathy, like bad product or service experience or creative problem-solving."