It’s already strongly rumored that Facebook is about to unveil a big chatbot push for Messenger at its F8 developer conference this week, and now there’s evidence.
As TechRadar and Engadget have spotted, the latest update to Facebook Messenger includes a new category in its search function.
The category was once called “Businesses,” but now it’s “Bots and Businesses.” There you go.
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The combination makes sense, as chatbots will generally be deployed by businesses that want to give a quasi-human touch to their automated customer services functions.
Companies such as Lyft, Uber and KLM are already working with Facebook to use bots for communicating with customers. Facebook is expected to now release tools so more businesses can do the same.
Microsoft is also bullish on the future of bots, and is releasing similar tools to help developers achieve this dream.
Will it work, or will it be a nightmare? Here’s Coins2Day‘s Andrew Nusca and Robert Hackett debating that very question:
