Rise of the chatbot

The rise of the chatbot and the fall of the app-based economy have recently taken centre stage, thanks in large part to Mark Zuckerberg's announcement that Facebook was opening up Messenger to third-party bots. The potential for brands to interact with users at the same level they do with their peers is immense. As Kik's Ivar Chan says, "In a world where messenger apps have surpassed social networks, companies need to expand their digital presence to these greenfield pastures." OK, he's a partner at a leading chatbot specialist, so he does have a dog in the fight… but he's also right. This isn't about bots and artificial intelligence, this is about ubiquity of messaging as platform.