John Koetsier
Bots For Sale: Bot Platform Motion.ai Releases Bot Store
Bot-making platform Motion.ai has just released a “bot store,” where companies, groups, and individuals who want to release a bot can get, customize, and deploy a bot in minutes.
Restaurant Bot, for example, will let you view a menu, see hours, book a reservation, or get in touch with a restaurant, all from Facebook Messenger, web chat, good old fashioned SMS, or even email.
The bot understands simple questions like “What’s on the menu” and “When are you open,” and responds with the answer:
Restaurant Bot demo by Motion.ai
Bots have become popular in the past year as app-based messaging tools have exploded in popularity. I built one myself about a year ago. Facebook Messenger, Kik, WhatsApp, LINE, and other messaging tools have grown alongside more traditional social media tools, with several reaching over a billion users each.
Platform owners such as WeChat in China and Facebook in the rest of the world see messaging as a key way to connect businesses and customers … and potentially make some money off the handshake.
Multiple bot-making platforms have sprung up, including Gushup, API.ai, Reply.ai, and Meya.ai. (Are you sensing a pattern in the naming of these companies?) Bot builders attempt to make high-end artificial intelligence features such as natural language processing, sentiment analysis, and cognitive understanding of customer conversations easily accessible. Some, however, are nothing more than a simple list of if/then statements.
Motion.ai is the first to create an app store-like experience to shop, select, and implement bots, however.
John Koetsier
Pre-built bots in the new Bot Store
Read more at Forbes