GSA
Use agnostic platform like API.AI?
Does it make sense to use something like API.ai to build the conversational interface, and then click & generate the integration you want to deploy to (Alexa, Google Assistant, FB etc)?
Right now we're in the process of going through many of the lessons learned from the hackathon, and on-boarding new elements. We will have a full update next week on next steps -- we are in a very good spot right now thanks to your efforts.
I moved away API.ai handling conversation because managing and building the conversational flow felt cumbersome within their interface (this was a few months ago though). Now I just use Wit.AI for processing an incoming statement and manage the flow in our own state machine. The downside to API.ai IMO is that you can't use parts of the messaging platform APIs in as creative or useful a way for your use-cases (Ex: Check out the Trivia Blast bot on Facebook Messenger)
I think Wit.ai is a better option to use conversational interface. They have a much better intent handling
Interesting article: • Artificial intelligence (AI), in the form of voicebots, has taken center stage, “seemingly nudging chatbots out of the limelight even though we all started using them last year,” writes John Brandon. “The truth is,” Brandon contends, that “voicebots didn’t outshine chatbots because of the speech recognition features and ease of use — at least, not entirely. What really happened is that Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Amazon overshadowed chatbots — and, by extension, took the attention away from Facebook Messenger and other texting tools.” He expresses, “We prefer direct access to the weather, not an app running a bot. We realized an AI should provide first access, not a second or third layer back.” Venture Beat
My opinion RE: the Venture Beat post is that this is not an either/or proposition but an all-of-the-above. There's a billion different conversation styles in the wild and the successful communication platform is agnostic to how the customer consumes. It's no longer "build it and they will come," it's reach me in how I prefer at any given moment or circumstance.