Ready To Shop By Emoji?

Shopping with the help of a bot is old news at this point. Everybody has a bot.

But Facebook Messenger bot Kip is daring to be different. It doesn’t think shopping bots are the future alone — they think that shopping by bots aided by emojis is.

If it seems odd, it is actually an attempt to improve a problem with both things: emojis aren’t too specific and AI these days is still working on that “I” part.

Pair them up, however, and after getting to know the user with a few questions the goal is to turn their emoji-stated demands into purchases. The system, according to those involved, is still developing. Kip does well with direct stuff — use the paperclip emoji and the system will recognize your desire to purchase paper clips.

Kip says the emoji-bot Messenger bot can further filter with terms like  “color” or “price” after your emoji input.

And, of course, it learns. The more a customer taps into it, the better its results get. It just needs to talk to you for a while to make it happen.