A bot is a piece of software that automates tasks that humans would otherwise perform. The tasks bots perform are typically simple, structured, and repetitive, and bots can perform them at much greater speeds than humans. There are many types of bots, specializing in different functions. For example, search engines use bots extensively to crawl through the internet and index content (Hello, Google bot!). Aggregator bots search for content for people's RSS feeds. And, yes, sometimes bots are used for malicious reasons, such as overwhelming servers so that websites can't function.
Bots often imitate human behavior and speech, which is why businesses are increasingly using them for customer service. These bots, known as chatbots, are often the first "agent" customers interact with when they initiate an online chat session. Chatbots usually greet the customer and collect some background information, such as name, order number, and the nature of the issue. If it's able to, the bot will also try to solve the customer's problem, however today's chatbots are only capable of solving simple inquiries. Chatbots will elevate more complex issues to a human agent, and also pass along the information it collected for a seamless transition.
Bots are fairly new to the customer service world and it will be interesting to see how they progress as the technology matures.
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