The digital revolution has seemingly lost its ability to astound us with that big "aha!" moment.
Look at it this way: most apps started out by delivering a unique angle, but slowly - one update at a time, one app after another - this stopped. Now, we hear expressions like "app fatigue".
According to our partner company Aspect, by combining the rapid growth of messaging apps like WhatsApp and Snapchat with the maturity of social apps like Facebook and Twitter, plus throwing in texting and e-mailing, you could literally hold 10 conversations on 10 different platforms with just a single person.
And yet, as Aspect points out, in a productivity-driven world, we constantly want faster, more efficient lives. Imagine then the challenge brands face. How to best reach and engage customers in the Internet of everything era? The answer is robots or bots to be exact - the ultimate messaging buddies.
Beerud Sheth in a post entitled: "Forget Apps, Now the Bots Take Over" on TechCrunch says: "Messaging bots can read and write messages just like a human would. Bots can be programmed to carry out automated actions.
"They can both initiate action as well as respond to requests from other users. Bots are of different kinds, too; they automate conversations, transactions or workflows."
This creates automated, accurate and incredibly quick service responses to customers who prefer text and messaging interaction anyway, says Aspect.
Bots can automatically respond to questions like "Can you change the date and time of installation" or "Can I add international roaming to my plan next month?" Consumers get faster answers using channels they prefer and companies deliver convenient service at an ultra-low cost.
The post on TechCrunch also highlights how messaging bots offer further benefits: Bots de-clutter our mobile experience. They send us a message when we need to know or respond to something, but stay invisible otherwise. Bots reside in the cloud and upgrade themselves with new functionality - without any user action.
Messaging apps are rapidly becoming an attractive opportunity for brands. The user bases are growing and consumers are increasingly looking for easy self-service options for engaging the companies they do business with.
According to Aspect, an automated customer service bot that can handle simple transactions and incoming service queries may just be the perfect addition to an organisation's customer service team.
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