Part
01
of one
Part
01
What are the categories, each with examples for APIs & SDKs for conversational systems (aka: chatbots)?
There are many types of services, both SDK and API, that developers can leverage in the creation of communications/conversational systems. Unfortunately, there is not a current standard for categorizing these types of communications systems, however, there is some general discussion around how these tools can be identified and some general categories used to separate the different services chatbot services provide.
The most common categorization for chatbots appears to be software-made “Concierge bots," software-made business-specific “Transactional bots,” human operators/experts behind the scenes of an instant messaging interface, and a blend of human experts and AI-expert services.
Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
TECHNOLOGY TYPES
The technology types, services provided, and examples with logos are listed below:
- Software-made "Concierge bots" | An example of such a chatbot would be the Microsoft Bot Framework, which offers developers the tools to "Build, connect, deploy, and manage intelligent bots to naturally interact with your users." It is a metered service, stating that "You only pay for what you use." With Cognitive Services, a developer can design a "Bot that can recognize a user in photos, moderate content, make smart recommendations, translate language and more." The link to the logo for the Microsoft Bot Framework can be found here.
- Software-made business-specific "Transactional bots" | Communications bots that provide services that can be built on many user platforms over several device types with multi-language support. An example of this would be Dialog Flow, which is a development resource for the creation of communications bots. A list of example SDK services provided by Dialog Flow can be found here along with its logo.
- Humans/operators/experts behind the scenes of an instant messaging interface. An example of such a chatbot would be the Broadcast API, which is the API resource used for developing a communications tool that leverages the Facebook Messenger service. There is no logo provided for this API service, so the parent company's logo has been provided.
- Blend of human experts and AI-experts services | An example of such a chatbot would be the Drupal Chatbot API, which supports connecting communications applications with Amazon Alexa. There is no logo provided for this API service, so the parent company's logo has been provided.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, the main categories for conversational systems appear to be software-made “Concierge bots," software-made business-specific “Transactional bots,” human operators/experts behind the scenes of an instant messaging interface, and a blend of human experts and AI-experts services.