What a huge year it was for bots! A term that was barely on the radar became a sizzling hot trend. Facebook kicked off the mania by opening its Messenger platform and now has 33,000 bots. Competing platforms have high numbers too: 19,000 for Kik and 10,000 for Line. It looks like 2017 will continue the momentum.
But after the hype comes the backlash. Too many expectations were placed on this idea, as I wrote in ChatBot Backlash Boogie Woogie (which includes a list of 4 specific expectations and why they were misguided.)
Now that we’re past the initial crush, it’s time for bots to start the slow climb to a mature technology. One of the clearest sign-posts along that climb is the metrics that are reported.
