The complete beginner’s guide to chatbots

What are chatbots? Why are they such a big opportunity? How do they work? How can I build one? How can I meet other people interested in chatbots?

These are the questions we’re going to answer for you right now.

Ready? Let’s do this.

“~90% of our time on mobile is spent on email and messaging platforms. I would love to back teams that build stuff for places where the consumers hang out!” — Niko Bonatsos, Managing Director at General Catalyst

What is a chatbot?

A chatbot is a service, powered by artificial intelligence, that you interact with via a chat interface. The service could be any number of things, ranging from functional to fun, and it could live in any major chat product (Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram, Text Messages, etc.).

“Many businesses already have phone trees and they do work, though most users get grumpy using them. Text based response trees are much easier and faster and that is what I expect a lot of early bot interactions to be. Sometimes with ability to chat with a live person.” — Josh Elman, Partner at Greylock

If you haven’t wrapped your head around it yet, don’t worry. Here’s an example to help you visualize a chatbot.

For example, if you wanted to buy shoes from Nordstrom online, you would go to their website, look around until you find the shoes you wanted, and then you would purchase them.

If Nordstrom makes a bot, which I’m sure they will, you would simply be able to message Nordstrom on Facebook. It would ask you what you’re looking for and you would simply… tell it.

Instead of browsing a website, you will have a conversation with the Nordstrom bot, mirroring the type of experience you would get when you go into the retail store.

Why chatbots are such a big opportunity

How chatbots work

How to build chatbots

Here are a ton of resources to get you started.

How to meet people interested in chatbots

That’s all for now!