Washington - Artificial intelligence being touted as a tool for addressing some of humanity's most pressing problems.This includes climate change
and cancer, but starting this week you can put it to work for something a
little more prosaic, ordering a hoagie.
MasterCard announced on Tuesday it has partnered with
Subway and two other major merchants to launch "chatbots," which are
robots that simulate human conversation. The Subway iteration allows you to
order a custom sandwich for pickup, something of a digital version of walking
down the chain's sandwich assembly line.
There's another from Cheesecake Factory that allows shoppers
to purchase and send out gift cards, and a third from online grocer FreshDirect
in which customers can place orders for groceries and meal kits. The bots will
be found within Facebook's popular Messenger app, and will be powered by
Masterpass, the credit card giant's digital wallet.
These big name brands join a growing group of retailers that
are experimenting with how chatbot technology can be leveraged for digital
shopping. The debut of the bots will provide a fresh test of shopper appetite
for what the industry has dubbed "conversational commerce," the idea
of making a purchase or other customer service transaction through A.I.-powered
messaging.
FreshDirect said its foray into chatbots in part reflected
the changing reality of how customers use their Smartphones
"We know that asking someone to download an app, it's a
hard thing to do now," said Lisa Kolodny, FreshDirect's vice president of brand
marketing and communications.
Read also: Artificial intelligence can't replicate brains
Here's what Kolodny means by that: Consumers are spending
more time online, and yet they are concentrating those minutes in a very
limited number of apps.
undefinedRetailers along with hotels, rental car services, and other
businesses are realizing that the best way to snare your interest online might
not be with a killer app of their own, but by creating bots that live in the
apps that you already use.
Facebook has said that more than 33 000 bots have been
created for its Messenger app so far.
This latest batch demonstrates how differently businesses
are approaching the technology at this early stage of the game. Subway, for
example, essentially tried to re-create its in store experience on the small
screen. In a demonstration of how the technology works, the bot asks what kind
of cheese you prefer, how thick a coat of mayonnaise you want, and so on, all
in a very chatty voice.
"We talk a lot about communicating not as a brand, but
as a friend, and really engaging with your consumer in a very personal
way," said Linda Kirkpatrick, Mastercard's executive vice president of
merchants and acceptance.
Meanwhile, Cheesecake Factory decided to use the bot for
gift cards because it reflected what customers are often doing when they come
to one of their nearly 200 restaurants.
"We are a place that a lot of people go for
celebrations," said Donald Evans, the restaurant's chief marketing
officer. FreshDirect's bot will try to play on the social nature of the
Messenger experience. It allows shoppers to form a group thread in Messenger,
so that multiple people can collaboratively build a grocery list.
Kolodny said they envisioned this being used by big families
or groups of friends as they join up for summer trips to beach houses or
campgrounds. But perhaps spouses or a group of roommates could use it for more
routine shopping trips.
Subway's bot was rolled out to customers on Tuesday; the
ones from FreshDirect and Cheesecake Factory are still in pilot mode and will
be made available for wider use in the coming months. So just how big a role
will chatbots play in the future of shopping? At this point, it's hard to know.
For starters, consumers simply haven't had that many
opportunities to engage with them yet: According to a survey by Forrester
Research, just 4 percent of companies have a chatbot. Plus, the long-term
potential of the technology has not been fully realized.
"This isn't yet what I would call an efficient medium
for the exchange of data," said Julie Ask, a consumer technology analyst
at Forrester. "It still has a ways to go before it's more convenient than
the other options that consumers have."
Right now, bots are typically designed to help with
specific, narrow tasks. But, as Ask puts it, these bots typically can't handle
"a wide-open wish."
As those changes, consumers might be more apt to make a
habit of turning to bots for help.