The next wave of smart apps is upon us

Erica may not go down in banking history as path breaking despite some astonishing capabilities. Unveiled in October 2016, Erica is Bank of America's financial assistant--a chatbot that keeps track of your spending habits and credit scores, suggests neat ways to reduce debt and improve savings, and even directs you to watch educational videos. Soon, Erica will team up with Zelle--a peer-to-peer mobile money transfer service. Along with Zelle, Erica will be able to pay parking tickets, utility bills, send a cash gift to the significant other, pay tuition fees or buy a cup of coffee--using natural language interaction. Like Erica, there are scores of intelligent and autonomous applications turning up everywhere; and that's why, despite being among the'pioneers', Erica may not stand out in the long run.