Chatbots: An Evolving Trend in Brand Marketing

Chatbots, software used to simulate text-based business-to-consumer conversations, have grown considerably smarter in recent years with the ongoing advances in artificial intelligence and are fast becoming an effective marketing tool for some of the world's biggest brands. Brands like Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and Bank of America are all making the most out of chatbots and their ability to market their brands, push products to their customers, and to perform menial, time-consuming customer service functions like scheduling an appointment or telling you when a delivery has arrived. The marketing potential afforded by virtual assistants is also being capitalized by smaller digital brands and e-commerce sites with the rise of chatbot builders for messaging apps. The popular freelance website, Fiverr, recently launched a chatbot marketplace where companies can hire developers to build chatbots for their sites – for as little as $5. Early iterations of chat robots were mostly unsuccessful. Bugs and unnatural behavior commonly bogged down the bots.