Chatbots are used in a variety of ways to cover high-profile news stories. In this sense, the main value they provide is vitality. This way, users interested in knowing the last hour of the above events will be able to do so through Facebook Messenger or other messaging applications without having to search the newsfeed or the communication medium’s website.
That’s according to Patricia Durán, head of content for Planeta Chatbot, a website that specializes in resources that can be applied to a variety of industries. In a conversation with C.lasesdeperiodismo.com, recalling that big media have started using them to cover very important sporting events. A well-known example is the chatbot developed by Eurosport to cover the French Open. But this is not the only case, during the US election period, the New York Times also used chatbots to report the latest news.
In his view, chatbots are the perfect channel for companies to connect with customers and potential users. Many sectors are starting to benefit from their services and media is one of them.
«Its appearance in some Spanish media in recent months shows that the type of content does not matter and can apply to both written and broadcast or audiovisual content,» he said.
Why might you need it? Must Goal: The key to its success in this space is that it is an easy and straightforward way to connect with your readers while providing them with news and information that are genuinely of interest to them. From now on, there is no need to go to your favorite media pages to check the latest news, the chatbot will notify you when the news is released, and you will only have access to the media that interests you the most.
There are multiple use cases in Spain. The COPE chatbot is one of them, and with its launch, it has become the first broadcast medium in Spain to use the technology. El País also has its own chatbot on Twitter. With direct messages you can find all the latest news from the sections that interest you most. «This model is currently somewhat unusual in Spain and Latin America, but is more common in the US and other Anglo-Saxon countries. With this in mind, it is only a matter of time before the vast majority of media outlets offer this service to their subscribers», he explained .
It’s very expensive? Not really. One of the great advantages of chatbots is that they are easier to develop than mobile apps. Although once the business logic of the chatbot is built, it is necessary to adapt the development to each messaging platform you want to use it for.
“In media, one of the keys from a business perspective is that bots automatically deliver current content, so it needs to be integrated with the media’s internal systems. Although if we go to other areas, some bots are aimed at attracting potential customers, and the investment may be more Even companies develop them without the support of technical staff,” he said.
Therefore, companies must determine how they want their chatbot to be, and based on that, bet on developing it internally using a freemium business platform like Chatfuel, as a platform that facilitates chatbot development for non-technical users, or opt for a more professional services such as those they provide to specialized agencies that develop bots.
It is because of these nuances and issues that the cost of a chatbot varies widely and in any case depends on the goals of the company.
Additionally, chatbots will need to be updated or go through a «learning» process. the reason is simple. When building a chatbot, developers work with marketing and/or business teams to develop conversations in the form of a tree.
“Through keywords entered by the user (“keywords”) or by using buttons, the chatbot will provide one or the other answer. However, in this conversation, our chatbot (not equipped with artificial intelligence) may get lost. For that reason, you have to teach it, check where it fails and improve it little by little,» he said.
It ensures that maybe our users have been suspecting that we haven’t been able to see it before, so we have to introduce it, or maybe a certain keyword is not the most used by our users, so the bot gets lost every time.
You can solve all these problems if your chatbot has an artificial intelligence engine on which you can define what your users might want and how they can tell you so you are more likely to understand what they are asking you What users mean when they say that, but that’s a different story, and the use of artificial intelligence doesn’t have to be justified in all cases.
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Journalist graduated from the Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). Master in Digital Journalism, University of Alcalá, Spain. ISIL Digital Journalism Professor/Community Manager. @zophiap on Twitter
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