{"id":16574,"date":"2018-08-22T17:00:46","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T16:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intercom.com\/blog\/?p=16574"},"modified":"2023-06-26T18:28:51","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T17:28:51","slug":"flying-cars-chatbots-and-looking-forward-to-the-next-small-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/flying-cars-chatbots-and-looking-forward-to-the-next-small-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Flying cars, chatbots and looking forward to the next small thing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"opening_paragraph\">\u201cWe wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2013 Peter Thiel<\/p>\n<p>People in tech commonly overestimate the impact of big things and underestimate the power of small things. We constantly talk about the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/stop-focusing-on-the-next-big-thing\/\">next big thing<\/a><\/em> that will change everything, the next revolution that will inevitably happen. In the past few years it has been AI, chatbots, VR, blockchain and whatnot. Yet, those <em>big things<\/em> almost never seem to really take off. They always seem like a disappointment.<\/p>\n<p>The flying car is perhaps the most telling example of the next big thing. It\u2019s an image of the future that we first get exposed to when we were kids watching sci-fi. It\u2019s a mirage that we walk towards in our dreams our whole life, yet never actually manage to reach. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2011\/11\/28\/no-death-no-taxes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thiel\u2019s famous quote<\/a> suggests, the absence of flying cars is a constant reminder that the <em>true<\/em> future is not here.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"in-the-past-chatbots-were-the-future\">In the past, chatbots were the future<\/h2>\n<p>I recently had my own moment of reckoning with how reality and our visions of the future can collide.<\/p>\n<p>I designed my first chatbot in 2015. It was for a large UK bank that wanted to get a sneak peek into the future of the conversational UI. At the time a lot of people in the tech industry thought that chatbots coupled with AI were the future of UI. They were meant to be <a href=\"https:\/\/chatbotsmagazine.com\/how-bots-will-completely-kill-websites-and-mobile-apps-656db8e6fc03?gi=5b123eb5f6ce#.gl6278dnh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the new websites<\/a>. They were meant to kill <a href=\"https:\/\/chatbotslife.com\/this-is-how-chatbots-will-kill-99-of-apps-2fd938a22c99\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> 99% of the apps<\/a>. There couldn\u2019t have been more hype, and I was fully expecting the hype to bear fruit.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"small\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/FlyingCars_Hype.png\" alt=\"The chatbot hype\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Fast forward to 2018 and it seems like the conversational revolution didn\u2019t happen after all. Conversational UIs haven\u2019t replaced websites or killed apps. Most chatbots out there are not even distantly intelligent. Facebook has shut down <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2018\/1\/8\/16856654\/facebook-m-shutdown-bots-ai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Facebook M<\/a>. What happened to the chatbot revolution? Was it just another mirage?<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"pointing-the-way-forward\">Pointing the way forward<\/h2>\n<p>Well, maybe, but perhaps we were just looking at chatbots in the wrong way.<\/p>\n<p>We recently released <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/operator-custom-bots\">Custom Bots powered by Operator<\/a>. It\u2019s a simple to use but powerful tool that enables anyone to automate conversations with their website visitors. They are not <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/HAL_9000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HAL 9000<\/a> style chatbots that can mimic human intelligence. It\u2019s not the <em>next big thing<\/em> that I was dreaming of in 2015. But I\u2019ve never been more excited about the future of chatbots and automation than I am now. Why? I have realized two things.<\/p>\n<h3>Realization number 1<\/h3>\n<p>The future is not binary. It doesn\u2019t have a clear on or off state. You can never say &#8220;this is the moment when the future happened&#8221;. It might seem that it happened overnight in retrospect, but it\u2019s not how it works in reality.<\/p>\n<p class=\"quote\">It wasn\u2019t exactly obvious that the Mac would define the future of human-computer interaction<\/p>\n<p>For one example illustrating this, let\u2019s look at the Apple Macintosh. It\u2019s difficult to argue that it wasn\u2019t a revolutionary product. It changed the way people think about personal computers. Macintosh was the first computer to introduce the GUI desktop metaphor to the mass market. It set a very high bar for the quality of human-computer interaction. The Mac was a stepping stone that later enabled Apple to follow up with the iPod and iPhone.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of the release, though, the Macintosh was perceived more as a nice expensive toy. It\u2019s graphic UI was a clear leap forward compared to command line interfaces that most consumers were using at the time. But it wasn\u2019t exactly obvious that the Mac would define the future of human-computer interaction.<\/p>\n<p>William Gibson once famously said: \u201cThe future is already here \u2013 it\u2019s just not evenly distributed.\u201d It\u2019s worth adding that the even distribution of the future takes a lot of time. It\u2019s a constant work in progress. It\u2019s always happening.<\/p>\n<h3>Realization number 2<\/h3>\n<p>The next big thing is actually not big. It\u2019s probably a small thing built on top of another small thing enabled by another small thing linked to yet another small thing. The big thing is actually a collection of small things.<\/p>\n<p class=\"quote quote-left\">The next big thing is actually not big<\/p>\n<p>The entire history of the computer revolution shows this in action. Who started it? What\u2019s the specific piece of technology that caused it? The truth is that there were many fascinating people involved that each contributed something to it.<\/p>\n<p>Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage created the first concept of analytical machine and the first programming language. Alan Turing later came up with the idea of a universal computer. George Stibitz built the first electric calculator. Grace Hopper created the first computer compiler. Douglas Engelbart and Bill English invented the mouse. Ray Tomlinson created email. Alan Kay and Xerox PARC team created the Alto. Richard Stallman created the first free operating system, GNU. Tim Berners-Lee and his team at CERN created the world wide web. And so on and so on. There are countless other people who contributed to the computer revolution too.<\/p>\n<p>The point is clear. Lots of small innovations compounded over decades have resulted in what we call a computer revolution.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"custom-bots-are-a-small-step-in-a-big-direction\">Custom Bots are a small step in a big direction<\/h2>\n<p>Which brings us back to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/announcing-custom-bots-chatbots-drive-business-growth\/\">Operator, Custom Bots<\/a> and what a chatbot revolution might actually look like. A tool that enables anyone to build their own bots might seem cool, but maybe not a big deal on its own. It\u2019s definitely not how I thought the chatbot revolution would happen in 2015. But compound it with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/messenger\">Intercom Messenger<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/app-store\">apps built on the Intercom platform<\/a>, and it suddenly becomes a powerful thing. A thing that can enable many other things.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to dream about the next big thing. It\u2019s even more easy to get disappointed when it doesn\u2019t happen. Hype is a delusion. The next big thing more often than not is a distraction. That is why I am much more excited about the <em>next small thing<\/em>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"inline-cta-quote\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/operator-custom-bots\/?utm_medium=ii-blog&amp;utm_source=blog-cta&amp;utm_campaign=201808-custom-bots\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">If you&#8217;re as excited as we are about how chatbots can grow your business, you can get started right here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/operator-custom-bots\/?utm_medium=ii-blog&amp;utm_source=blog-cta&amp;utm_campaign=201808-custom-bots\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"small\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Custom-Bots-CTA.png\" alt=\"Download The Beginner's Guide to Real-Time Sales\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWe wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.\u201d \u2013 Peter Thiel People in tech commonly overestimate the impact of big things and underestimate the power of small things. We constantly talk about the next big&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":349,"featured_media":16609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"category":[25198,5],"tags":[339,489,11897,626],"coauthors":[12219],"class_list":["post-16574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-ml","category-product-and-design","tag-bots","tag-chatbots","tag-custom-bots","tag-operator"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Flying Cars, Chatbots And Looking Forward To The Next Small Thing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"People in tech commonly overestimate the impact of big things and underestimate the power of small things. 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However, our new Custom Bots prove the power and impact of small things.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/flying-cars-chatbots-and-looking-forward-to-the-next-small-thing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Intercom Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intercominc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-22T16:00:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-26T17:28:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Flying_Cars_Hero.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1968\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"932\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Yuriy Oparenko\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Oparenko\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@intercom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Yuriy Oparenko\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/flying-cars-chatbots-and-looking-forward-to-the-next-small-thing\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/flying-cars-chatbots-and-looking-forward-to-the-next-small-thing\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Yuriy Oparenko\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2d6afee502959f25031d02d8b8d74d19\"},\"headline\":\"Flying cars, chatbots and looking forward to the next small thing\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-22T16:00:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-26T17:28:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/flying-cars-chatbots-and-looking-forward-to-the-next-small-thing\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1030,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/flying-cars-chatbots-and-looking-forward-to-the-next-small-thing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/08\\\/Flying_Cars_Hero.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"bots\",\"chatbots\",\"Custom Bots\",\"operator\"],\"articleSection\":[\"AI &amp; Automation\",\"Product &amp; Design\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/flying-cars-chatbots-and-looking-forward-to-the-next-small-thing\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/flying-cars-chatbots-and-looking-forward-to-the-next-small-thing\\\/\",\"name\":\"Flying Cars, Chatbots And Looking Forward To The Next Small Thing\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/flying-cars-chatbots-and-looking-forward-to-the-next-small-thing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/flying-cars-chatbots-and-looking-forward-to-the-next-small-thing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/08\\\/Flying_Cars_Hero.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-22T16:00:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-26T17:28:51+00:00\",\"description\":\"People in tech commonly overestimate the impact of big things and underestimate the power of small things. 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