The Times Group

The segment got a shot in the arm when Facebook Messenger opened up to bots in April. WhatsApp has also announced plans to open up for businesses. "Messenger has 1 billion users. The benefit of integrating a bot on Messenger is that it is a hassle free experience, requiring no registration," said Nitin Babel, co-founder of Niki.ai, a startup in the chatbot space. Arihant Jain of Joe Hukum, a bot building startup, adds that with large companies opening to bots, a community of sorts is beginning to develop.