If you’re pressing "00000" to escape the bot, that's not user error - that's design failure. And it may be why people think AI chatbots suck (I don’t).
Most bots are built backwards.
Companies think "how can we handle more customers with less staff?"
Instead of "how can we actually improve customer experience”.
In this episode, I sat down with AI conversational technologist, Peter Swimm: founder of Toilville, former principal PM at Microsoft Copilot Studio, created Botkit (the framework that powered Slack and Teams bots), built AI agents for Walmart and Lowe's.
If anyone knows how to build a great conversational AI bot, it’s Peter.
What we talked about:
- Why most bots suck (and how to make yours suck less)
- The best chatbot experience - chatbot that rebooked his flight before he got to the gate
- The trick to designing bots like helpful concierges, not digital roadblocks
- The real reason people hate automation (hint: it’s not the tech)
- The future of interfaces beyond apps and websites
Links:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterswimm/
website: https://www.itstoilville.com/
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