Chatbots 🤖

This month has been dominated, for the most part, by chatbots. Everyone seems to want one, and brands are no exception. At TMW, we have been investigating the various different types of bots and platforms, and have been creating some prototypes for our clients.

In our research, we have come across many different examples. Some were good, some were n0t-so-good, but all had something to offer. Below are some examples that caught my eye:

Channel 4’s TV programme, Humans created an excellent bot recently to publicise their second season. It puts you into the heart of the story with one. Try it out here.

Poncho weather 🌦 has native smartphone apps, but it also has a brilliant Facebook Messenger bot. The copywriting is excellent and really enhances the experience for would normally be a simple utility.

HealthTap 🚑 is a Facebook Messenger bot that provides fast access to health care

If you need help getting a Visa for the 🇺🇸 United States, Visabot will be able to help you. It is the first immigration robot powered by artificial intelligence.

Create your own bot

There are many bot development platforms, we have evaluated some and these are our recommendations:

Chatfuel.com — Create a bot without any code

Chatfuel provides basic AI and hooks to many 3rd party services so you can actually create a fairly robust Facebook Messenger or Telegram bot with relative ease. It is excellent for simple bots or prototyping but I think that for complex bots where context is needed, other solutions like wit.ai or Gupshup may be better.

API.ai — Conversational User Experience Platform

If you need a little more power, customisation and natural language from your bot, API.ai is the one to go for. It provides both voice and text API’s and has including a huge library of topics to allow your bot to be taught and respond naturally in most situations.

Special mention goes to wit.ai, Gupshup and init.ai for more developer-focused bot creation.