Developing intelligent bots using the Microsoft Bot Framework, Azure Cognitive Services and NER systems. Part 1

To date, only instant messengers (and, in part, games) show a steady growth in the audience against the backdrop of the fall in all statistical indicators of classic mobile applications. WhatsApp claims 1 billion active users, Facebook Messenger - 900 million, WeChat - 700 million, and instant messengers have already surpassed social networks by an active audience.

For millions of people, Facebook Messenger could be the first place where they will come across chatbots. And if people start using them, then this could be a new Klondike for software developers - for the first time after Apple opened the App Store.

The verge

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The logical is the desire of messengers to take advantage of the situation and try to test the traditional media, and even the hegemony of Google in terms of search. And this desire resulted in the discovery of almost all popular messengers of public Bot API. Despite the fact that formally messengers provide developers with access to their numerous public, in fact, these same developers will bring their own users back to the messengers. But let's not strongly focus on conspiracy theories or philosophize about where it might lead us, but concentrate on the technical issues of creating intelligent bots.

Smart bots examples

Msg.ai allows brands to communicate with users using instant messengers.

Sony Pictures has replaced 70 operators with one chatbot.

A 19-year-old developer created a free bot that returned $ 3 million to drivers for parking fines.



More examples. The Iranian bot Tina (also called Iranian Siri) has 2.6 million Telegram subscribers .

Microsoft Xiaoice (China) is a 17-year-old girl who lives in WeChat and Weibo. This bot is called Turing's greatest test in history. The robot can answer questions, recognize emotions and even empathize. Many users do not even understand what they are communicating with the bot.

X2AI - a startup from Silicon Valley created a bot that helps Syrian refugees in Lebanon solve their psychological problems associated with the war.

In Ukraine, the most popular bot is Opendatabot , which, using open data sets (judicial register and the base of entrepreneurs and businesses), allows you to check counterparties and protect against raider attacks by notifying you of unauthorized changes to records in a single registry.



DonorUA.Bot (available for Skype, Telegram, Facebook Messenger ) allows you to check whether you have contraindications to donation (absolute or temporary) in Russian or Ukrainian:



I would be grateful if in the comments you outline links to other interesting examples of bots (in particular, those working in our region).

Sometimes intellectual bots "go" not there, and we can observe interesting results. For example, Twitter-bot TayTweets from Microsoft, which studied on tweets that were sent to it by users. Of course, people will not teach bad robots (sarcasm), so after 24 hours, the bot began to issue xenophobic and racist tweets:





Microsoft was forced to remove the bot from public access. This suggests that bots are still a tool, and how it will be depends on data and training methods.

Why bots?

This question is asked every time someone starts talking about bots. Let's consider the advantages over other ways of communication with users:

1. Easy start. Develop a bot can be quite quickly and easily. Much easier than developing a mobile app or bot.
2. After the development of the bot, it is automatically available in messengers and social networks, which means you need to spend less time and resources for marketing.
3. It is cheaper than developing mobile apps or websites. Since bots work on existing infrastructures, all you need is a database and service that will answer questions and provide data on request.
4. The dialogue interface is understandable to everyone, the design of the dialogs is still an easier task than developing a UX / UI for mobile applications or graphic design for the site.

However, this does not mean that bots should be used wherever possible. Users, ideally, should make 1-2 clicks to get the necessary information, if more clicks are needed - perhaps a bot is not the best solution for your service.

And, all the same, there are many scenarios where bots are a better solution. For example, for working with potential customers (user engagement), call centers, ordering something (pizza, taxi), for creating knowledge bases in specific domains (as is the case with DonAUA. Bot).

What new markets and jobs for developers create bots?

• development of tools and platforms for AI / ML / NLP;
• development of the bot frameworks;
• bot shops;
• development of bots;
• process automation;
• bots in marketing.

Who has already joined the game called chatbot? This is Telegram, Microsoft Skype, WeChat, Slack, Facebook Messenger. Each of the platforms offers its own unique features, for example, Telegram has inline bots that can be connected in conversation with other people, but in general, the capabilities of all platforms are less or less the same.

Create a simple chatbot

The process of creating a chat bot consists of several parts:

1. Register bot in the messenger. In Telegram, @BotFather is responsible for this; in Messenger, you need to create a page that will be the bot and link it in the settings with the application on the developer portal. For those who want to write a bot for Skype there is a separate portal on which you need to add your bot.
2. Creating a web service (webhooks endpoint) that will receive requests and form responses. A link to the web service must be registered in the settings of your bot.
3. Writing command processing logic (in simple cases) or non-structured texts using NLP / ML / NER tools. (we will talk about them later).
4. Create a database if you want to track conversations and create closer and more personalized communication with your users.
5. Actually, everything. We test, we start, we use.

Telegram allows you to create a set of commands. Like any other bot setup task, this can be done using the BotFather command :

/setcommands - change bot commands list OK. Send me a list of commands for your bot. Please use this format: command1 - Description command2 - Another description 

On Facebook, Persistent Menu (up to 5 items) takes on this role:



Of course, these are not the only UX / UI capabilities of bots, and the list of interesting features is constantly increasing.

- In the next part we will talk about the Microsoft Bot Framework for the rapid development of bots for ~ 10 platforms.