Last month, Facebook made an announcement that would allow businesses to automate its customer service through Facebook Messenger. Before long, the twitterverse was abuzz about bots (cue the hashtag #botmania). And it’s no surprise that the conversation has kept its momentum, and likely will, until we see the true effects this technology has on B2C communications.

It raises a number of very important questions like: Will automated customer support eventually replace the 1-800 number? What will happen to the live agent? How will chat providers be affected? These questions had us itching for some answers, so we invited a panel of chat experts to tackle them and more in a one-hour Google Hangout. Continue reading →