BOTONAUTS

While many of us have been creating conversational bots for years, it's now clear that conversational-bots have arrived in 2016.

The market went from almost nobody talking about it to bot platforms coming out of the woodwork. TIME is calling today's 'bot-craze' "the next platform for applications and services”.

Brands all over the world have been leveraging bots - Expedia, Stella Artois, Nike, Bosch, Square, HomeAdvisor, Dos Equis, American Red Cross - to name a few. Washington DC even made a bot for 311 (see this 60 second video about DCBOT).

Who’d have thought that bots could reduce 40% of a major brand’s customer support costs, increase revenue by 30% or boost NPS scores from 36/100 to 70/100? The hard part is no longer making bots, but instead making sure bots offer the right experience, but that's why we're glad that the current 'bot-craze' has incited experience designers, UX people and product managers to get there hands dirty - especially since you can create bots without knowing how to code:)

With new bots being brought to life daily by startups and huge household brands alike, you can now use a bot to order a sandwich, make a payment or donation, read the news, remind you of an appointment or even make an appointment. The list goes on and on. But what we like most of all is that bots of all types are getting easier and easier to make.

Let's all work together to extend the reach, capabilities and experience that bots offer. 

Just as astronauts push the boundaries of understanding our universe, lets work together to expand the knowledge and possibilities for what humans and bots accomplish together.