How to write for chatbots

London agency Byte has created chatbots for the Barbican, adidas and Victoria Beckham. We talk to its Director of Technology Isabel Perry about creating engaging conversations and what the chatbots of the future might look like

In the past few years, chatbots have gone from being a novelty to a normal part of our daily lives. You can now book flights with KLM’s Messenger bot, learn a language with Duolingo’s, order a takeaway with Just Eat’s or find clothes that match your style with ASOS’s virtual assistant Enki. Along with functional experiences, we’ve also seen some creative and playful uses of bots – such as 4Creative’s experience for AI drama Humans.

As AI tech has advanced, bots have become better at understanding human language – but the majority of experiences still feel stilted and robotic. AI assistants aren’t built on tech alone and creating an engaging experience relies on a creative approach to copywriting as much as sophisticated data and digital tools.