Why Capital One's First Messenger Bot Skipped Facebook In Favor Of Texting Fast Company The Future Of Business

"We kind of launched a chatbot and didn't know it," says Ken Dodelin, Capital One's vice president of digital product development. That behavior helps explain why Capital One is feeling confident in the actual chatbot that the bank is launching this week in a pilot test. Dubbed Eno–that's "One" spelled backwards–it's the first text-based chatbot from a U.S. bank. It'll allow users to check their balances and recent payments, look up their checking account's routing number, and transfer money between accounts. For more complex tasks, Eno will direct users to the appropriate section of Capital One's website when possible.