The document discusses conversational commerce, which involves users interacting with businesses through messaging apps using AI. It notes that the fourth industrial revolution is characterized by a fusion of technologies blurring physical, digital and biological spheres. Conversational commerce uses messaging platforms and bots to make interactions meaningful. Popular platforms discussed include Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and others. The document outlines how major companies are using these conversational platforms and bots to enable shopping and customer service.

1. Conversational Commerce
Prof. Bala Iyer
12/5/16
@BalaIyer
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2. The fourth industrial revolution
• The First Industrial Revolution used steam power to mechanize
production.
• The Second used electric power to create mass production.
• The Third used electronics and information technology to automate
production.
• Fourth. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring
the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres–
Professor Klaus Schwab
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3. What is conversational commerce?
• Conversational commerce involves users interacting with businesses
through media and chat apps like Facebook Messenger, WeChat and
Talk. It is a term coined by Chris Messina.
• Uses AI to make interactions meaningful and productive.
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4. New Stack
Command Driven (DOS, Unix)
Apps Layer (AppStore, GooglePlay)
Web Browser (IE, Netscape, Mozilla)
Graphical User Interface (Windows, Xwindows)
Conversational Layer (bots, machine learning & messaging)
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5. Social media started the conversation
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8. Users are interacting with brands
• “I don’t know anyone who likes calling a business. And no one wants
to have to install a new app for every business or service that they
interact with. We think you should be able to message a business, in
the same way you would message a friend.” — Mark Zuckerberg at F8
in 2016.
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9. It begins with the smartphone
• As more and more people adopt smartphones and tablets as their primary gateway to the online world,
these lightweight, data-friendly chat apps have become portals to news, services and of course, commerce.
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2.15 billion smartphones in 2016
eMarketer

10. Adoption
• Today, about 2.5 billion people have signed up for at least one mobile
messaging app and, according to a study by the advisory firm
Activate, that number could reach 3.6 billion by 2018. That’s 90
percent of the internet-connected
• Apps like Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Tango and Kik
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11. Generation next
• ...this rising generation of consumers value experiences that are
quick, easy and suit an on-the-go lifestyle. By building commerce
opportunities into the platform where people are already holding
conversations, you eliminate a significant barrier between the
consumer and the brand.
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12. Facebook and Uber
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13. Messenger and KLM
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14. Shopping
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15. Operator
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16. Alexa, order me a pizza!
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17. Google Assistant
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18. Siri to Viv
• Virtual assistant
• Speech recognition
• Open to training
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19. Magic
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21. Core idea
• Algorithms (AI) + Data  Sense making  Decisions
• Machine learning, expert systems,
• Data sources: IoT, transaction data, public data, third-party data
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22. Underlying engines
• Artificial Narrow Intelligence
• Artificial General Intelligence
• Artificial Super Intelligence
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24. 24

25. 25

26. 26

27. Platform Bot Companies
• PAT.AI – PAT.AI looks to solve NLU, Natural Language Understanding. You could add pat.ai
to your bot to gain NLU functionality. For more, check out http://pat.ai.
• API.AI – This company/product allows you to provide an integration layer into your bot
messenger platform architecture. You could add NLP capability or integrate with other
services. For more, check out http://api.ai.
• ANGEL.AI – Angel.ai provides for natural language search specifically for commerce. The
technology pulls out the actionable intent to drive the conversation forward. For more,
check out http://angel.ai.
• Houndify – Houndify seems super interesting because you can search and customize one
of their 100+ public domains. But where some of the interesting power in this platform
lies is in setting up a private domain. For more check out http://houndify.com.
• Viv – Viv is an AI platform that enables developers to add an intelligent messaging
interface to their existing apps and systems. This one seems interesting. For more
see http://viv.ai.
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28. 28
Ecosystem Map of Chat Bots

29. What should companies do?
• Chose a platform
• Run strategic experiments
• Look for innovative users in other settings
• Pilot bots with your customers
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30. Risks
• Unintended consequences
• Regulations
• Security and privacy
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