Introduction

Watching the documentary Startup.com, I was struck by how one of the most challenging parts of starting a business in the 90s was coming up with a catchy domain name. It was the peak of the dotcom boom, a time when many companies rushed online, producing little to no real value. Everyone wanted to have a piece of the internet, and having a cool domain name seemed crucial. But in all the excitement, the real question often went unasked: what do you actually do as a business? In hindsight, this should have been the first question on every investor's mind. But in the race to be part of the internet gold rush, many seized any opportunity, however vague, without thinking it through.

This reminds me a lot of the chatbot craze. Around 2018, adding a chatbot to your website became the new "must-have," even if it didn't provide real value. Everyone wanted to ride the wave, fearing they’d miss out on the next big thing. But what was the opportunity, really? Much like the rush for catchy domain names without clear business models, many rushed to deploy chatbots without understanding their purpose or potential.

I’ve seen many chatbots come and go, driven more by hype than by utility. At one point, I joined a small startup as the first engineer. We built what we hoped would be an innovative chatbot, or more accurately, a digital customer service agent. By the time I left two years later, we had grown from 3 to 40 employees and resolved tickets from millions of customers. We learned a lot about what makes a chatbot work—and what doesn't.

Now, with the benefit of hindsight, we can reflect on what makes a good chatbot. What are some of the assumptions that we left behind? If I were to build one today, what would it look like? Let's dive deeper into these questions.

How this book is structured

This book will be split into three parts to cater to different audiences and provide a comprehensive understanding of chatbots in ecommerce.

  1. Part one will offer a high level view designed to introduce terms and functions without technical intricacies. It covers essential concepts and practical insights into how chatbots function and their role in customer service.

  2. Part two will dive deeper into technical details. This portion will help readers with a technical background to turn around and build their own application that integrates all aspects of a chatbot.

  3. Part three will dive into how the principles and architecture behind eCommerce chatbots can be extended to other domains. Whether it’s virtual assistants like Siri and Google Assistant or chatbots specialized for different industries, the same foundational practices can be applied. This section will demonstrate how to leverage what you've learned to adapt your chatbot solution for a wide range of use cases, from general-purpose applications to field-specific implementations.

By splitting the content this way, I want to provide a clear and accessible introduction to chatbots while also offering a technical analysis for those seeking a practical understanding.

← Table of Content
← Understanding Chatbots