The Bots Have Eyes: Why the Evolution of Visual Chatbots Has Entrepreneurs Excited

The world may be enamored with bots at the moment, but they've actually been around for quite some time. The first bots were used in the finance industry more than a decade ago, automatically buying and selling equities based on key market indicators. It was a novel concept at the time, but the technology is now ubiquitous in the industry, with the financial robo-advice market projected to grow to $7 trillion by 2025, according to CNBC. Today's bots have evolved to become much more capable than their ancestors. Conversational AI platforms, known as chatbots, automate and scale one-on-one conversations -- with massive use cases that extend well beyond the finance industry, into the sales, marketing and customer support domains. What's more, they're continuing to evolve from their predecessors; just a few years ago, the notion that a bot could answer a text message or suggest a product for purchase was revolutionary.