I write a decent amount of blog posts, have been at it since over 2 years on a fairly regular basis now actually. So it is not often that I get caught in a situation where I don’t know what should I put as a title for the post. Sometimes it is because so many of them might have been written already that I can’t think of anything that is not repetitive. And then there are posts like this one, about apps like Akibot whose features are so many and so varied that you don’t know what exactly to highlight. Not that I am a master of headlines but still. So yes Akibot – Businesses you must know about this one.
What is Akibot?
Akibot to me seems another of those pieces of software which are actually straight out of science fiction that are now turning into reality. Essentially it is a Twitter clone, a microblogging service for enterprises. However this one comes with something extra – Artificial Intelligence!
In the words of who made it, this is what Akibot does -
Akibot is the first semantic actionable micro-blogging platform for the enterprise. Confused? Me too… basically Akibot is a tool that not only allows real-time group collaboration and awareness through short messages, but it also understands those messages and, if applicable, takes action.
It is specially crafted for company/enterprise use.
What Are the Features?
Designed for short messages in a private environment – This aspect clearly takes the whole point of saying What You Are Doing on Twitter into the enterprise. Of course, Present.ly and Yammer does this already so this isn’t the exciting part.
Forever information and no search -When they say There is no search as a feature you are not only intrigued but get curious enough on how exactly is it useful. Especially when one of the feature is Share links, information and make all of it forever accessible. Confusing again, but the your head glows with the sense it makes – your message box is your search box.
EG – Say you share put a message (tweet) like – This is a good post on Akibot the enterprise software and share the link to this blog post (why not?). The next time any of your colleagues wants to know about Akibot or enterprise software, they just need to put a message asking – “is there any info on Akibot or enterprise sharing?’ Akibot will direct them to your tweet. Yes.
Again there are other tonnes of uses and features (Ok just a few more) listed in their features page to give you a better idea.
So What got me Excited?
The feature – its intelligence. The more I read about it the more reasons it gave m to immediately try it. I have never been excited about trying out new enterprise products because I am stingy about spending on Software and in general the work culture I have had till now hasn’t been motivating enough to organize work flow through tools better. However, the moment I read up on Akibot I told myself I will pay for this.
The use it presents for businesses is immense in my opinion. It is a Twitter that makes sense and makes tweets more valuable so to say. Everyday I share dozens of links with my team mates through Twitter DMs, through email, Facebook, Posterous and on chat. And these aren’t pointless sharing, most of them are critical stuff for my business. Akibot not only makes this as easy as a tweet but also stores and then (behold) retrieves it for not only me but for my team mates (at least that’s what it will be capable of doing). Imagine the use it will present for human resource training, process development, Customer Relations Management, Project management and timelines. I can personally see a lot of benefits here and I don’t see why others won’t.
In fact I personally think Twitter should buy Akibot and put an end to all the questions about its monetization – this is it.
Too bad currently the site is in private beta and only available for USA for Beta Testing anyway. However, it is pretty certain that international users will get a feel of this soon. So till then go see the site and what other pundits are talking about it and get excited with me, or come and correct me if I got all of this wrong.
In the meanwhile, Rajiv mentioned a similar tool for business called Alabot. It is also based on the Artificial Intelligence, and Natural Language Processing that Akibot uses. The good part and why this needs a mention in this post is because Alabot got funded recently from Global Ventures. Which can mean two things – either there is enough demand that is evident or the value proposition of semantic technology is appealing to the VC folks. In either case it presents a good opportunity for the creators of Akibot who might venture out seeking funding soon.
What differentiates Alabot from Akibot obviously is the Twitter kind of feature. Alabot banks on Chat based systems to provide intelligent support to business communication. Of course what is a better way can be subjective and more importantly on the intelligence fed into the system. However, AI and semantic technology on the web certainly is gaining momentum and therefore presents a lot of opportunities for interested entrepreneurs.
Thank you Maneesh for such kind words. You did grab the whole vision of Akibot and wrote a very clean and easy to read article.
Akibot (for now) has no international support for the following reasons:
-Text messaging: if you posted an appointment, Akibot will remind you a few hours before sending you a text message to your mobile. We’re using an SMS platform that only allows US based cell phones…
-Regional settings: every country has different regional settings (date/time notation, time zones, etc) that needs some extra development
-Language: english has its own semantic rules, which are different than any other language. Adding a new language also means extra development
Thanks again Maneesh for such nice article and keep up the good work
Marcelo
Akibot Development Team
I have been beta testing AI applications that exist ‘within’ Twitter, and it seems that’s more natural than a whole other platform to contend with? Your idea that Twitter acquires Akibot sounds like best idea, so it becomes something in their API’s to tap into.
Seeing 3rd party AI applications already working within the Twitter universe (AI characters who seem to be designed for conversation, Brand promotion and presenting Followers with both entertainment and practical value) seems more intuitive. Actually, it’s more like actual conversation than most Twitter experiences.
Hi Manesh,
Thanks for mentioning us ,We also twitter support and are actively working with customers to use our product on twitter platform to provide support /sell services etc
Regards,
Gaurav
@Marcelo
Thanks for the comment and clarification, and I for one completely understand the aspects. However, just so that you can put India on your radar soon, a couple of pointers:
1. English is the predominant language here at least when it comes to workplace communication
2. SMS is cheap here – even twitter once it removed SMS support in Europe continued to offer it in India besides US and Canada..
Hope these can be useful for you and perhaps enter here sooner than later.
@Dale
Completely agree with your point there
nice article. thanks
Update:
We uploaded some screencasts, please take a look at them:
http://www.akibot.com
And click on the “Tour” option
Thanks, have a great weekend!
Marcelo