Today, Twitter is officially jumping on the AI-powered chatbot bandwagon with the introduction of its very first customer support bot. It had been under testing with a handful of users for the past month or so and is finally being rolled out widely for access to nearly 320 million active Twitter users.
You are being handed down the ability to send a direct message (DM) to the @support Twitter account with your complaints and suggestions. The other side of this account is now being managed by an AI-powered chat interface rather than a human reviewer. The test had been launched earlier last month to help Twitter collect necessary user feedback and tweak this chatbot according to the said needs — seeing if new conversational skills or features need to be added to the Support bot.
Now you can Direct Message @Support in English for #TwitterTips and inquiries regarding your account.
— Twitter Support (@Support) May 16, 2017
Still, the service has been designed to provide you access to some basic functions, particularly handling conversations related to reporting accounts. It presents you with five categories, namely Accounts, Abuse, Impersonalization, General, and #TwitterTips. It is pretty self-explanatory what each of these will do, the first three will help you with account troubles while the remaining two will collect feedback and provide tips on how to use the platform.
You can presently only select the five category cards provided in the direct messaging window. None other communication skill has been imparted into the support bot at this instant — laser focused towards curbing abuse/hate speech on Twitter. It can only concur to its existing knowledge base to help answer any of the queries mentioned underneath. This will most likely be a better option than tweeting out and flooding the company’s support feed. It also helps keep things private than public, as in tweets.
Twitter has recently been trying to carve out a niche for itself (or take cues from its rival Facebook) in the customer support space, providing brands with new solutions and tools. It now looks like the micro-blogging platform is tackling the same features that’ve already been introduced by Facebook on theirs but with a certain twist. The social media giant laid immense focus on its live video strategy by handing out the power to stream to everyone, Twitter’s native periscope integration followed suit.
The social media giant laid immense focus on its live video strategy by handing out the power to broadcast to everyone, Twitter’s native periscope integration followed pursuit. While Facebook is trying to attract gamers to stream on their platform, the micro-blogging service is resorting to original programming. It has partnered with Bloomberg, Live Nation, and others to soon introduce 24/7 live channels on the platform.
