Most general users know 'Skype' as an easy(ish) way to do video calls over the Internet, typically to grandparents or parents on the other side of the world, but Skype has always had a heavy IM (Instant Messaging) component, as evidenced by us at the All About sites using it as your office back channel for a decade.
And the new(ish) Skype Preview UWP application (see here for why the 'preview' tag is still in place, and note that equivalent Skype applications/versions are available for all other platforms now) puts these IM 'conversations' front and centre, with the magic ingredient of AI (Artificial Intelligence) 'bots' mixed into your interactions with real people. The initial bots were all somewhat gimmicky and 'chat'-oriented, but there are some genuinely useful ones in the mix now too, I thought I'd highlight a few. Not least because Skype just announced a few more high profile bots that are coming soon.
Firstly Expedia:
One of those new partners is Expedia.com, coming soon to all Skype platforms. With the Expedia bot, you can easily search for hotels, quickly book, manage reservations, and confirm or cancel hotels and flights. And should you ever have a question the bot can’t answer, Expedia is proud to be one of the first bots that allows calling directly to Expedia, free of charge.
Now that's a nice extra - free calls into Expedia to talk to a human over your Internet connection, from within the Skype interface.
Then there's LearningOnline, also coming soon:
More than creating efficiencies or entertaining experiences, bots are also pushing the boundaries of education for our customers. Skype, in partnership with Eton Institute and partner company Learningonline.xyz, is developing a bot that can teach users a new language. Coming soon, this new tool is just a fraction of what will be possible with this emerging technology.
There are a number of recent additions to Skype's 'bot' line-up that you can try out. UPS, the high profile courier service, is now in the Skype Preview bot directory, though it's a little limited and useless at the moment - at least the developers have the grace to put 'beta' in its title!
No doubt the UPS bot will get better and more useful in time.
Genuinely useful right now is another newbie, Hipmunk, guiding you through the maze of travel arrangements:
This works pretty well and is recommended. Certainly try out a few queries and get a feel for what the Hipmunk bot can do. Or just ask it for a cheap weekend away...
Then there's StubHub, the ticket specialist, giving a conversational window to finding the tickets and shows you need (in my experience, the only way to get great tickets and great prices is to be a fan of the bands concerned and get in immediately when pre-sales go up, but whatever....) Here's the StubHub Skype bot in action:
You really can chat about the bands you want to see and where and the bot will lead you to the right place within its own sales network.
In each case, is chatting to the Skype bot easier than using the appropriate web site? Well, not really, the information's much more sparse. But then if info-heavy, bandwidth-intensive web sites (especially for travel) confuse the heck out of you then why not go down this low-noise conversational approach? It works particularly well when you're mobile and limited to a phone-sized screen and possibly patchy connectivity.
In fact, Microsoft's Skype teams are going further, adding to their announcements:
And this is only the beginning. This paradigm shift will come in waves, and soon our partners will be able to create talking bots with the general availability of the Skype calling API. That means users will be able to interact with bots that can actually speak to you, creating even more possibilities. And what’s more? Bots will be able to send rich media cards, adding the capability to bring video, audio, and GIFs into chat conversations. Combined, these new features will drive richer and more engaging experiences for our users, making 2017—and the years ahead—incredibly exciting.
In early 2016, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella explained that pairing “the power of natural human language with advanced machine intelligence” will enable organizations and consumers to get more done and have more fun. In 2017, that vision—a vision that has taken shape over the better part of two decades—will continue to flourish under Skype.
We're all used to phoning up a company or service and having to fight our way through seven levels of 'press 1 for..., press 2 for...' just to get to a human operator, but what if natural language bots like this could respond not only in textual form but also audible form where necessary, all with zero wait times because computers/servers are handling the multiple users online effortlessly? Maybe smartphone-borne bots through messaging platforms like Skype and Google's Allo really could be the best way to interact with services and businesses in the future?
PS. I know that Rafe has a wide knowledge in this area, so we'll definitely pick up all this in the next regular AAWP Insight podcast!