Image source: Peyrl Herrera via Flickr
Chatbots will change how businesses communicate with customers, proponents predict. They are likely to substantially impact public relations because chatbots will almost certainly impact how publishers distribute news – and it will happen soon.
Chatbots are software programs that simulate text conversations with humans. Recent advancements enable companies to support hundreds or even thousands of intimate, human-like conversations with customers at once.
“It’s a rare moment when it becomes clear that a technological revolution is upon us, and I believe we’re in the midst of one such transition right now. Even if you haven’t realized it yet, bots are everywhere,” writes Chris Messina in Medium. Chatbots represent a new approach of delivering the news that’s most interesting to individual readers, writes Stephanie Fergione in the Ink House blog.
The Facebook Chatbot
In a major development, Facebook introduced its chatbot at its F8 conference in April. Businesses, including publishers, will be able to interact with Facebook Messenger’s 900 million users one-on-one.
Speaking at the conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg demonstrated how CNN’s bot for the messenger would work. Users rotate through stories and chose how to react: “read story,” “get a summary,” or “ask CNN.” Over time, the CNN bot will learn from each user’s behavior and personalize the list of stories they see. The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider and Mic are among the publishers that have chatbots or are developing them.
Potential PR Risks and Rewards
Apple News and Facebook Instant Articles offer new, fast and convenient ways for readers to consume news they find relevant “in the stream” rather than going to the publishers website. Chatbots represent a new approach of delivering the news that’s most of interest to individual readers.
The introduction of chatbots further reinforces the importance of providing journalists with the news that matters most to their audiences, writes Stephanie Fergione in the Ink House blog. As we continue to move more toward getting our news in-stream, chatbots represent another opportunity for innovative PR pros to insert content into the news cycle – whether that be through the rapid response of breaking news, or sharing their own take on a trending topic through an opinion piece or byline.
Sagar Parida, co-founder at TripExploria, envisions a time when chatbots will conduct PR functions such as handling queries from journalists and arranging Q&A sessions with journalists. “As [a smart chatbot] is significantly strong with numbers, analysis, trends etc., targeting, a journalist/blogger/stake holders will have much more accuracy and context,” Parade writes on LinkedIn Pulse.
Large Potential Risks
While fascinating, chatbots pose PR risks. The as-yet undeveloped technology could lead to embarrassing mistakes. That’s probably why companies are not jumping on the bandwagon.
In one PR flop, Microsoft created a bot meant to talk like a teen ager and learn new language. It soon learned to spew nasty racist remarks online.
“They’re a powerful tool but they’re also a big risk,” Brian Blau, an analyst with Gartner, explained to Computer World. “A.I. can be a very powerful technology. Businesses are going to have to understand how to harness that power. There are reasons to be worried about it. Because we’re giving chatbots the power to act on our behalf, they’re taking on greater importance.”
Although companies will eventually trust the bots, they will pursue a “measured adoption,” he said. Blau urges companies to be cautious when developing and implementing chatbots. “One of the big risks right now is that there are not a lot of best practices on how to do this,” he told Computer World.
Chatbots represent an artificial intelligence technology with important applications and benefits in PR. The route to adoption of chatbots for PR is to identify very narrow specific applications that can serve as test beds for the technology. That will limit risk and consequences if (or when) the technology goes awry.
Bottom Line: Chatbots may fundamentally alter how businesses communicate with customers as well as how publishers distribute news. Some even predict chatbots will assume duties now done by PR professionals. Savvy PR pros will learn how to adapt to that changing media environment.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
