Various technological elements are inching the Internet of Things along, closer to the realization of true one-to-one engagements.
In addition to the billions of sensors being deployed
in countless locations around the world, behind-the-scenes innovations in various forms of automation are being created.
Speaking at the MediaPost OMMA Bots & Chat at Advertising Week
conference in New York this week, Haydn Sweterlitsch, global chief creative officer of HackerAgency, suggested that artificial intelligence, smart machines, agents, bots and assistants all would play
a role.
“Brands rule” in this environment, Sweterlitsch said, in a world of “real time, hyper-personalized, hyper-relevant and truly one-to-one. Customers will have a total
amount of choice.”
Sweterlitsch described bots as being either rules based or involving machine learning.
Another speaker later in the conference painted a similar picture.
Gabe Weiss, Retail Innovation Lead, SapientNitro, said that chatbots currently fall into two camps:
- Rules based -- Can only respond to specific commands, only as smart as it is
programmed to be
- AI/machine learning– Understands language, not just commands, continuously gets smarter as it learns from conversations
Weiss labeled the first one as
‘dumb’ and the second one ‘young,’ a rather apt description of the state of the current market.
As to the personality of a bot, Sweterlitsch said it is a challenge for
user experience design.
“Designing conversations needs to be less visual,” Sweterlitsch said. “The revolution will happen off-screen,” citing Amazon’s Echo as one
example of user interface without screens.
“Conversation design is the next wave,” he said. “It’s about the execution, not the concept.”
The Internet of
Things is starting to evolve from the concept stage to execution.
Those who execute well will win.