Dive Brief:
- Slack’s CEO Stewart Butterfield says projections about a bot takeover are highly exaggerated, at least in the near-term, according to a Fortune report.
- Speaking at the New Yorker TechFest on Friday, Butterfield said bots in the short terms are "not going to make that much of a difference."
- Butterfield does, however, see bot potential in the future. “In the long-term, I am hugely bullish," he said. "I think there will be an incredible future."
Dive Insight:
Slack already is a champion of bots, using its own Slackbot to assist Slack users.
Several large tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, have recently predicted that the rise of bots will change the way people interact with their technology. According to a July ZDNet report, the market for RPA is expanding as enterprises look to trim costs and boost efficiencies. But Butterfield says a bot takeover is not going to happen anytime soon.
The technology shows promise, but is still in its infancy as far as capabilities and application are concerned.
Last month, Forrester predicted automation supported by intelligent software agents will be on the rise in the next five years, accounting for the elimination of a net 6% of U.S. jobs.
