bots
-
SnapTravel raises $8 million for a hotel booking service that works over chat
Chatbots – automated bots that let you interact with a service or brand via messaging apps or SMS – haven’t yet become breakout hits, as a group. But that hasn’t stopped investors from pouring in $8 million into a hotel booking startup called SnapTravel, which lets users find and book rooms via SMS texts and Facebook Messenger. The $8 million Series A round was led… Read More
-
Silent Echo lets you chat with Alexa over Slack
Want to chat with Alexa via Slack? A new bot called Silent Echo now makes that possible. The idea is that there are times when you want to interact with Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa, but you don’t want to do it by voice. For example, if things are too noisy in the room for Alexa to properly hear you, or, alternately, if you need things to be very quiet. The service… Read More
-
Freshdesk owner Freshworks acquires Joe Hukum as it plans a move into chatbots
After raising $55 million last year to build its business beyond its existing help desk services, today Freshworks (the parent company of Freshdesk) has made an acquisition to help it fill out that strategy. The company has acquired Joe Hukum, a startup out of India that offers a platform for businesses to build their own chatbots. I’ve asked, but the companies are not revealing any terms… Read More
-
Crunch Report | The First Production Tesla Model 3 Rolls Off the Line
The first production Tesla Model 3 rolls off the line, mobile operators told to ban VPNs in China, Google backs news bots and Lucid Electric car hits 235 miles per hour. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
-
Crunch Network
How technology-enabled ‘selves-improvement’ will drive the future of personal productivity
Digital assistants and bots undeniably enhance our work lives in myriad ways. They’re terrific; your wish is their command. And they literally acquire more “skills” every day. But are better bots and smarter software servants truly the best way to drive people’s personal productivity? Read More
-
Ticketmaster’s chatbot for Facebook is actually not terrible
A lot of chatbots have launched on Facebook in recent months, but the Ticketmaster bot launching today is among the best that I’ve been forced to work with. Normally I avoid reaching out to businesses through Facebook (it still doesn’t seem like a natural channel to me), but there’s real utility in Ticketmaster’s bot if you’re willing to give up a certain amount… Read More
-
Crunch Network
At AI bot startups, cool kids rule
You would think at least one AI-powered humanoid bot would have a properly nerdy name. Maybe a Poindexter or Hildegarde to add some natural language processing to your customer chat app? No such luck. Instead, it sounds like the cool kids are in charge at most digital assistant and bot startups. Think short, peppy names that top the popular baby name lists. There’s Aiden and Riley putting… Read More
-
Astro lets you manage your inbox from Slack, check email hands-free with Alexa
Astro is today rolling out a new bot that merges Slack and email. The bot will allow you to receive your most critical emails within Slack, write and respond to emails using Slack usernames, as well as share important emails – and their attachments – into Slack private messages or channels, among other things. The bot is an expansion on Astro’s previously launched email… Read More
-
Microsoft Maluuba teaches management 101 to machines in its first paper since being acquired
In mid-January, the ongoing race for AI put Montreal-based Maluuba on our radar. Microsoft acquired the startup and its team of researchers to build better machine intelligence tools for analyzing unstructured text to enable more natural human computer interaction — think bots that can actually respond with reasonable intelligence to a text you send. The team dropped its first paper… Read More
-
Crunch Network
So what exactly is a bot?
As we see the ecosystem continue to develop, bots are increasingly showcasing a wide variety of features, from chat to menus to buttons and visual interfaces. Some bots now almost look like full-fledged apps with a variety of feature-rich options. So it begs the question… what exactly is a “bot”? Read More
-
As Messenger’s bots lose steam, Facebook pushes menus over chat
Facebook’s Messenger bots may not be having the impact the social network desired. Just yesterday, online retailer Everlane, one of the launch partners for the bot platform, announced it was ditching Messenger for customer notifications and returning to email. Following this, Facebook today announced an upgraded Messenger Platform, which introduces a new way for users to interact with… Read More
-
PayPal’s first payments bot is a Slack app
PayPal this morning is launching a new bot aimed at making it easier for Slack users to send money without ever leaving their preferred work chat platform. This is the first time PayPal has launched a bot, the company claims, though it’s not the first time PayPal has integrated with a larger communication service. This past fall, for example, PayPal deepened its relationship with… Read More
-
Domino’s now lets you order from its full menu via Messenger – no setup or account required
Domino’s is about to put its ordering bot, Dom, to a big test. Just ahead of Super Bowl weekend, the pizza chain is rolling out the ability to order off its full menu via Facebook Messenger – even if you haven’t already set up a pre-configured “pizza profile.” The update means it will be easier for more casual Domino’s customers to give the bot a try, as… Read More
-
Crunch Network
On bots, language and making technology disappear
This year’s new buzzword in computer design circles is without question “bots.” As with anything we build, we give bots names. A name can be a way of expressing trust in an object — or expressing control over it. But giving a bot an identity isn’t always for the best. Calling a bot Siri does not necessarily have the same relationship-building effect as calling… Read More
-
RASA NLU gives developers an open source solution for natural language processing
For better or worse, 2016 was another year of bots. I probably got more pitches for bot startups than anything else. And yet, bots are far from hitting their stride. If we hope to break beyond the rigid functionality of today’s tools, a prerequisite is going to be giving bot developers a bit more open source love. RASA NLU, a new open source API from… Read More
-
Crunch Network
Why education should become more like artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is all around us. It’s in our cars, our homes and our pockets. With all this information, this intelligence, at our fingertips and lips, shouldn’t our educational system catch up? Teaching not rote facts and figures, but instead teaching students the paths to find this knowledge on their own. Teaching students — as we do with computers through AI… Read More
-
Crunch Network
Artificial intelligence and the evolution of the fractal economy
Money makes the world go round, or so they say. Payments, investments, insurance and billions of transactions are the beating heart of a fractal economy, which echoes the messy complexity of natural systems, such as the growth of living organisms and the bouncing of atoms. Read More
Message Us