Why Conversational UI Can't Win

A few years ago, Facebook basically forced most of its users to adopt the Messenger application (although, not for people who use the Facebook paper app,). After announcing its intention to build Chatbots into the message platform, Zuckerburg and company seem to be making good on the promise that Messenger would provide a new platform that users will find useful. Much of Facebook's F8 and Google's I/O conference focused on how AI happening inside of a conversation might reshape how we interact with our devices. This trend has been called conversational UI, cognitive learning, and smart chatbots. I prefer the term coined on Relay.FM's Presentable podcast, the V.U.I. or voice user interface.