What 10 Billion Messages can Teach us About Making Chatbots

Meetings with 5 Botfathers

Meet the Botfathers

I recently met with Dmitry Dumik CEO of Chatfuel, İlker Köksal CEO Botanalytics, Arte Merritt founder Dashbot , Alexander Gamanyuk founder at Chatbottle and Peter Buchroithner founder at Swelly.

Each of these companies has a top down view of the Chatbot ecosystem and collectively their platforms process more than 25 Million messages per day. Combined, they have analyzed over 10 Billion messages.

Here are some random thoughts, key insights, and a few tips you should consider when building your next bot.

5 Things your Bot Should Be Able to Do with Arte Merritt

Hi what’s your Name?

Your bot should be able to handle small talk. Most users start a conversation with ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ and some with the thumbs up emoji. This is a great way to create a good first impression and connect with your user.

Is it a Love Hate Relationship?

‘Hi’ was the most popular thing people say to bots which is not surprising, however what is surprising is the number of people that use strong emotional language with bots. About 10% of bots receive an ‘I love you’ or ‘I hate you’ type of message. Other popular emotional messages included, ‘thank you’, ‘thanks’, ‘you suck’, and ‘f*ck you’.

When sentiment was broken down into Love/Hate categories, about 30% of Bots received a ‘love’ message and about 15% received a ‘hate’ message. Even in Bots Love Trumps Hate :)

Multimedia Messages & Emojis

Your bot should be able to handle multimedia messages, emojis, videos, pics, location, and more. According to Dashbot, here are the top Facebook Stickers sent over the past three months:

12% Want to hear a Joke

It pays to make people laugh… Just like in real life..wait this is real life :) Your bot should be able to tell a joke or 2. About 12% of users asked bots to tell them a joke and here is how they did it:

Does your Bot have a personality?

Your bot should evoke a strong emotional response. Here is a look at the emotions that garner the highest number of views and shares across social media:

The best way to evoke emotions is through personality. Start looking at your Bot as if it were a character and consider what emotions you want that character to embody. In the end, what you are really selling is an emotion!

To Learn More About using Creating Personalities, Using Emotions & Psychological Hooks in your Bots check out: