When I try to explain what I do to people who barely use Facebook and Whatsapp, it’s rather difficult without examples. I usually try to explain it by providing examples of the value that chatbots can bring to our lives. It’s not just about Messenger Marketing and promotional messages being pushed constantly to our inbox.
There are amazing chatbots out there that can really make our lives easier, so in order to understand the huge potential of chatbots and their applications, let’s see 5 innovative chatbots.
Cleo
Do you struggle with keeping an eye on your finances? Well, meet Cleo, “an intelligent assistant for your money” who will basically help you take care of your money.
Heres’s how it works: you connect Cleo to your bank account, she (it?) analyzes your spending patterns and then keeps track of your balance, lets you know how much you can spend on meals, for instance. She can also give you a breakdown of your expenses and tips for improvement.
If you’re wondering if it’s safe, they claim it’s ridiculously safe. Cleo uses bank-level encryption and never stores any of your information. Also, the app only connects in a read-only mode to your account, so it cannot operate, it cannot actually touch the money. And there’s a $ 250,000 guarantee, in case something happens, they will cover it.
You could use the chatbot on Facebook, but honestly, despite the promise that your banking credentials will not be stored on their servers, I mean, it’s Facebook, can you really be sure? I’d rather not use Facebook but just the app.
Endurance’s Robot-Companion for Senior People and Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease
Quoting Endurance’s website:
The primary function of the chatbot is to be a virtual companion. To speak with senior people on general topics: about the weather, nature, hobbies, movies, music, news, etc.
This chatbot is designed to complement human interaction, so as to keep the elderly user engaged in communication, to help them think more actively. The chatbot can ask questions and react to the answer; it can have a conversation on various topics and can share interesting facts and news from Google.
You can find more information on the project on Endurance’s website, including the progress made in English, since the original version is in Russian.
MedWhat
Copyright: MedWhat
This virtual medical assistant is not intended to replace doctors, so if you are one of those people who google symptoms and then think they’re dying, please keep in mind that this is not what MedWhat is. The chatbot is designed to provide information, not a diagnosis.
“MedWhat virtual assistant answers medical and health questions for consumers and doctors instantly.” It relies on artificial intelligence, so every time it’s engaged in a conversation, it’s actually learning new things, and over time it learns about your health and keeps a record of your medical questions.
If I have to imagine how I could use it, I guess I would ask questions about the last time I got a flue, what medicine was I prescribed for a specific illness. I would use it to help me track my health, I wouldn’t ask for a diagnosis, would you?
Tess
Another chatbot designed to take care of our health, but this time we are talking of mental health, “affordable mental health access with proven results”.
Tess is a Mental Health Chatbot built by clinical psychologists, that helps people build resilience and feel less alone during tough times. It works as a coach who will engage in text message conversations, like this one:
It has proven to be very successful in supporting teenagers struggling with weight loss. A study published in the journal Translational Behavioral Medicine, has demonstrated adolescents’ willingness and positive reaction to engaging in SMS text conversations with the chatbot technology.
Insomnobot-3000
Copyright: Casper
As the name suggests, it’s a chatbot designed to help people who suffer insomnia. It’s not a hypnotist who will make you magically sleep, but, if you ever suffered from insomnia, if you ever spent a night rolling and rolling in your bed because you couldn’t sleep, while your mind went spinning around the world and back, you know that sometimes just a small distraction could help.
If you feel like talking or chatting and there’s nobody around, you can text Insomnobot 3000, hopefully, have a nice chat and get in sleeping mood soon.
Disclaimer: Please don’t take any of this as medical advice, insomnia is a medical condition and should be treated as such. This is only a mention of an innovative chatbot.
Conclusion
I believe we are still in the early stages, but I also believe it’s going to move really fast, and some will have a hard time keeping pace, sometimes I have a hard time!
That is why I try to learn from the best and stay up-to-date with is new and what are we looking forward as far as AI, chatbots and voice assistants are concerned.
The best place to do that is certainly the Chatbot Summit in Berlin, so if you plan to attend, please let me know, so we can meet and chat about the exciting moment we live in. If you don’t have your tickets yet, write to me so that I can provide you a discount coupon!
And please, if you have an amazingly innovative chatbot you want to share, just do so in the comments, I’ll be happy to add it in the article.
Linguist and conversation designer, with a background of translator and content writer. An entrepreneur at heart, I founded and closed a virtual assistance agency and I’m now devoted 100% to conversation design.
I’m an empath, I’m passionate about communication and behavioral psychology. My greatest ambition is to contribute to improving the interaction between humans and computers so that machines can be at our service and make our life better.
If you need help with the design of your chatbot, just contact me!