Bot or Not?

If you mentioned bots back in the 80s, the first thing to come to mind might have been the Terminator or Blade Runner.  Nowadays, for most consumers, chat and customer service features driven by bots are a familiar sight on many websites, apps, and social media pages.  These bots are widely used by companies in all sectors from tech to sports, and even to beauty to build further connection with their customers and to provide convenience and simple services.  More recently the use of bots has been pushed even further by companies like Disney to provide entertainment and to engage their audiences or by the medical community for applications such as expediting medical diagnoses or serving as a conversational tool for dementia patients.

In fact, bots have supposedly taken over the internet.  According to socialmedia hq, as of a few years ago, the majority of traffic on the web is now non-human.  This bot traffic can have significant implications for businesses as they track their metrics and engagement online, and also for their bottom line as paid search continues to become an ever more important facet of advertising spend. 

While there is plenty of guidance to help marketing professionals overcome some of the potential negative impact of bots on their analytics, the complexity of the algorithms and the applications is quickly evolving, and the reach of bots is expanding to influence discourse on social media.  There is much debate about the scope and intent of bots on social media, as well as on the validity of data surrounding bots on these social forums as highlighted by The New York Times. In their article, they referenced the recent report from NPR that the majority of tweets on coronavirus are likely by bots, bringing to the forefront the debate around 'fake news' and the rising concern around being unable to discern sources of information and their validity. 

The 'bot battle' has extended even beyond the topic of misinformation and into the the world of sports doping.  As the covid crisis pushes our activities more and more remotely, the incident highlighted last year at the UK's first national cycling esports championship really begs the question on how far bots can be pushed to game the system.  In some sense though, the intent and use of the bot reflects the intent and use of the humans behind it, or at least for now :)