Snapshot: There Is a Bot for That

UNDERSTAND TODAY. SHAPE TOMORROW.
Chatbots as a new frontier in consumer engagement & brand marketing.
What’s happening now, what are bots used for and what’s next?
THERE IS A BOT
FOR THAT
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT
1
LHBS Snapshot Series

INTRODU
CTION.
We are now living in times where messaging context is slowly
becoming a new model of publishing. Conversational apps grow
faster than social networks.
Hence our interest and new report around the topic of
CHATBOTS.
“App fatigue is real” and using a chatbot for building a relationship
with customers feels more accessible, as it is like talking to a “real”
person while an intimate, one-on-one interaction which is de-
cluttering our mobile experience at the same time. It is also just
cheaper to prototype an build a chatbot service rather than
create a standalone smartphone app for a brand or business. If
done right, it can definitely deepen meaningful relationships.
LHBS is a marketing & innovation firm with offices in Berlin and
Copenhagen. We help clients to understand today's emerging
customer expectations and to shape their business offerings for
tomorrow.
http://www.lhbs.com
Fabiola Lewandowska
Consultant at LHBS
lhbs.com | fl@lhbs.com
INTRODUCTION
2

CONTENT.
Chapter 2
WHAT ARE BOTS
USED FOR?
Chapter 3
WHAT’S
NEXT?
Chapter 1
WHAT’S
HAPPENING NOW?
CONTENT
3

WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW?
What’s happening with people and messaging apps, what are
conversational interfaces and chatbots? How fast are they growing?
UNDERSTAND TODAY. SHAPE TOMORROW. 4
Chapter 1

Messaging apps
are now bigger
than social
networks
Source: Business Insider
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW?

Biggest messaging apps:
6Source: Statista
Whatsapp Facebook
Messenger
QQ WeChat QZone

88% of people’s time
is spent within 5 apps.
Therefore, chatbots used within most
popular apps such as Messenger or
Whatsapp let brands and business be
where the audience is.
7Source: Forrester

What is a conversational interface
and chatbot then?
8

Conversational interfaces
can be anything from a text based bot to
an Amazon Alexa app.
We’re in the very earliest stages of that
ecosystem developing and the new
products that are gonna be big.
9Source: Chatbots Magazine

A chatbot is a service, powered
by rules and sometimes artiﬁcial
intelligence, that you interact with
via a chat interface.

Predictions:
every business will have a bot interface
that brings them to messenger.

Facebook’s rollout of its chatbot API
platform for Messenger in April of this
year catalyzed the creation of
30,000 chatbots (and counting)
over the past six months. And on apps
like Telegram and Kik, there are
thousands more.
12Source: Venture Beat

It’s reasonable to assume that
chatbots will supersede
the growth of apps in the years after
Apple’s App Store launched in 2008.

WHAT ARE BOTS USED FOR?
Examples of chatbots created & used for various purposes in different
contexts. Here you can ﬁnd them listed according to 10 categories:
travel, sport, news, customer support, entertainment, ﬁnance, e-
commerce, food, health & games.
Chapter 2

TRAVEL
15
AUSTRIAN LAUNCHES CHATBOT
SKYSCANNER'S MESSENGER BOT
KLM PARTNERS WITH FACEBOOK
MESSENGER
REQUEST A LYFT RIDE FROM SLACK
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT WHAT ARE BOTS USED FOR?

UNDERSTAND TODAY. SHAPE TOMORROW.Source:
TRAVEL
AUSTRIAN LAUNCHES
CHATBOT
The chatbot myAustrian Messenger Service is
taking over the Facebook communication for the
airline
Explore Sign
Customers just need to click on “Send message” on
the official Austrian Airlines Facebook site and the
new service opens up automatically. The basis of the
system is artificial intelligence of IBM’s Watson.
You can switch to chat with a human at any time
while using the messenger service.
The bot informs about flight numbers and times,
baggage regulations or inspires next holiday
destinations.
16

TRAVEL
SKYSCANNER'S
MESSENGER BOT
As their latest innovation, Skyscanner has
introduced a bot for Facebook Messenger
Explore Sign
Users get all of the same ﬂight information and prices
that they would see on Skyscanner's website and
app.
Users need to go to Skyscanner's Facebook page and
send Skyscanner a private message. They can then
chat with the bot, or if they have an inquiry that's not
a ﬂight search, they just hit the 'Contact us' button to
speak to a human.
17

TRAVEL
KLM PARTNERS WITH
FACEBOOK
MESSENGER
For the first time, people can use Facebook
Messenger to manage flights
Explore Sign
The partnership with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
allows KLM travelers to check-in, receive flight
confirmation, access boarding passes, receive check-
in reminders, get flight updates and make flight
changes through live customer service chat without
leaving the Messenger app. The feature will be
available to all KLM customers who purchase their
tickets on KLM.com.
18

TRAVEL
REQUEST A LYFT RIDE
FROM SLACK
To order Lyft from Slack team messaging service,
you have to type a few commands into Slack, and
your ride is on its way
Explore Sign
Once you ordered a ride, you can also use commands
to get updates on your driver’s ETA, estimate trip
cost, or set default home or work addresses.
19

SPORT
20
MANCHESTER CITY FOOTBALL
TEAM’S MESSENGER BOT
NRL'S FACEBOOK MESSENGER BOT
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED OLYMPICS BOT

REPORT TITLE // IMPLICATIONS. SPORT
MANCHESTER CITY
FOOTBALL TEAM’S
MESSENGER BOT
Manchester City has signed up for Facebook's
bots on Messenger service, becoming the ﬁrst
football club to launch on the platform
Explore Sign
The subscribers who sign up for Man City's chatbot
will be able to receive updates on pep talk, transfer
news, social buzz, and a matchday topic that will
cover key events and video highlights. Messages
from the club will also include breaking news,
exclusive photos, behind-the-scenes videos and
more.
21

NRL'S FACEBOOK
MESSENGER BOT
Australia's NRL has become the world's ﬁrst
sporting league to launch a Facebook Messenger
Bot
Explore Sign
The bot is called "SOO" and is a trivia mogul that
takes fans in rounds of State of Origin trivia. To keep
it fun, the trivia is completed with fun banter and
cheeky one liners.
SOO is yet another NRL experiment and lines up
with other NRL products like Facebook Apps, digital
and mobile platforms and social content.
22
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT SPORT

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
OLYMPICS BOT
SI launched bots on Facebook Messenger,
Telegram and Slack to share its coverage of Rio
2016 Summer Olympics
Explore Sign
“Every hour on the hour you are going to be pushed
the top trending Sports Illustrated (SI) Olympics
article, [based on] whatever SI is able to glean from
their user data, but if there’s breaking news,
immediate coverage on that will come in between the
hours,” said Alex Beckman, CEO of sports chat
company GameOn. GameOn partnered with Sports
Illustrated to create the bot.
23
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT SPORT

NEWS
24
ECONOMIST ON LINE APP
CNN ON MESSENGER
QUARTZ APP TEXTS YOU THE NEWS
PONCHO WEATHER APP

NEWS
ECONOMIST ON LINE
APP
The Economist added another platform to its
social channel distribution: Japanese messaging
app LINE
Explore Sign
For now, The Economist plans to publish 4 to 6
pieces per day to its Line homepage, and to send two
or three push notiﬁcations per week, said the
Economist, “including a preview of the cover,
breaking news blogs, explainers, and articles from the
[morning brieﬁng] Espresso.”
25

CNN ON MESSENGER
CNN has high hopes for Facebook Messenger bots
Explore Sign
In partnership with Outbrain, CNN is using bots for
Messenger to interact with users in a natural and
conversational way. Subscribers to CNN on
Messenger will receive a daily digest of top stories
right within the Messenger app. The bot will also
recommend personalized content based on a user’s
preferences and learned interests. The experience
gets more personalized with each interaction on
Messenger.
26
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT NEWS

QUARTZ APP TEXTS
YOU THE NEWS
The app provided by the Quartz publisher is
something in between push notiﬁcation and
messaging app
Explore Sign
Instead of giving the reader a stream of headlines,
the app engages them in an almost regular
conversation. Quartz sends users messages in text
bubbles and you can respond by tapping one of the
pre-prepared answers.
The app aims and is designed to be equally
informative & entertaining, while the tone of the app
itself and the news pieces is also set to be fun for the
readers. The app has a few customization tricks.
After swiping left, users choose if to get really big
news, important news or news updates.
27

REPORT TITLE // IMPLICATIONS.
PONCHO WEATHER
BOT
Continuously winning the chatbot popularity
contest
Explore Sign
Poncho will give you tailored weather and travel
reports that “will make your day”.
The company promises that their personalized
weather forecasts will make you smile whatever the
weather.
Poncho is now available on Messenger, Kik & Slack.
28

CUSTO-
MER
SUPPORT
29
AMELIA - AI CUSTOMER SERVICE
AGENT
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW BOT
MEDIUM’S SUPPORT BOT

CUSTOMER SUPPORT
AI CUSTOMER
SERVICE AGENT
Accenture is recommending companies use
Amelia, a self-learning cognitive customer service
agent
Explore Sign
Amelia can have a back and forth conversation with
customers in natural language, answer questions and
manage processes, like opening a bank account for
you. She was also taught how to answer calls in a call
center via call transcripts.
The AI agent also has business-facing applications,
such as working as an IT help desk, providing staff
with HR services, answering questions about
pensions and answering banking employees'
questions about regulation. Finally, Amelia can also
respond to emotions.
30

HARVARD BUSINESS
REVIEW BOT
Free business and career advice form HBR
Explore Sign
You can get some of HBR’s most practical insights
delivered to you right inside the app. The HBR bot
has compiled advice from more than 200 articles on
HBR.org that tackle difﬁcult workplace and
managerial issues, and it can send you that advice at
the time and frequency of your choosing. You can
read a lot or read a little, it’s all up to you.
31
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT CUSTOMER SUPPORT

MEDIUM’S SUPPORT
BOT
Get support with your Medium account from a bot
Explore Sign
In Medium helper, you can type your questions or
choose options to get usefull help for.
You can ask questions about reading, writing or even
settings.
32
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT CUSTOMER SUPPORT

ENTERTAI
-NMENT
33
CHATBOT LETS FANS INTERACT WITH
CHARACTERS FROM SILICON VALLEY
MISS PIGGY ON MESSENGER
TINDER BOT
ASK ELON MUSK

ENTERTAINMENT
CHATBOT LETS FANS
INTERACT WITH
CHARACTERS FROM
SILICON VALLEY
A smart Artiﬁcal Intelligence Chat Bot startup
created a way for fans to chat with characters
from HBO's Silicon Valley
Explore Sign
The startup LUKA decided to build in some
functionality to let fans of the show chat to each of
the main characters in the series.
34

MISS PIGGY ON
MESSENGER
Disney promotes the Muppets show through
funny conversations with Miss Piggy
Explore Sign
Here’s what Kermit had to say about the chat:
“I think having a conversation with Miss Piggy will
give fans a good idea of what I go through every day. I
think everyone will learn something, plus I’ll get an
hour of peace and quiet while she’s chatting with
fans. Win-win!”
35
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT ENTERTAINMENT

TINDER BOT
Rather than swiping left or right, a Canadian
programmer has written a bot with a facial
recognition algorithm to make matches and start
conversations on Tinder
Explore Sign
“Tinderbox” builds facial models using a users likes
and dislikes. It examines the proﬁle images of 60 user
choices, cropping them for consistency, and then
forms an “average” face which to compare all future
potential matches. The bot also has a messaging
system that starts conversations and answers based
on positive or negative replies.
36

ASK ELON MUSK
Talk to Elon about the future as well as your
concerns about the planet
Explore Sign
The Elon Musk bot is hilarious. You’ll ﬁnd a decent
mix of serious and sarcastic responses here, so it’s
sure to entertain you—and every now and again,
inform you. Disclaimer: You still won’t get a free
ticket to Mars, no matter how many questions you
ask.
37

FINANCE
38
BANKING WITH A CHATBOT AT
DIGIBANK
RBS WILL LAUNCH ROBOT TELLER
“LUVO”
MASTERCARD CHATBOT
CURRENT FOR SLACK

FINANCE
BANKING WITH A
CHATBOT
A bank only accessible via mobile devices just
launched in India.
Explore Sign
Digibank is equipped with machine-learning-based
technology provided by Kasisto (a company involved
in the development of Apple's Siri assistant). Thanks
to AI, all the questions that consumers might have
regarding online banking can be answered by a
chatbot. The artiﬁcial intelligence is able to recognize
the context and intent of the request, just like a
human assistant would. Digibank is the ﬁrst bank that
has such highly developed chatbot functionality.
39

FINANCE
RBS WILL LAUNCH
ROBOT TELLER
“LUVO”
Royal Bank of Scotland will be the ﬁrst bank in the
UK to launch a customer-facing service using AI
Explore Sign
Luvo, the AI service of the state-backed bank RBS,
was designed by IBM and will attend to customer
banking needs through its mobile or online as a
chatbot. Luvo can answer questions, ranging from
lost card queries to unblocking pin numbers and
updating home addresses as well as reading
customer moods, like frustration or unhappiness, and
respond accordingly.
40

REPORT TITLE // IMPLICATIONS. FINANCE
MASTERCARD
CHATBOT
Mastercard KAI will seamlessly extend
Mastercard services to customers on messaging
platforms and make financial information and
decisions part of consumers’ everyday lives
Explore Sign
In this testing phase on Messenger, Mastercard is
partnering with Kasisto, the company that created
KAI Banking, the conversational artificial intelligence
(AI) platform, to power branded virtual assistants
and smart bots for financial services and is a current
participant in the Mastercard Start Path Global
program.
41

REPORT TITLE // IMPLICATIONS. FINANCE
CURRENT FOR SLACK
Paying someone is now as easy as sending a
message to a teammate
Explore Sign
Current allows you to pay your friends and
colleagues on Slack, current.com, or the iPhone App.
You can pay anyone, even if they don’t have a Current
account. For example:
/current pay @trevor 5
Connect any of your bank accounts to Current.
Current is secure, fast, free – and works seamlessly
in Slack.
42

E-COM
-MERCE
43
BURBERRY LAUNCHES “SEE-NOW-
BUY-NOW” CHATBOT
SEPHORA ON KIK
EBAY SHOPBOT
DISCOUNT HERO

E-COMMERCE
BURBERRY LAUNCHES
“SEE-NOW-BUY-NOW”
CHATBOT
Burberry has launched a fashion chatbot of its own
to complement the brand’s first foray into “see-
now-buy-now” fashion.
Explore Sign
Though Tommy Hilfiger was the first to launch its
fashion bot earlier this week, Burberry is seeking to
differentiate by providing behind-the-scenes looks at
the inspiration for the latest collection in advance of
its London Fashion Week show on September 19. To
use the chat bot, users can go to the Burberry
Facebook page and click a link to scan the mobile QR
code. They then receive a virtual "save the date" for
the London fashion show before they are led through
a series of inspirations for the line.
44

SEPHORA ON KIK
Sephora is now using Kik messenger to not only
run quizzes but also gain insights about the
speciﬁc customers at the same time
Explore Sign
After opening a chat with Sephora, the brand asks the
users to answer few short questions about their
beauty preferences and proﬁle. In that way, the
retailer keeps acquiring extensive information about
their users, to later on customize services for them.
“With the incentive of a gift card, Kik users will see
how easy and fun it is to interact with the Sephora
bot. Once the quiz is done, users are prompted to
dive deeper into Sephora’s beauty content on the
platform,” Sephora said. “From our early results on
Kik, we know that once she is engaged with our bot,
she sends multiple messages back and forth."
45
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT E-COMMERCE

EBAY SHOPBOT
eBay has launched ShopBot, a smart personal
shopping assistant, on Facebook Messenger
Explore Sign
eBay is teaching their bot to understand context, and
how to make better recommendations as you chat.
eBay ShopBot is in beta, with plenty of features and
functions still in development. As one of the ﬁrst
users, you'll not only get to see it grow, but you can
even help shape its future. They've made it easy to
give feedback, and they want to hear your
experience, no matter how big or small.
46

DISCOUNT HERO
Find offers, discounts and vouchers from your
favourite brands
Explore Sign
You can chat with Discount Hero on Facebook
Messenger, Skype, Kik, Telegram or Slack to search
for coupons, vouchers, offers and discounts at your
favourite retailers.
Discount Hero can also send you messages when a
new offer becomes available for your favourite shop,
eatery or travel site.
47

FOOD
48
WHOLE FOODS MESSENGER
CHATBOT
DOMINO’S ON MESSENGER

FOOD
WHOLE FOODS
MESSENGER CHATBOT
Whole Foods launched a messenger chatbot for
finding recipes using emojis
Explore Sign
Consumers of Whole Foods are now able to find all
products needed for a recipe via the supermarket's
Facebook Messenger chatbot.
Customers can not only talk with an A.I. agent but can
also send different food emoji in order to be provided
with recipes involving these products. The chatbot
makes it possible to use words and emoji and to select
a cuisine (like Tex Mex) in order to find a dish. Also,
they can give keywords and choose recipes for special
diets.
49

FOOD
DOMINO’S ON
MESSENGER
"Dom" on Facebook Messenger lets you order
your favorite pizza with a single word
Explore Sign
To use the new bot, you'll need to head over to
Domino's Facebook page or search for "Domino's" in
Messenger. Once in a message, you can start a new
order via the prompts or by using the pizza emoji.
50

HEALTH
51
ICLINIQ HEALTHCARE BOT
YOUR.MD CHATBOT
STAY FIT WITH FORKSY

REPORT TITLE // IMPLICATIONS. HEALTH
ICLINIQ HEALTHCARE
BOT
The bots on Telegram and Slack turned out to be
the ﬁrst online doctor consultation bots on the
respective bots
Explore Sign
The brand is the ﬁrst healthcare company in India to
have made a healthcare bot on any platform. With
the help of the iCliniq bot, users can send their health
issues with pictures and medical reports to doctors,
any time.
52

YOUR.MD CHATBOT
Your.MD is a new option that joins a few other
existing chatbots, like HealthJoy, that help you
diagnose common ailments
Explore Sign
“To start, you initiate a conversation in Facebook
Messenger. The bot also has a dedicated app for iOS
and Android, and it works in Telegram, Slack, and Kik.
The ﬁrst step is to describe the condition”
53
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT HEALTH

STAY FIT WITH
FORKSY
Chatbot that helps you change unhealthy eating
habits
Explore Sign
Forksy claims it can help you loose weight by:
- counting your calories after you tell it what you
eat
- sharing advice after gaining insight about your
eating habits
- giving you no mercy for eating unhealthy food.
54
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT HEALTH

GAMES
55
GAME OF THRONES SURVIVAL
POKEDEX QUIZ BOT
GAME CENTER - TOP QUIZ

GAMES
GAME OF THRONES
SURVIVAL
Try to survive through the 6th season of Game of
Thrones with the bot
Explore Sign
This messenger bot is a survival game that takes you
through the 6th season of Game of Thrones with fun!
56

POKEDEX QUIZ BOT
Facebook Messenger based Pokemon quiz bot
Explore Sign
This if world's ﬁrst Facebook Messenger based
Pokémon quiz bot where users are supposed to
guess the correct Pokémon by looking at the
description.
It keeps track of the score and upgrades the level as
you make progress. There is no penalty for a wrong
answer.
57
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT GAMES

GAME CENTER - TOP
QUIZ
Fun quiz, games, and trivia
Explore Sign
This if world's ﬁrst Facebook Messenger based
Pokémon quiz bot where users are supposed to
guess the correct Pokémon by looking at the
description.
It keeps track of the score and upgrades the level as
you make progress. There is no penalty for a wrong
answer.
58
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT GAMES

WHAT’S NEXT?
Bots in the future, new bots with social skills that persuade users better
and tips on how to create a distinctive bot.
Chapter 3

Apps in the future:
For now we need the apps to provide the
content and the data. But thinking even
more in the future, what if apps start
living in the “cloud” and the OS just pulls
data and content from them?
WHAT’S NEXT?
60Source: Mitco on Medium

It seems content is critical factor for a
success of the chatbot.
Companies such as Google or Microsoft
already started recognising this and now
hire writers including novelists and
comics to help them develop bots with
voice and personality.
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT WHAT’S NEXT?

Chatbots with social skills
New virtual assistants such as Sara,
created at Canergie Mellon University, can
now read social cues and nonverbal signals.
Therefore, they are much more
persuasive.
62Source: MIT

Chatbots for the most part all do the
same thing — give and receive
information to users via messages. The
experience across different chatbots is
pretty similar.

So what makes them special?
Or, more practically, how does one
create a distinctive chatbot for now?
64

6 Tips to Make a Successful Chatbot
One Leverage existing customers
Two Advertise in unexpected places
Three Educate users about bots
Four Streamline usage by limiting options
Five Double down on engagement
Six Continuously adapt to feedback

APPENDIX
Bots landscape overview
APPENDIX

CHAPTER TITLE
67
LHBS // THERE IS A BOT FOR THAT APPENDIX
Source: Venture Beat

Discover
ABOUT
LHBS Define Develop Deliver
LHBS is a marketing & innovation firm with offices in Berlin &
Copenhagen. We work with legacy organisations to adapt their
customer value proposition to meet emerging customer
expectations. Together with our clients we discover business
opportunities and deliver integrated customer offers for products,
services, experiences and communication.
http://www.lhbs.com
ABOUT
LHBS // SNAPSHOT: COLLABORATIONS

INSPIRATION
-HUB
INSPIRATION-HUB
69
This Snapshot is powered by the LHBS Inspiration-Hub.
The LHBS Inspiration-Hub is a digital platform that brings
customized insights and inspiration to the heart of your
organization. It is a digital platform that tracks changes in people,
markets and technology.
https://inspiration-hub.com/
LHBS // SNAPSHOT: COLLABORATIONS

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die ganze oder teilweise Vervielfältigung sowie jede Weitergabe an Dritte ist nicht gestattet.
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