Top

Taking a closer look at bots from Apple, Facebook and Google

“Bots” have been around for decades. Recently, however, it’s become the norm for large technology companies to build, support and develop bots for a wide variety of uses. Because bots can be so many different things, it’s often difficult to parse the bona fides from the wannabes — or even determine what bots do.

What exactly are bots?

“A bot is an autonomous machine interface that’s built to serve a purpose that traditionally was served by a human,” says Michael Facemire, a principal analyst with Forrester Research.

Read More on CIO