Owais Afaq is simplifying technology as the CEO of Aplos Innovations. From the famous advent of Microsoft Tay at the end of Q1 to the numerous acquisitions of AI and chatbot companies during the latter half of this year, artificial intelligence has been in the headlines every other day. In August there was an article on TechCrunch asking a very (seemingly) simple question: Can chatbots help build your next website? Being a web programmer who is working on AI and conversational interfaces, this stirred my interest even more and compelled me to check out the services listed therein -- and a few others of the same category. My excitement wore off when I found out these AI chatbots were not only at their teething stage, but also made simple tasks much more complex than the DIY builders they are supposed to kill.

Marie and I left mobile apps to new adventures with Opla's startup a few months ago. Apps changed the way we communicate and interact with our smartphones. I started programming apps 16 years ago, the market of apps is now mature. But another phenomenon has arise, which will change our daily life more deeply: Chatbots. They are not so tech-savvy and new. Now machines are so powerful that they could easily mimic human conversation using massive statistical algorithms.