Bots are the New Apps
Whether it’s the mysterious Artificial Intelligence I in “Ex Machina” or the snarky J.A.R.V.I.S. from “Iron Man”, we tend to see A.I. as the technology that enables humans to converse with computers. While this is a narrow view of A.I., it’s undoubtedly one of the coolest aspects. Is this some far-flung sci-fi future? Get your Turing Test questions ready because we are closer than you think.
Several tech companies are working on what is known as Conversation-as-a-Platform or more simply Bots. Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook are each innovating in various aspects of this exciting new world. Amazon is getting bots into your home with Alexa and Facebook lets you converse with Bots thru their popular Messenger service. Satya Nadella recently said, “Bots are the new apps” and since I also work at Microsoft, I thought I’d give you some insight into some of the bot tech that we have been making available to developers.
The Bot Framework – this is a free SDK that allows you to easily create a bot. It supports developers using .NET or Node.js. It lets you build your bot to support a whole host of “channels” including Facebook, Skype, Kik, O365 email, SMS text, Slack, GroupMe, and even in your own apps using Direct Line. It supports simple text conversations as well as richer experiences and auto-adjusts based on each channel’s capabilities. It also helps with the necessary infrastructure like authentication, persistence, and more.
Azure Bots Service – Speaking of infrastructure, bots need a home of their own too. I hosted my first bot in an Azure Web App which works just fine, but I pay for the uptime of my Web App even if it’s not conversing with anyone. In this modern consumption world, we can do better than that. The Azure Bots Service lets me host my bot as an Azure Function so that I only pay for the bot as it’s being used.
QnA Maker – Still not sure what a bot is? Think it’s just sexy sci-fi for “Weird Science” geeks? Check out QnA Maker and train your first AI to answer questions for you and your friends. You can provide links to your favorite FAQs, upload documents, or just type in your own questions and answers. Tired of answering the same questions over and over again from your friends or colleagues? Send them a link to your QnA bot and get on with your life.
Cognitive Services – When you are ready to expand your AI horizons, check out Microsoft Cognitive Services where you’ll see a whole host of APIs that you can use to jumpstart the A.I. in your own app development. Do you want to add an audible voice to your bot to humanize your conversations? Do you want to add “eyes” to your A.I. that can react to the facial expressions of your users? This fast-growing list of innovative APIs is definitely going to amaze you and your users.
If you live near St. Louis and you want to learn more about the exciting potential of Bots for your business, register now for the Silver Linings conference. Specifically, check out sessions from my good friends, Jeff St Germain and Adam Grocholski.