Chatbots are services powered by rules and sometimes artificial intelligence that users interact with via chat interfaces. They are a big opportunity because people are using messaging apps more than social networks, so building services within messaging platforms positions them where users spend their time. Chatbots work either by following a set of predefined rules or using machine learning to be more flexible. While they seem simple, building good chatbot experiences requires overcoming challenges like analytics, optimization, and platform changes. Common steps to create a chatbot include determining its purpose, choosing a platform like Facebook Messenger or Slack, and selecting a development service to build it.

1. Chatbots

2. Do you know ?
What are chatbots?
Why are they such a big opportunity?
How do they work?
How can I build one?

3. “~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

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

5. But why make a bot?
Sure, it looks cool, it’s using
some super advanced
technology
But why should someone
spend their time and energy
on it?
It’s a huge opportunity!

6. Why Chatbots Are Such A Big Opportunity
You are probably thinking
“Why does anyone care
about chatbots? They look
like simple text based
services…”
Great question…

7. People are using messenger apps more than they
are using social networks.

8. “People are now spending more time in messaging apps
than in social media and that is a huge turning point.
Messaging apps are the platforms of the future and bots will
be how their users access all sorts of services.”
—Peter Rojas, Entrepreneur in Residence at Betaworks

9. Logically, if you want to build a business
online, you want to build where the people
are. That place is now inside messenger apps.
This is why chatbots are such a big deal.

10. Live Examples
CNN PONCHO
Manchester City
with bots, the possibilities are endless. You can build anything imaginable,
and I will be happy to see.

11. But, how do
these bots work?
How do they know
how to talk to
people and answer
questions?
Isn’t that artificial
intelligence to do?
Yes, you are correct, it
is artificial intelligence,
but it’s something that
you can totally do
yourself.

12. How Chatbots Work
Two types of chat bots
One functions based on a set of rules
This bot is very very limited.
It can only respond to very specific commands.
If you say the wrong thing, it doesn’t know what you mean.
This bot is only as smart as it is programmed to be.
the other more advanced version uses machine learning.
This bot has an artificial brain.
You don’t have to be specific when you are talking to it.

13. ● Beware though, bots have the illusion of simplicity on the front end but
there are many hurdles to overcome to create a great experience.
● So much work to be done. Analytics, flow optimization, keeping up with
ever changing platforms that have no standard. For deeper
integrations and real commerce like Assist powers, you have error
checking, integrations to APIs, routing and escalation to live human
support, understanding NLP, no back buttons, no home button, etc etc.
● We have to unlearn everything we learned the past 20 years to create
an amazing experience in this new browser.
—Shane Mac, CEO of Assist

14. Bots are created with a purpose.
A store like Flipkart will likely want to create a bot that
helps you purchase something, where someone like
Airtel might create a bot that can answer customer
support questions.

15. “Messaging is where we spend a ton of our time and expect
to communicate. It is ridiculous we still have to call most
businesses.”
—Josh Elman, Partner at
Greylock

16. How To Build Chatbots
Building a chatbot can sound daunting, but it’s
totally doable.
You can always build a basic chat bot that doesn’t
have a fancy AI brain and strictly follows rules.

17. “The difficulty in building a chatbot is less a technical one
and more an issue of user experience. The most successful
bots will be the ones that users want to come back to
regularly and that provide consistent value.”
—Matt Hartman, Director of Seed Investments at Betaworks

18. Purpose, Platform and Services
● You will need to figure out what problem you are going
to solve with your bot
● Choose which platform your bot will live on (Facebook,
Slack, etc)
● Set up a server to run your bot from, and choose which
service you will use to build your bot.

19. Platforms
Facebook Messanger
Slack
Discord
Telegram
Kik etc.

20. Services
wit.ai (bought by Facebook)
howdy’s botkit (raised $1.5+ mil in funding)
api.ai (raised $8.6+ mil in funding)
textit.in
Chatfuel (Ycombinator company)
IBM’s Watson
BeepBoopHQ
Dexter (owned by Betaworks)

22. Now we are going to build a
simple chat bot using
facebook messenger as a
platform

23. Other resources & References
The Secret To Building Your Own Facebook Chat Bot In Less Than 15 Minutes by
Jerry Wang
Go Library for Facebook Messenger Bots by Harrison Shoebridge
How To Build Bots For Facebook Messenger by Facebook
Building Your Messenger Bot [Video] by Facebook
Creating a Bot by Rob Ellis
Botwiki

24. Other resources & References
Telegram Bot API—PHP SDK by Syed Irfaq
A Beginner’s Guide To Your First (Slack) Bot by Slack
Slackbot Tutorial by Michi Kono
Create A Slackbot Using Botkit by Altitude Labs
Sketch UI Kit For Messenger Bots by Mockuuups
How to create your own Telegram bot who answer its users, without coding by
Chatfuel
Chatbots.org