Microsoft seeks brand partners to help it further Bot development offer
Microsoft is seeking brand partners to test and help it mature its bot development across Europe.
Microsoft Bot Network
The technology company has spoken to The Drum about how the Microsoft Bot Network is seeking to work with companies to develop its own offering in the growing sector, something it showcased at 'the Intelligence Kiosk' at Dmexco in Cologne.
"You don't have to be a big brand to start building in this space," explained Adrian Cutler, global agency director for Microsoft while talking through plans to develop its Bot building services.
Cutler, who admitted to not being an experienced developer, also revealed that he planned to build a bot live during a talk he will be giving at a forthcoming iProspect Summit to showcase what knowledge was needed to be a bot developer.
"It would be great if a brand would do a live adjust of and it would be great to work with a brand who wants to find out what really can be done with the analytics," Cutler added.
"There is a lot we know about the brand echosystem from the app echosystem and the bot is a modern day app with a better ability to connect with the consumer. It is important that the addition of a bot helps the brand solve a business need - not just because they can have one. It is very important, when you think about all the personal assistant and voice operated devices that they are interacting with bots daily, they need the ability to access the library to conduct the circuit of whatever that conversation is. That might be to order their favourite pizza for example; the way people search is more than going to a webpage - a bot or an app is how we can engage with virtual personal assistants, for example."
While exhibiting at Dmexco, one piece of technology on show was named What Dog Are You? which showcased facial recognition and machine learning technology to match the contour of users' faces to that of a dog.