Aside from being more engaging conversationalists, these talking bots will also be able to use video, audio and GIFs in Skype chat windows.

While Microsoft's push to make scripted interactions less painful is certainly admirable, and makes sense given the trend towards more natural voice controls, these Skype chatbots will have something to prove. In an age where all we want is to achieve our daily tasks as quickly as possible, the last thing we want to do is actually talk to anyone -- and for many, that still includes relatively helpful robots.