Intelligent chat is the most promising channel for customer service

São Paulo-seen as the future of interaction with the consumer, the software of automatic responses are falling once in taste of Brazilian companies. Popularly known as chatbot-a Union of chat and robot-terms, the tool promises to steal land from '' traditional '' applications, bolstered by the advancement of artificial intelligence and the increasing use of social networking for business purposes.
"Currently we estimate that there are more than 30000 bots active on Messenger in the world," said the Facebook to the DCI, through your press office. "Our platform was launched in April last year, and the adoption has been pretty impressive: we have developers around the world thinking about how to leverage our bots open engine to create your projects, and Brazil is among the major countries," continued the spokesperson.
Among the possibilities listed by the company are requests for food, some banking, buying movie tickets, public services and sharing news-they all performed within the messaging application. Listed by IDC Brazil as one of the main trends of the year, the chatbots should "make the services today disorganized and often chaotic, efficient services, supported by cognitive technology", in the words of the Manager of research, Software, and specialized consulting services, Luciano Branches. In an interview with the DCI, the analyst admitted that much of the ongoing initiatives are experimental, but predicted a scenario of adoption.
"One of the leading cases is retail," he says, "I had channels open on Twitter and other social networks. They are being leveraged with the use of the chatbots. The industry already is another financial presents a interesting ", he concludes. According to Facebook, "one of the most disruptive examples is the application of the Original Bank, allowing account holders to access banking information, how to extract and balance, and perform actions such as transfers by the Messenger".
Future
"In Brazil is still marginal investment, then in 2017/2018 must have significant percentage growths," punctuates the IDC analyst Brazil. The vertical cognitive intelligence-in which the chatbots if included should receive five times more investment in three years than the current amount, according to data from expert advice.
Because of this, temporary character of the initiatives should turn into something permanent. "Considering the public''s bias that utilizes digital channels-the 20 or 30 years, economically active, etc., this type of communication must have a significant appeal," says Ramos.
"If the user is on WhatsApp or on Messenger because he would need access to a call center?" asks the CEO of Mobile Content of Movile, developer Paul Curio. Although note that the use of the chatbots is not exactly a novelty-China Tencent, for example, already worth of technology for a long time-the Executive believes that the thread runs through an important transition phase in Brazilian soil. "The first wave of bots made much ado about nothing. Now developers need to create things that are relevant to the consumer, "says Curio. "The appeal of a bot just to talk it''s not funny," agrees the Hive Marketing Technology Developer''s CEO, Mitikazu.
The subject is on the radar of Movile since the end of 2015, when the company was invited by Facebook for the development of a series of pilots involving the bots. At that time classified, the partnership preceded the opening of the protocols (or APIs) social network last April. The first results were presented at the annual meeting of the F8 Facebook developers-and resulted in the creation of ChatClub, a kind of hub for bots that make the delivery of content, such as news and offers within the messaging app from Mark Zuckerberg. The mixed martial arts UFC franchise and the singer sertanejo Luan Santana are examples of partners who already use the tool.
In parallel, the Movile also supported the creation of a bot to SuperPlayer online radio. "We are testing not-so-obvious applications," says Curio. The tests must indicate the path to follow when your main suit Movile product-delivery application iFood-new wave, allowing orders to be made without need of application. Curio, however, does not believe that the possibility to go represent the order of apps as we know it. "Not all of them will be replaced by bots, but only those that make sense to have something simpler. There is a barrier that is download the app: If you want to interact with various brands, I need an app. Accessing the bots via Messenger you download one and can communicate with all. On the other hand, there will be bots that replace the use experience as games. So, we will see a lot of conviviality between the two parties ".
Coexistence?
In the Hive, Lisbon has a slightly different view on the subject. "The bot comes in a saturated market, which is bound to go wrong. 65.5% of people today who have smartphones not downloaded applications in the last month and the average monthly retention rate [the portion of consumers accessing the app in the month following the installation] is 3%. There are studies which guarantee that applications only last until 2020 ", bet the Executive. Motivated by the changing scenario, the company has also developed a unique core-the MarTech-for involving bots. The area has three platforms in operation, won 1.5 million in 2016 and R$ designs R$ 4 million for this year.
Another initiative involving the Hive bots is Gigio, who also serves as a hub for restaurants interested in the service. "We launched earlier this year and we''re already with 20 establishments," he says. "We also have a contract with the Allele for use as delivery platform Gigio with integrated payments. Is a product which costs around 500 R$ per month and comes ready ", explains the Executive, which must receive your first player great-power chain with establishments-100 soon. Another project developed by the company was a bot for the children''s newspaper Joca (see table). "The bots are here to stay", Lisbon.
New barriers
If the opening of the Facebook APIs can be considered a watershed for the popularization of chatbots, now the market hopes that the same occurs with WhatsApp. "Already we see a number of companies using the service tool," says Ramos, of IDC Brazil. "Is a practice that lack be made official; for now it''s all manual, "agrees Curio, Movile. Lisbon already, the Hive, believes that Facebook is prioritizing the Messenger rather than the app-which is very popular in Brazil, but not so much in other locations. Twitter, for your time, accept bots from special operating agreements, according to the CEO of the Hive.
The restrictions, however, has not prevented new projects arise every day. The Poupatempo, for example, launched this week a bot-baptized PoupinhaSP-which allows for the provision of services via messages on Facebook.