Microsoft has been testing developer equipment that will enable chatbots to become part of Bing’s search results.
More information is expected to be released during the May 10th-12th developer meeting in Seattle. Although not all details have been fully disclosed, the conference is hosting a slot about Bing Chatbots. Its description shares that attendees will learn how chatbots will make Bing better and includes an explanation on adding custom bots to the search engine platform.
Bing is currently already testing several bots, one of which is the InfoBot, which works with Wikipedia to give conversation-style responses to a user’s question. After clicking on a button paired with the searched-for piece of information, this bot appears in the form of a message box powered by Skype at the bottom of the screen. A user can then interact with the bot to ask more questions with the bot providing more information in return.
The introduction of bots answers the problem of users having to perform their own analysis on the search engines, which seeks to provide the exact information they truly are seeking. While Google does its job of serving up thousands of potential sources, the tiresome task of combing through SERPs falls to the user. The bot serves to make this task easier. Having a bot for your own company or brand could lead to more engagement and fewer resources spent on human customer support.
Bots have been progressing rapidly. Back in November 2016 Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, emphasized the future of bots by explaining that technology with a comprehension of natural language will be built into developer framework of the bot creation process. This new framework called Azure already has supporters as they have partnered with OpenAI, a research organization focused on artificial intelligence that was co-created by Elon Musk and Sam Altman of Y Combinator.
The future of widespread bot usage is near with these recent developments. For more information on how this might affect your business, reach out to Hall Analysis today!
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