What is so appealing about a chat bot? And why do most tasks are easier to do by texting someone rather than via a GUI?
Here is why it make so much sense:
- Humans naturally like to be served. The idea of being in a position of power where there’s someone willing to fulfil our needs, thereby put our interests ahead of theirs, usually appeal to our emotions. So what if it’s a robot? From the butlers and waiters found in the writings of Dickens to modern hotel room service — people just like to be served.
- When compared to visual medium, the linguistic ‘protocol’ or ‘convention’ can potentially enable more effective communication between humans and machines. This is due to the fact that a proper verbal phrase, despite possible conflicts in connotation between different languages, falls within a very narrow semantic spectrum. Compare this to visual representations, which can be widely interpreted based on the experience and the background of the user. This results in fast and concise communication.
- For the purpose of business, when communicating with a bot, the DMU (Decision Making Unit) of a customer is much smaller as all communications are limited to one empiric (compared to a standard GUI) channel, which does not have any redundant stimulations and distractions. In other processes where the decision is not necessarily about acquiring a product but in other aspects of one’s life, such as when you are scheduling a meeting or making investment decisions. In these cases, the extra mental resources freed up by a lack of an interface can actually help us make better decisions.
- Various technical resources suggest that a surplus of GUI elements can actually reduce conversions by over-occupying the consciousness of the user with redundant data, thus hurting their attention spread. This is especially true for people who suffer from ADD/ADHD, Dysgraphia/Dyslexia or any other learning disability. Thus, widespread adoption of the chatbot interface can make the diverse world of technology more accessible to the masses.
As for machine to machine communication, we can already see that in various micro-components implementations, autonomic vehicles and prototypes of smart cities. With the advancement of technologies such as NLP (Natural Language Processing), Deep learning and the synthesis between them, the day when booking a flight ticket will be handled by our personal bot, which in turn will negotiate the deal with the airline bot, is just around the corner.
Leaving what’s most important to us: To Be Human — whatever the hell it means.
This is where I’d like to hear your feedback, since the entire point of me writing this brief and humble essay is to start an interesting discussion with the community 🙂
