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IIRC chatbots were an idea transplanted from success in China (WeChat), where users seem to like them. But of course users aren't fungible.

donw 10y ago
This has been my experience as well. Chatbots in China over WeChat act as a lightweight Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, which is highly successful due to a set of market factors which are (at least from my perspective) unique to China. But, as I've been saying for about a year now, chatbots, in their current incarnation, don't make a lot of sense outside that niche. Looking at it from either the American or Japanese perspective, there are a set of expected standards for customer support, which are either already met via web-based mostly-automated systems (Amazon is really good here), or by being able to directly chat with a human being (perhaps supplemented by AI) to solve a very specific and usually uncommon need. Replacing that setup with nothing but a text-based IVR system is a non-starter for any company that wants to remain in business.
- omarchowdhury 10y ago
  What are those Chinese market factors?
  - puranjay 10y ago
    I reckon easier typing would be one of them. From what I've read, predictive text is much better in Chinese, as is voice recognition
  - BukhariH 10y ago
    Another factor in China is that people all ready use WeChat to make payments to each other (http://uk.businessinsider.com/wechats-p2p-usage-is-massive-2016-12 http://uk.businessinsider.com/wechats-p2p-usage-is-massive-2...). Hence, it was a natural progression to allow payments to businesses which is where chatbots came in.
- RugnirViking 10y ago
  > solve a very specific and usually uncommon need. Perhaps i'm a strange case, but the only times I or anyone I know have ever had to use support are for these cases. If an issue is common, its not an issue for support, its a failure of ux or design

donw 10y ago

This has been my experience as well. Chatbots in China over WeChat act as a lightweight Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, which is highly successful due to a set of market factors which are (at least from my perspective) unique to China. But, as I've been saying for about a year now, chatbots, in their current incarnation, don't make a lot of sense outside that niche. Looking at it from either the American or Japanese perspective, there are a set of expected standards for customer support, which are either already met via web-based mostly-automated systems (Amazon is really good here), or by being able to directly chat with a human being (perhaps supplemented by AI) to solve a very specific and usually uncommon need. Replacing that setup with nothing but a text-based IVR system is a non-starter for any company that wants to remain in business.

omarchowdhury 10y ago
What are those Chinese market factors?
- puranjay 10y ago
  I reckon easier typing would be one of them. From what I've read, predictive text is much better in Chinese, as is voice recognition
- BukhariH 10y ago
  Another factor in China is that people all ready use WeChat to make payments to each other (http://uk.businessinsider.com/wechats-p2p-usage-is-massive-2016-12 http://uk.businessinsider.com/wechats-p2p-usage-is-massive-2...). Hence, it was a natural progression to allow payments to businesses which is where chatbots came in.
RugnirViking 10y ago
> solve a very specific and usually uncommon need. Perhaps i'm a strange case, but the only times I or anyone I know have ever had to use support are for these cases. If an issue is common, its not an issue for support, its a failure of ux or design