Why are Chatbots and AI Big Event Tech

Trends for 2017?

Kristi Colleran Follow
Dec 21, 2016 · 5 min read

It seems every 2017 Event Trends list I read features Chatbots and
Arti cial Intelligence (AI). So what’s driving this? Having followed
emerging technology trends over the last year, I think it’s likely these
ve trends are responsible:

Trend #1 — Era of Mobile: Increasingly our population has become

mobile-centric. Think about it…when was the last time you went
anywhere without your smartphone?
Trend #2 — App Fatigue: While we are spending more time on our
smartphones, we are downloading fewer and fewer apps. In fact, nearly
half of us now download zero apps per month. Too much friction for
too little value.

Trend #3 — Rise of Messaging Apps: In the last two years, companies

have focused on establishing a presence on social networks like
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram; however, messaging apps
including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat and Kik have far
surpassed those social networks in terms of the number of active users
per month. Messaging apps have become the new second home screen.

Source: Business Insider

Trend #4 — Arti cial Intelligence (AI): No longer the bastion of
academia, AI has entered the private sector. According to CB Insights,
investments in AI have tripled in the last three years and we are starting
to see AI-based products and services, like Amazon’s Echo and Apple’s
Siri, becoming mainstream. The AI winter is over.

Trend #5 — Age of the Customer: 71% of customers, up 7 points from

2015, now prefer to self-serve to solve customer service issues. And
when they do contact a business, they want it to be a text-based
communication (like messaging, live chat, social media) not voice.
Today’s empowered, time-starved customers want immediate value and
will go elsewhere if their needs are not met.

Which brings me to chatbots…

Let’s start with a quick de nition. Chatbots are software programs that
include AI components to interact with people over messaging apps.
Early uses for today’s chatbots have typically been for practical
purposes such as customer service or information acquisition, however,
businesses are now beginning to see that there are tremendous
opportunities to use chatbots to personalize content delivery and have
meaningful conversations with their customers at scale. Why? To
answer this, let’s look at chatbots in the context of the trends. Chatbots:

1. Are accessible and easy to interact with on mobile devices

2. Do not require users to download a new app (pretty safe

assumption given 92–100% of US adults text daily)

3. Live on existing messaging apps that have billions of active users

(SMS, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Kik, WeChat, Viber and
more)

4. Leverage AI for their domain of knowledge and ability to

personalize conversations

5. Are text-based, self-service available 24x7x365

And now chatbots speci cally for events…

So now that we understand what chatbots are and their appeal, let’s
consider their application for events.
Accessibility: Attendees can use their favorite messaging app to
connect with an event chatbot. Or, if you have their permission the
chatbot can reach out to the attendee and start the conversation. Text
messaging is familiar and easy to use for attendees; there’s no app to
download and nothing new to learn.

Information and Resources: Chatbots aren’t constrained to just text.

Their conversations can include images, links, emoji’s, stickers, menus,
buttons and cards to present event information and resources in a rich
and engaging way. Chatbot conversations can include: event agendas,
speaker bios including links to LinkedIn pro les, venue maps, sponsor
information, exhibit hall maps, deep links to Google or Waze driving
directions, etc. It’s pretty much whatever information and resources
your attendees need, a chatbot can deliver!

Noti cations: Event sta can use chatbots to deliver noti cations to
attendees. These can be for scheduled reminders, like the opening
keynote is starting or transportation for the evening activity is leaving.
Noti cations can also be ad-hoc alerts, such as a particular session is
lling up or there has been a speaker change.

Engagement: Chatbots are not only great at providing information but

they can collect it! They can ask survey questions to gather feedback
and insights. Poll attendees and present results to keep them engaged
during a presentation. And crowd source questions for a speaker or
panel.

Personalized Conversations: Every event has di erent types of

participants with di erent information needs. Chatbots can personalize
their conversation by type of participant. The chatbot can converse
with attendees, speakers, sponsors, etc. about their speci c information
needs. Conversations can also be personalized at an individual
participant level using information made available from other event
systems.

Support: Attendees can use the chatbot to submit requests for human
assistance, like the room is too hot, we’re out of ice water, etc. The
chatbot can alert the event sta and the need can be addressed with
minimal disruption to the event.

Community: A chatbot’s conversation can change over time which can

be a powerful tool for building community. The focus of the
conversation can be di erent before, during and more importantly,
after the event. Reach out to attendees with additional information and
resources. Let them know about regional events or an upcoming
webinar that they might be interested in. Crowd source topics for next
year’s event. The possibilities are limitless!

BTW — one chatbot can include all of the above, you don’t need to hire
a team of them!

Conclusion
Chatbots are here! And they are already starting to rede ne the way
companies interact with customers. They’re opening up new
opportunities to connect, collaborate, learn and innovate. Are you
ready to rede ne how you interact with your attendees?

. . .

Learn more: ConciergeEventBot.com

Demo on:

• Facebook Messenger: http://m.me/demoeventbot

• SMS: text ‘Hi’ to 1–801–948–2200

• Website: https://preview.sciensio.com/demoEventBot

Contact us: info@sciens.io

. . .

Additional Reading

6 Ways Your Team Can Accomplish More with

an Event Chatbot

Imagine what your team could accomplish if they

had more time, better tools and more resources.…
blog.sciens.io