How To Avoid A #ChatbotFail

While brands have scrambled to launch Facebook Messenger chatbots since the social media behemoth opened up the channel for development last year, the early results haven't been particularly promising. Facebook is seeing a 70% failure rate among those 35,000 or so bots when it comes to understanding user requests. To combat this poor performance, Facebook is making some changes to Messenger, including adding a persistent menu that will allow users to choose from a number of requests or statements instead of using natural language and risking stumping the bot entirely. There's no question that AI will play a huge role in the future of retail, but in these early days of chatbots and virtual assistants, how do you reap the benefits while avoiding the pitfalls of this emerging technology? We caught up with Linc engineer Alessandro Sanchez to talk about the potential weaknesses in current chatbots and how smart brands are creating a chatbot experience that beats the odds and delivers great service.