Unlike other bots being added to the Skype bot directory today, this is the first bot for StubHub, a company that handles 30 million ticket sales a year.
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The Hipmunk Bot works in a similar fashion to the Skyscanner Bot, only this particular bot will come back with hotel information and “general travel advice” on top of flight details.
Users can communicate with the new bots being introduced by Skype, which will be available for its Web, Windows, iOS, Mac and Android apps, as if they were talking to another person.
As it was getting close to releasing the first bots, Skype added the ability for groups to interact with bots to put together a trip or find the best restaurants. “Currently, we are focused on creating Skype Bots in our directory that deliver interesting experiences, in a variety of scenarios.” .
Essentially the bots will act as the in-between for users and the service, so for example instead of going to Skyscanner’s website to check for prices, you can ask the bot to do it for you, and so on (see the example in the video below).
Skyscanner’s Head of Bots and Conversational Search, David Low, comments, “Skyscanner is always looking to offer our users fresh, innovative and engaging new ways to search for their travel”.
They worked with StubHub to develop a simple way to find your tickets to an awesome event.
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Last but not least, Skype has also released the Spock bot, which is a chatbot in the persona of the second in command of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise. One of the main goals is to make it possible to plan and complete tasks without leaving the app. The IFTTT Bot will send notifications to users depending on the triggers that they choose, such as breaking news articles on certain topics, alerts received on social media platforms, a smart home device detecting changes at home and many more. The Skyscanner Bot lets you search for flights either individually or as part of a group, returning live prices and route options within Skype.
