In its most basic form, a chatbot is an artificial intelligence (AI) software that can simulate a conversation with a user in natural language that can be run on various platforms. The little chat window that pops up on the side of the screen and takes your queries can do a lot more now than when it first came out, even making their way into daily use mobile apps like Whatsapp. Advent of NLP, access to high volumes of data and increased smartphone adaptation has led to rapid progression within the chatbot industry now addressing multiple use-cases. We expect them to evolve and help organisations do more in the days to come.

1. Companion for Dementia patients – Russian company, Endurance has developed a companion chatbot that works to assist with immediate conversation recollection and logs it to assess the state of the disease in its development.

2. Company for insomniacs – Insomnobot 3000, a conversational agent aims to give insomniacs the feeling of company through the night aiming to reduce the onset or impact of any mental diseases.

3. A Voice for the Unheard – UNICEF initiated U-Report that focuses on large-scale data gathering via polls and uses this feedback as the basis for potential policy recommendations to help people at large.

4. MedWhat Now?! – A chatbot called MedWhat makes medical diagnoses faster, easier, and more transparent for both patients and physicians. It also provides accurate responses to user questions based on behaviours that it learns from conversations with users and the users’ past medical records. It also draws upon vast volumes of medical research and peer-reviewed scientific papers to expand it’s already considerable wealth of medical expertise, thereby providing a more accurate diagnosis.

5. State of Real Estate – Roof Ai, a chatbot that helps real-estate marketers to automate interaction with potential leads by allowing real-estate agents to respond to user queries immediately, thereby dramatically increasing conversion rates.

6. Lead Generation – As opposed to using non-interactive standalone forms on websites to get customer information, feedback and other opinions, businesses can now deploy a chatbot consisting of pre-set options which adds a personal human like element to the process of acquiring information resulting in increased lead generation and faster accumulation of useful information. Vainu is one such chatbot that has seen more leads acquired from engaging in chats that from a regular website form.

The possibilities for the varied application of AI bots are limited only to the Internet realm and the imagination. Every day more and more web & mobile app innovations stand to amaze and teach us about the workings of the world and human behavior.