The robot revolution about to hit finance

We’re not too far away from a potential future where chatbots replace apps as our primary conduit to the world of technology. But what exactly are they, and what do they do? Róisín Killeen finds out

AI researchers once compared getting a robot to speak as being like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube – but added that getting it to understand speech was like trying to push it back in

‘Bots are the new apps,” declared Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella last year. But what are bots, or chatbots, exactly? They’re artificial intelligence (AI) computer software programmes developed to simulate intelligent conversation through written or spoken text. Another way to think of it is a software robot.

It is predicted that chatbots could take over from apps as the primary communication tool we use on our phones. They are fast becoming part of ...