The Fake News Immunity Chatbot, launched in response to the amount of COVID-19 misinformation circulating the internet, introduces users to a quiz-like game featuring rhetorical strategies – and fallacies – from great philosophers including Aristotle, Socrates, and Gorgias.

Aristotle explains the 10 fallacies, Socrates discusses the need to question everything, and Gorgias challenges mainstream opinions. Using what they have learnt, users are offered up news items and asked to determine whether or not they are misleading.

“Our chatbot is unique as it allows people to play and be trained by the greatest thinkers and become their own fact-checkers. You can play by yourself or encourage family, friends or colleagues to join in so you can quiz each other,” said Dr Elena Musi, who is leading the project and a lecturer in communication and media at the University of Liverpool.

“We hope that with our chatbot, people will develop critical thinking that strengthens their digital literacy and helps them and their communities to become more resilient to information manipulation.

“Acquiring critical digital literacy collectively, can help us build a healthier, stronger and smarter democracy.”

The Fake News Immunity Chatbot is part of the UK Research and Innovation-funded ‘Being Alone Together: Building Fake News Immunity’ project, which is working to fight against the proliferation of misinformation and fake news.

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The virtual cheese connoisseur can provide recommendations based on questions such as ‘which cheese would pair well with chardonnay?’, ‘what can I have with parmesan cheese?’, ‘what is Romano cheese?’. ‘Where is mascarpone cheese from?’, ‘can you recommend a nutty and vegetarian cheese from France?’, and more.

The chatbot, developed by Chit Chat Agency, also features store lookup, listing updates, newsletter subscription, customer service live chat rerouting, and an interactive cheese quiz.

“The virtual Cello Cheese assistant will allow us to pass on our 75 years of knowledge to help consumers cheese confidently on a one-to-one basis at scale,” said Mike Currie, Director of Marketing at Schuman Cheese. “We hope this tool, along with our existing in-store and online information already provided – encourages customers to discover new cheeses as well as explore pairings.”

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The COVID-19 Care Assistant will provide useful information and videos, a symptom checker, 24/7 live chat access and virtual consultations with trained member of Babylon’s staff, the ability to log symptoms, and hospital referrals.

“COVID-19 is the biggest public health threat to our communities for nearly a century and Babylon has a huge obligation to help. We know how hard governments and healthcare systems are working to battle this pandemic and fully support their tireless work,” said Ali Parsa, CEO & founder of Babylon.

“We were founded to help tackle the challenges of accessibility and affordability of healthcare for every person on earth by using technology to increase the reach and impact of healthcare professionals. The combination of our technology and clinical service allows our doctors and nurses to use their time for the most suited tasks, whilst amplifying their expertise for the benefit of all our patients. We stand ready to help our communities in any way we can and in any manner they need.”

The COVID-19 chat feature will be available on the Babylon Health app, which can be downloaded via Google Play or the App Store, in the UK in the ‘coming days’ before being rolled out elsewhere.

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The app, called ‘Flow’, was developed by Malmö-based medical device company Flow Neuroscience with an eye on helping people struggling with their mental health during the long waits they often have to see a doctor after their first appointment. Developed by clinical psychologists and machine learning experts, it engages users with daily chat conversations and offers self-help techniques, mood tracking, curated videos, meditation, and mental exercises.

“Accessibility and early intervention in depression is crucial,” says Daniel Mansson, clinical psychologist, CEO and co-founder of Flow. “The ‘always-on’ source of therapy provided by Flow ensures people get the help they need as quickly as possible. Flow can provide anonymity without the fear of being judged by others. This is great as some people feel anxious when it comes to talking about their depression to another human.”

The chatbot therapist is available to download for free on iOS and will be launched on Android next month.

Flow also has a brain stimulation headset treatment for depression, which retails at £399. The company is in talks with the NHS about making the headset available on prescription.

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The Capgemini Research Institute has released its newest report, Smart Talk: How organizations and consumers are embracing voice and chat assistants, which highlights the growing need for businesses to have chat bots and assistants readily available to consumers. According to the report, 70 per cent of consumers said they will replace store visits to a brick-and-mortar location with their voice assistant within three years’ time.

Businesses are starting to realize how important it is to use chat bots and voice assistants to provide customer service, especially within the last 2 years. Out of the business leaders surveyed for the report, 40 per cent of those now using voice assistants have started doing so in the last year. 76 per cent of businesses said they have seen “quantifiable benefits” from implementing chat bots and voice assistants, and 58 per cent of those said the benefits exceeded their expectations. Some businesses saw over a 20 per cent decrease in customer service spend, and more than 20 per cent jump in the number of consumers using digital assistants.

While smaller businesses are quickly acting on the need for digital assistants, the survey found that less than 50 per cent of the top companies in automotive, consumer products and retail, banking, insurance, and chat lack voice assistants.

68 per cent of consumers said voice assistants help them complete multiple tasks quickly and hands free, and 59 per cent agree that chatbots continually improve on personalization. Over half (58 per cent) of consumers feel the need to personalize their digital assistants. Additionally, 5 per cent want to give their assistants a name, and 53 per cent want to mold its personality.

“This research establishes that conversational assistants are the future of customer interactions, valued by consumers for their convenience and by companies for the operational efficiencies they enable. Compared to our study released in early 2018, a much higher proportion of consumers now foresee voice assistants as their first choice within the next three years. In the meantime, the expectations of customers are evolving as they progressively use the technology,” said Mark Taylor, head of customer engagement at Capgemini Invent. “Privacy and security also remain paramount. Since our last research, it seems there has been little change in consumer concerns about how voice assistants affect privacy and data security. Companies must do more to address both these concerns and consumers’ increasing expectations, as conversational commerce increasingly moves into the mainstream.”

Stan Sthanunathan, executive vice president at Unilever said, “The biggest experience that weve had is to not look at conversational interfaces as a cure for all the problems that you have, but instead to use them to augment human intelligence. This makes human intelligence a lot more productive. Voice or chat bots can communicate with multiple people simultaneously. They therefore help in reducing the amount of stress and strain on our human agents who are responding. These interfaces eliminate anywhere between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of issues reaching the human agents because they are answered then and there. And even when the issue is guided to a human being, it is actually a lot more purposeful.”

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Smooch by Zendesk, an omnichannel conversation platform, has released State of Messaging: Travel, a report covering modern messaging technology and strategies used by travel brands to optimize customer service. The report takes consumers through all stages of booking travel with online messaging, including Pre-Stay, Pre-Flight, In-Stay and Post-Trip.

“Travel is an industry that’s taking a leading role in the adoption of modern messaging to elevate experiences throughout a customer’s journey.” said Warren Levitan, VP conversational business, Zendesk. “We’re seeing more and more innovation in this space and travel brands that are using the power of personal messaging, developing incredibly intuitive and customer-friendly experiences which are in turn delivering real, tangible value to their bottom line.”

The report highlights the growing need for implementing online conversational assistants, with 46 per cent of surveyed customers choosing to use a chatbot if it meant faster service than a human (Phocus Wire). With such an array of travel apps, competition is steep, and 88 per cent of travelers will switch booking apps if they aren’t satisfied (Google). The convenience and timeliness of travel booking is a huge factor, as 70 per cent of travelers would rather be notified of updates or changes via messaging.

“As messaging becomes part of the travel experience, chatbots are popping up as fast as boutique hotels and budget airlines. Luxury hotel guests are messaging the front desk rather than calling. Airlines are routing customer concerns to messaging channels — both owned and OTT (over-the-top) — before phone and email,” said the report.

Airlines and online travel agencies (OTAs) mentioned in the report include: WestJet, Malaysia Airlines, Kayak, SnapTravel, Hotel Tylosand, Club Med, Booking.com, My SWFT, ServiceFriend, Delta, Lufthansa Group, KLM, Four Seasons, Jumeirah, The Annex, BookBoost, Alliants and GuestDriven.

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Chatbots have become the go-to for many businesses to connect with their customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, trusting artificial intelligence (AI) to address queries. However, chatbots can also be used to help provide knowledge to staff within businesses as well.

One company making use of an internal chatbot – featuring all the machine learning qualities you’d expect from a customer-facing chatbot – is Tryg.

Tryg is a non-life insurance provider in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. It is the largest non-life insurance provider in Denmark and the second provider of general insurance services in the Nordic regions.

“One of the points we looked at was if we were to have to go digital externally, we should also look at doing the same internally, so the mindset of being digital sets in from bottom up,” says Benjamin Alex, business efficiency and transformation lead at Tryg. “One of the biggest things that we wanted to test was the front office department, that we have because that’s where a lot of resources are involved. So, we wanted to see if we could do something there that would benefit us in bandwidth, cost saving, and digitalisation. That’s why we went ahead and tried the first chatbot.”

That chatbot is called ‘Rosa’. Rosa’s introduction has meant that  60per cent of Tryg’s internal chat queries now use conversational AI.

Rosa, which was created with Boost.ai, is called upon when by front office agents when they are not quite sure about the answer to a question asked by a customer. The AI chatbot provides an instant answer for the agent, meaning they can continue their conversation with the customer and not have to put them on hold. Previously, agents would have to ask the customer to wait a few minutes while they called the back-office team for an answer.

“Sometimes the back-office team were busy because they’re helping a lot of other people, meaning the customer was either promised a call back or we’d just lose the customer because they’re not happy. So, we decided to put a chatbot between those two communications,” says Alex.

“Rosa is trained to give those particular answers. So, they’ve got the answer, they’ve finished the call with the customer, and we increase our first call resolution.”

Of course, there are the few occasions where Rosa doesn’t know the answer to a question. When this occurs, the chatbot will tell the agent that she doesn’t know the answer and transfer the question to the back-office.

“That’s another advantage for the back-office as well because they can each be having three chat conversations at the same time compared to having one phone call with one agent. That itself brings a lot of benefit for us when it comes to helping other agents,” adds Alex.

Tryg’s initial plan was to use Rosa to reduce the calls from its sales team to its back-office by 50 per cent and has, in fact, decreased calls by almost 60 per cent.

For the time being, these call numbers cannot be expected to fall much further because some of the calls made to the back-office team are because the sales team does not have authorisation to carry out certain actions.

According to Alex, the company is working with Boost.ai to create a way that Tryg can use Rosa at the frontend and then use robotics to update policy in the backend.

“If a customer calls and wants to update X/Y/Z, the agent will just update that on Rosa and the robot will kick in to make changes in the backend,” he says. “We’re working on a pilot as we speak.”

Alongside that pilot, Tryg has another internal chatbot called ‘Herdis’. The aim of this bot is to help employees with any questions they may have relating to the business. Currently, Herdis is only available to help with human resources but, eventually, Tryg intends to extend her capabilities to answer legal, IT, and security questions.

The company also hasn’t shied away from delivering the customer-facing virtual agents that many businesses have decided to launch over the last few years.

Tryg’s external chatbot is called ‘Mia’. She is available on most of the company’s webpages in Norway and is able to help customers on both the claims side of the business and the private side. For now, she’s only available in Norway, but Tryg is in the process of launching externally in Denmark.

The chatbots are just a small part of Tryg’s plans to digitalise its customers. Other advancements it’s looking at include using AI to assess damages and claims that have been registered and using robots to power processing and create draft offers to customers.

“Claim processing, straight through processing – those are the things that we are looking at increasing in the coming years.

“We also want to look toward mobile-first because the generation now is going into mobile-first. We are looking at AI-first also as the next generation. So, getting prepared for the next generation world that’s coming into the market. Basically, improving our customer experience. The biggest driver for us over the coming years is increasing customer satisfaction,” concludes Alex.

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The Facebook Messenger chatbot complements the AI: More than Human exhibition, which kicked off today (16 May) and will run until 26 August as part of the Barbican’s ‘Life Rewired’ season.

“Marketing an AI exhibition, we felt we simply had to incorporate an element of AI into the campaign in some way. Byte stood out due to the team’s enthusiasm for the project and the exhibition, and their expertise producing creative, personality-driven chatbots,” David Lally, marketing manager for international enterprises at the Barbican, told Mobile Marketing.

Rachel Williams, Barbican content manager, added: “AI is often discussed in an academic way, we wanted our chatbot to present the ‘human’ side of AI by provoking and challenging expectations about it in unexpected ways. We hope visitors will enjoy learning about AI in this new way and that it will offer an ideal extension of the exhibition for those unable to attend – or who want to keep on discovering after their visit.”

Appearing on both the Barbican’s website and Facebook page, the chatbot has been designed to stimulate conversations around the role of AI in society. It focuses conversation around four themes from the exhibition, including ‘Why are you afraid of AI?’, ‘Does data discriminate?’, ‘Who’s driving the car?’, and ‘What makes us human?’.

“We are extremely excited to see the launch of our chatbot to support this provocative and inspiring exhibition tackling questions at the forefront of our relationship with AI,” said Jamie Kenny, Byte co-founder.

The AI: More than Human exhibition explores how the ongoing development of artificial intelligence changing our lives and what it means to be human. The exhibition hosts research projects by DeepMind, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Neri Oxman, as well as exhibits and installations from Mario Klingemann, Massive Attack, Es Devlin, and teamLab.

*This article has been updated to include David Lally and Rachel Williams comments.

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Researching mobile app development trends for 2019 has made the Kumulos team excited! It feels like yesterday that we reported the top mobile trends for 2018. It’s interesting to review our previous predictions and see how they’ve developed into new mobile opportunities for 2019. The world of mobile app development is developing at a formidable pace. New trends come and go every year, but some are pretty consistent. In fact, if you checked out the top mobile app trends for 2018, you’ll not be surprised as we outline the mobile app development trends for 2019.

Mobile app development trends 2019
Take note, embrace these trends and grow your business by making the most of emerging technology! If you’ve any questions about the mobile app development 2019 trends, why not contact us?  The Kumulos mobile app performance management team are always happy to chat mobile.

Blockchain
There was a lot of buzz about blockchain in 2018, especially as developers saw it as a way to solve problems on how to manage user authentication. The momentum of blockchain is continuing as developers try to understand the best use of blockchain – which isn’t easy and some might say is too complex. Mass adoption will follow in time. Leading technology companies like IBM are making huge commitments to the capability of blockchain for applications. Whether mass adoption happens in 2019 or beyond is uncertain – we think it will take a few more years before we see more traction.

Machine learning & artificial intelligence
Machine Learning (ML) got a boost when Apple announced their CoreML library. This gave iOS developers a simple, built-in way to include ML technologies into their apps. This is something we saw a lot of in 2018. Now, in 2019, it is reality that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has embedded deep roots in mobile apps. And, you only need to attend a mobile event like Mobile World Congress to hear mobile evangelists declare that it’ll soon be the day that AI will replace humans with robots in certain sectors like customer service! We think that in 2019, more of your clients will look to embrace AI and Machine Learning to build profitability and decrease their operational costs so you need to be aware of this trend. And, what’s more, if you can build analytics into the mobile marketing automation offering you are onto a win-win scenario for proving the benefits!

(As a side note, Kumulos will be at Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona so give us a shout if you’ll be at #MWC19 too!)

Chatbots
In 2018, there was talk about chatbots replacing mobile apps. Certainly chatbots have been springing up on just about every website for a couple of years, but chatbots really began to make their way into mobile throughout 2018. Clutch now has a dedicated category for top Chatbot companies which says it all. Did your clients ask for chatbots? Mobile Marketing Magazine Most Effective Chatbot Solution winner Walkers crisps really nailed the use of chatbots! As per Statista, the worldwide Chatbot market in 2025 is expected to grow to 1250 million US Dollars. Be prepared for this trend! Juniper Research predicts that the number of chatbot interactions focused on healthcare alone will have an average annual growth rate of 167 per cent!

If you need to learn more, there are many chatbot solutions available such as MobileMonkey, IBM Watson and Botsify to name but a few. These solutions can help you add chatbots to apps without any coding.

Android instant apps
In 2018, we declared that Android Instant Apps would start to become widespread (at least on Android devices, of course). And we were right! With Instant Apps, users can access apps from just about anywhere, without having to go through the hassle of app installation.

If you’ve yet to embrace this mobile app development trend, then Android Instant Applications are apps that are pretty much the same as websites. Their ease of access is the key factor that attracts people towards this trend.

No code platforms
In 2018, we reviewed the best no code / low code app development platforms for building mobile apps. 2019 will see the trend for citizen developers to continue. People will pick from the best no code / low code app development platforms to make their life easier. These platforms make it simple to integrate with existing enterprise environments without developers having to write their own APIs or integrations. Database connections, user verification, directory services and more are all bundled up into handy to use libraries. Simply drag, drop and you’re done!

In 2018, Kumulos partnered with Betty Blocks to give citizen developers the complete technology stack! Kumulos can provide citizen developers with all the server side technology an app needs to be successful. E.g. analytics technology to understand how the app is performing and where areas of improvement can be made, technically and commercially, as well as providing tools like push notifications and App Store Optimization (ASO) to drive commercial success from the app.

Learn more about the benefits of no-code from our interview with Betty Blocks.

Augmented reality
Last year we were a little hesitant to say that augmented reality came of age. The design of some wearables was holding back augmented reality adoption. However, with a number of hardware providers joining the space in 2018, it now looks like this year will be the year that the hardware finally makes Augmented Reality (AR), a reality. And certainly we saw Industrial Augmented Reality come of age in 2018! We think that mobile app development trends 2019 are all about the era of Augmented Reality! Mobile App Developers are being asked by clients to incorporate AR into workforce training and many other useful areas. And, savvy mobile app developers are building in crash reporting and diagnostics to ensure the smooth running of the apps.

With Google and Apple showcasing new AR demos on iPhone 8 and iPhone X, it’s proof that AR is going to be a top trend for 2019. What’s more, with the most recent arrival of ARKit 2, Apple is providing developers and with a much improved platform to make AR apps.

5G wireless
Up until 2018, we were told 5G is coming! 5G is coming! But the hype finally got real. 5G is the big brother to the current wireless networking standard, appropriately called 4G. Although most parts of the world won’t see widespread 5G coverage until 2020, companies like Verizon and AT&T are already doing limited rollouts in the United States. So what’s new for mobile app development trends 2019? Last year, fixed 5G apps found their legs but in 2019 we will see 5G Wireless finding its way to mobiles. Applications that currently take minutes to download, under 5G, will be available in seconds. It’s 100 times quicker than 4G and will expand the mobile app market. The possibilities for apps will be tremendous. For example, 5G will affect the development of 3D gaming and augmented reality.

Internet of Things
We didn’t cover the Internet of Things (IoT) in last year’s trends. We felt that it had already secured its place in many industries. However, in 2019, we acknowledge that there is no limitation of possibilities in technology and more apps will incorporate IoT. Many app developers are asked by clients in the real-estate industry to use the power of IoT to build smart buildings with sensors, smart cities and parking lots. That’s just one sector and we predict it will spread across industries throughout 2019. One worth highlighting is healthcare and many mobile app development agencies like Hedgehog Lab are looking into how hospitals are using IoT.

Beacons
Throughout 2018, we saw a huge increase in the use of geofencing and beacons and this is not going to disappear in 2019. The use of beacons is making it easier for people to understand the benefits and it’s making them want to use this technology. For example, Burger King’s “Whopper Detour” stunt targeting McDonald’s with the use of geofencing got us thinking about how they could go one step further and incorporate beacons! We can say that the most recent trends incorporating beacons have transformed how people understand it. This technology is used for virtual guides, the source of data and so forth. It is sure that it will be smoother in 2019 and will make even greater use of push notifications too!

What are your trends?
So, now that you’ve read our top mobile app development trends 2019, what are yours? Do you think there are trends we missed? Be sure to contact us and let us know!

Get ready for 2019 with Kumulos! The Mobile Marketing Automation platform from Kumulos means you will win more customers, land follow-on projects, secure clients on retainer and build lasting and profitable relationships with clients. Kumulos lets you see how mobile apps are performing technically AND commercially, so you and your clients get the full picture. What’s more, Kumulos gives you the tools to drive app success, all in one place.

Take a 30-day free trial and see why thousands of other mobile app developers are using Kumulos to grow their business and deliver app success for their clients.

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Acquia, the open-source digital experience company, has found that 45 per cent of UK consumers find chatbots “annoying”, and would prefer it if websites removed them completely or found an alternative. In Acquia’s debut global report entitled Closing the CX Gap: Customer Experience Trends Report 2019, centered around the current customer service experience, it was discovered that 78 per cent of consumers believe automated experiences are impersonal.

While conducting research for the global report, Acquia surveyed more than 5,000 consumers and 500 marketers across Australia, the UK, France, Germany and North America. While consumers are losing confidence in chatbots and automated experiences, recent studies found marketing professionals advocate for them, “with 80 per cent of chief marketing officers saying they already used chatbots or are planning to use them by 2020”. The global market for chatbots is growing so rapidly, it is expected to reach over $1.34bn (£1.1bn) by 2024. Marketers believe that chatbots are the solution to avoiding long customer service wait times, due to mass amounts of inquiries at once.

To emphasize the difference in opinions between marketers and consumers, Acquia’s research finds that the majority (87 per cent) of marketers are confident their brand’s experience meets expectations, whereas half (53 per cent) of consumers feel that brands fall short.

Sylvia Jensen, vice president of EMEA marketing at Acquia said: “Acquia’s research shows that chatbots are part of a broader disconnect between marketers and customers. Chatbots can offer fantastic benefits to both marketers and consumers by solving large volumes of customer issues and queries autonomously and in real time — but too often, they’re implemented in isolation.

“This is the reason many consumers have a negative perception of chatbots. Any chatbot is only as good as the wider customer experience and journey they are part of. Marketers therefore need to ensure that chatbots are fully integrated with the wider customer journey to give customers the personalized, helpful experiences they want.”

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