Business Chatbots Taking Over

Stateless Computing

By G C Network | August 15, 2008

A few days ago I read a review of Merrill Lynch’s Jeffrey Birnbaum LinuxWorld keynote on stateless computing. “With stateless computing, users’ settings and data are automatically saved to the…

Cloud Services

By G C Network | August 14, 2008

38% of 456 business technology professionals in a Information Week survey indicated that they currently use or will consider using services from a cloud provider. This seems much betterthan the…

Amazon, Elastra and the New Enterprise Data Center

By G C Network | August 13, 2008

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Microsoft Midori

By G C Network | August 12, 2008

Last week word got out that Microsoft’s new research project codenamed Midori. According to Information Week “the Midori system is being called Microsoft’s first cloud-based OS, and it could one…

Dell Trademarking Cloud Computing

By G C Network | August 11, 2008

There has been quite a bit of chatter lately over Dell’s attempt to patent “cloud computing”. Last week, the US Patent and Trade Office put an end to those aspirations…

Rob Enderle Cautions on Cloud Computing

By G C Network | August 8, 2008

Words of caution from Rob Enderle in “The Real Truth and Technology and IT”: “The key to success in the cloud will be keeping solutions simple, plus understanding and mitigating…

3 Important Point for Federal Government Cloud Computing

By G C Network | August 7, 2008

Point 1: In May, Verizon and AT&T were awarded a DHS task order for just under $1B to provide telecommunications services to the department. Verizon won the lead provider’s spot…

A Cloud Methodology

By G C Network | August 7, 2008

Although this was published in June, I just saw it and felt it was to good not to repeat: A Methodology for Cloud Computing Architecture Peel off the applications individually,…

IBM Invests Nearly $400M on Cloud Computing Centers

By G C Network | August 6, 2008

In a press release last week, IBM says that it will spend $360 million to build its most sophisticated, state-of-the-art data center at its facility in Research Triangle Park (RTP),…

Cloud Computing and the NCOIC

By G C Network | August 5, 2008

According to their website, The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) has scheduled a session on cloud computing at their upcoming plenary session in September. In case you haven’t heard…

Chat apps characteristics make them very appealing to businesses and marketers. Prominent ones include their size, user retention, usage rates, and user demographics. In fact, the combined user base of the top four chat apps is larger than that of the top four social networks. Chat apps also have higher retention and usage rates than most mobile apps. Finally, the majority of their users are young, an extremely important demographic for brands, advertisers and publishers.


These chat app traits have accelerated the blending of artificial intelligence and business service functions to create the modern chatbot. Recent advances in this area include:
  • A chatbot’s ability to conduct engaging human conversations which has allowed businesses to leverage the inexpensive and wide-reaching technology to engage with more consumers; 
  • The greater suitability of chatbots with mobile devices;
  •  The robust and rapid evolution of the chatbot ecosystem which include third-party chat bots, native bots, distribution channels, and a new marketplace for its enabling technology; and
  •  A promising chatbot business model for messaging apps and the developers who build bots for these platforms. 


A surprising example of this embryonic business model is my own 21 year-old daughter! Known as Ljskater_X_Void on Twitch, she uses an entire team of chatbots to manage her online audience: 

  • A customized Ankhbot (referred to as LjskaterxVoidBot) to interact with Twitch stream using a coin system to manage audience 
  • Discord Chatbot for managing streaming audience requests through ankhbot commands
  • Discord Music bot that lets audience request song from You Tube to be played during the stream
  • Quorra bot used to collect requests from stream audience
  • Ankhbot Social media timers to solicit interaction from audience through Twitter
  • Floof bot used to gather detailed information on individuals
  • Master Overwatch bot for collecting and displaying game 
  • Mee6 bot used to cross promote and advertise streaming partnersstatistics
  • NadekoBot used to create master bot (On Discord referred to as Skaterbot) to manage all the other bots
  • Muxybot connects through Discord to announce streaming events and stats



For technology support in the enterprise business space, a Watson-enabled Slack chatbotis being used to help enterprise teams identify and fix IT and network operational incidents. This bot blends messaging, cloud computing, IT support and network operations in order to improve customer service. To accelerate its own chatbot business, IBM has released a Watson Botkit middleware plugin that allows the Watson Conversation service to talk to Slack and other messaging channels.

Information technology is not the only industry vertical deploying chatbots:
  • News Industry uses chatbots to deliver breaking news directly as a private message in the user’s messenger. This information is displayed at login. 
  • A 3D printing industry chatbot that receives a 3D file and then instantly searches for 3D printing services providing you with price quotes and material options.
  •  With a chatbot implemented, entertainment industry customers can find movie and event details about movies and events, finding available timings, booking a reservation, and initiating cancellation much easier and faster without human assistance. It has also increased the business of online movie ticket and event ticket booking.
  • Health bots can answer more than 100 health questions, provides recommendations based on the query and even help to find a nearby doctor.
  • E-commerce companies use bots to provide product suggestions, price alerts, gift assistance and more
  • Customer service bots are replacing human assistance with the automated message service.
  • In the travel industry a bot can reduce the work load by sending ticket confirmation details, check in notifications, and other such important information automatically to the customer.


If chatbots are now in your business future, you should try Cognitive Concierge a part of IBM’s chatbot ecosystem that makes recommendations to the user based on a conversation with the application’s chatbot.


This post was brought to you by IBM Global Technology Services. For more content like this, visit ITBizAdvisor.com

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