15 of the Hottest Chatbot Startups That are Winning
Before you start reading this, you know what a chatbot is right? I assume you do, but, if you want a quick refresher, read my previous non-techie guide to chatbots.
We all know that 2016 was the year chatbots became well known (despite some of us building them for over ten years!). The advances in the proliferation of and access to artificial intelligence (AI) as a service led to many chatbot startups springing into action. Their goal is to satiate the ever-increasing consumer requirement to have everything on-demand.
I thought it was about time I took a closer look at the hottest chatbot startups across all industries. The goal is to inspire, inform and, well, force me to keep up-to-date with what's going on!
The 15 hottest chatbot startups
ubisend - UK - AI-driven chatbot development
ubisend is a creative AI technology company that builds bespoke solutions that enable brands to have on-demand, two-way conversations with their audiences. The company works with enterprise-level clients such as Unilever and Johnson & Johnson to deliver solutions ranging from simple content-based messaging to entirely AI driven conversational personas. ubisend’s unique intellectual property allows it to produce bespoke, creative, and reliable conversational experiences, fast.
Polly - USA - Employee engagement
Polly.ai is using artificial intelligence as a workplace tool to help managers monitor and react to employee happiness levels. Based on the Slack messaging platform, Polly uses surveys and regular polling to collect feedback and data. Trends such as happiness and effectiveness are tracked over time and reported to the hierarchy for monitoring and action.
Semantic Machines - USA - Conversational computing as a service
http://www.semanticmachines.com
Semantic Machines is working to create a new type of language technology platform that will help computers communicate and collaborate to better understand human goals and tasks. Using a number of AI techniques such as deep learning and natural language processing, Semantic Machines is developing the technology to extract semantics across multi-level natural language exchanges.
MessageYes - USA - Conversational commerce
MessageYes is aiming to make mobile e-commerce as frictionless as possible. It sends personal product recommendations. When a user replies with the word 'Yes', it purchases the product and ships it out to them. Package tracking is also included in the chatbot. MessageYes aims to take advantage of the rapidly growing mobile messaging platforms and engage their audience where they are spending most of their time - on their mobile telephones.
Talla Service Assitant - USA - AI assistant
Talla is automating internal business communication and enabling managers to manage, prioritise and improve employee experience. Delivered using Slack and Microsoft Teams, Talla is designed to remove repetitive tasks from the workplace and deliver company-specific information on demand. It's like a FAQ and personal assistant for inside a business.
Pypestream - USA - Communication platform
Pypestream is attempting to deliver a one-size-fits-all enterprise mobile messaging solution for consumer facing interactions. Using 'Pypes', users can drag and drop and organise chat conversations into topics and streams. Its service is commonly used in the cable, insurance and utility sectors, and aims to reduce customer service enquiries as well as manage service requests.
Eternime - USA - Live forever
Eternime has a simple goal: preserve an individual's most important thoughts, memories and stories for ever (yes - with a focus on after death). Its focus is on preserving memories of people, to keep the thought of them alive for future generations. The service creates a digital avatar with which you can interact along with the person's memories, stories and ideas. As they say, it is 'almost as if they were talking to you'.
Cyra - UK - AI recruitment chatbot
Cyra is designed to help improve the recruitment process by using machine learning and natural language to find and hire the correct candidates for a job. The chatbot attempts to take away the monotony of recruitment by automating reoccurring processes.
Read our latest recruitment chatbot case study.
TARA - USA - Chatbot for project management
TARA is a chatbot designed to help companies start, maintain, and complete projects. It automates the hiring of freelancers and project management. It also helps with digital-based projects such as website or mobile application development. Using artificial intelligence and humans, TARA makes building products easier by synergising the human and computer interface to produce efficient results.
Assist - USA - API aggregation
Assist is attempting to be the one-stop-shop for mobile messaging APIs. By being a single access point to multiple messaging services, a user can send one message to Assist and reach across multiple channels.
Niki.ai - India - Personal assistant
Niki is a friendly personal assistant designed to help consumers have a conversation to get things done. Booking a taxi, ordering food and paying utility bills are what Niki is designed to do. Using artificial intelligence to understand a user's conversational intent, Niki is aspiring to be the one-stop shop for all shopping requirements.
Demisto - USA - Security services
Demisto is billed as the industry's first security operations platform that uses a chatbot solution to scale incident investigation, response and reporting. The Demisto platform attempts to fight alert fatigue, develop an incident management process, and detect and manage threats. It is designed for security agents to share knowledge and work collaboratively to scale their incident management processes.
AdmitHub - USA - University chatbot
AdmitHub is designed for universities to increase engagement and connect with students using mobile messaging. Its goal is to instigate conversation, grow participation in university activities and support students. With a dashboard for university staff, AdmitHub is designed to rapidly create virtual assistants that integrates with communication processes and university software systems.
Chatfuel - USA - Self-serve chatbot building platform
Chatfuel is positioning itself to be a code-free, simple Facebook Messenger chatbot building tool. Designed for publishers, Chatfuel allows a businesses' users to ask questions about company news and content.
