Bots- the first step of AI

Bots quickly gain ground in the web and app world. Recently, the social media giant Facebook has also jumped on the bot development bandwagon. There is no exaggeration in saying that bots will be an integral part of apps interface and revolutionize the way of using both web and mobile apps in the future.

At this point, it is interesting to link bots with Artificial Intelligence (AI), as bot development is the first step toward this groundbreaking technology.

We can imagine new apps economy as a combination of bots, automation, and cross-platform frameworks. In a way, machine learning and connectivity concepts are going to take center stage.

Bots and tech giants

Recently, Microsoft has announced a Bot Framework at its Build 2016 conference that enables any developers to create innovative bots using the Azure framework. These bots can be readily deployed to various communication apps like Skype and Slack.

Similarly, Facebook has also revealed its plan to launch bot building machine and bot analysis tool through Facebook Messenger. This Menlo Park-based giant believes that news, eCommerce, and other information will be delivered and accessed through bots in a conversation interface.

Although bot frameworks given by these two tech giants are way simple, they possess immense possibilities for the future. They do not create any new development system, but they are going to improve the user experience through the innovative and interactive interface.

Magic of AI lies in bots

The magic lies in the bots is the implementation of AI on a large scale. Bots are nothing but the tiny robots that work as per the intelligence programmed for them. Today, machine learning, neural networks, and computer vision are the technologies researched and adapted by a few companies including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and IBM. Building artificially intelligent systems is still a distant dream for average software developers.

As customized bot development evolves, all the capabilities of AI will be accessible to the masses. In a way, a custom bot is a medium to bring AI. Today, core aspects of AI are developed, and the big companies start opening the systems for developers. TensorFlow (Google), Wit.ai (Facebook), Azure (Microsoft), etc. are some of the noteworthy AI systems that the developers can use for developing AI-based apps.

No replacement of apps

Bots are getting mainstreamed in the world where cloud computing and connectivity have become robust. Though bots are seen aplenty on both web and mobile platforms, we cannot consider them as a future replacement for apps. They are just the evolution of the apps for smartphones and IoT devices. They are more powerful and efficient dimension of the app ecosystem.