Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in business are already active in many companies. They are received with mixed feelings of hopes and concerns.
According to Gizmoids, for the first time India's Facebook Messenger chatbot provides online consultation with doctors. All communication is confidential and the bot is available free of cost.
The Health Quiz is now also made available on smartphones. The app allows users to choose from over 100,000 specialized doctors in more than 50 different fields.
Microsoft also intends to introduce bots on Skype. In Microsoft Build Developers Conference, a Skype bot was already tested for ordering pizza from a local Domino's outlet.
Both Facebook and Microsoft are focusing their efforts to develop social bots. They are automated programs aimed to help users with some simple routine tasks.
Facebook bots in the Messenger app are aimed to help users directly order flowers, gifts and more, eliminating the large number of processes in between. While chatbots are not something new, now more and more businesses are showing interest in using them.
According to BDlive, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, announced recently that the social media's Messenger will become a platform used to assist programmers in creating "natural-language services." The new apps will allow artificial intelligence to communicate directly with people.
The new Messenger AI app is designed to help customers communicate with businesses without the need to voice-call them. With 900 million people using Messenger and 1.6 billion people using Facebook, developers can also focus to create chatbots that will personalize tasks and follow up.
However, Mr Zuckerberg's announcement was received by some with criticism and concerns. The main reason is the fear that users can see chatbots in the same intrusive way as spam is seen in an e-mail inbox.
It is expected that not all users would respond positively to dealing with a chatbot for business purposes. A secondary concern is that chatbots may misinterpret communications with customers, leading to reputation damage or incorrect messaging.
