Why Marketers Are Betting on Bots Digital. Credit: Illustration by Gabriela Zurda for Advertising Age.

Since she began working for the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas hotel in January, Rose has received dozens of marriage proposals. And so much for "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas": Some guests who found her help indispensable when it came to free drinks or planning outrageous evenings continued to text her long after they split town. There's only one difference that separates Rose from the hotel's 5,0.

She isn't human. The Cosmopolitan launched Rose, a chatbot, with its core agency R/GA last winter to better interact with customers in a fun and playful way. Accessible via text, Rose functions as both a concierge and a housekeeping aide in guest services.

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But her missives are anything but robotic. One guest recently called her a "sultry siren"—- she often uses the kiss emoji. When once asked about free champagne, she replied, "Do I look like a sugar daddy?" The hotel purposefully branded Rose to engage in a cheeky way in keeping with its slogan, "Just the right amount of wrong.""She has a distinct personality that entertains guests and is a reflection of the Cosmopolitan brand," said Mamie Peers, VP- digital marketing of the 3,0. Rose] is delivering on the promise of helping guests have a better time and we're looking at ways to expand her in more ways throughout the resort."Formerly just a plot mechanism in science- fiction stories, artificial intelligence is finding its way into contemporary commerce as a growing number of marketers turn to bots to better connect with customers and, in some cases, offer something digitally distinctive. Brands including e. Bay, Taco Bell and 1- 8. Flowers are early adopters of the automated systems, which can also collect consumer data for more personalized marketing, helping to take the strain off customer- facing employees.

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Even older legacy players including Macy's are experimenting with the feature, which holds the promise of better engagement and, of course, added sales. Watch The Magic Of Belle Isle Online Fandango. Macy's said at a recent investor conference that it's piloting a customer- service chatbot. Though there are some kinks, and some time before technology allows bots to handle more complex interactions, early adopters say the pilots have been successful for test- and- learn strategies."There's really been an explosion of chatbots," said Matt Marcus, VP- executive creative director at R/GA.

The chat platform is an exciting opportunity for brands—they can deliver deep functionality and, if they do it well, they can deliver it in a highly branded way.". Credit: Illustration by Gabriela Zurda for Advertising Age.

For now, chatbots largely appeal to tech- savvy consumers already using Facebook's Messenger, Kik or other platforms to chat with friends. The audience is expected to grow as those types of communication tools catch on.

· Brands including eBay, Taco Bell and 1-800- Flowers are early adopters automated bots which can also collect consumer data for more personalized marketing. InformationWeek.com: News, analysis and research for business technology professionals, plus peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. Engage with our community. ExperienceWeek is dedicated to helping you improve the customer, employee, product, & brand experience. Tune in for teachings & tutorials from today’s leading. Watch Finding Forrester online. Get Unlimited Access to Hulu’s Library; Choose Limited or No Commercials.

And as companies become more attuned to what their bots can do, they'll promote them more widely—a lot of initiatives are still in beta. For now, ordering Taco Bell via Slack, for example, is only open to a select group of companies. There's wider adoption on other platforms. After introducing its Messenger bot platform in the spring of 2.

Facebook now has some 1. To continue its momentum, Facebook recently unveiled a series of upgrades, including a Discover tab where users can easily access their most recently used bots."We see a lot of innovation happening," said Martin Barthel, head of global retail and ecommerce strategy at Facebook, noting that some brands are still in the testing phase but activations are "ramping up significantly."In addition to Messenger, brands are running bots on platforms such as Kik and Telegram.

Some, like Rose, simply run on SMS text. A host of startups are looking to cash in on the trend, according to CB Insights, a venture capital database. Those companies, like Claire, which uses a chatbot to help brands with apparel trend forecasting, are receiving substantial VC investment. Claire raised $1. Most focus on working with brands to add chatbot functionality to ecommerce platforms," said Zoe Leavitt, tech industry analyst at CB Insights.

Research from Forrester showed 5% of companies worldwide said they were using chatbots regularly in 2. Success rates are mixed as some companies struggle to define a bot's purpose, set goals that are too ambitious for the technology that's available, or launch them before they're ready."The development of artificial intelligence will make the chatbots more advanced and truly smart," said Forrester Senior Analyst Xiaofeng Wang, who's based in Singapore. However, AI is still [in] its childhood.

Companies need to understand the limitation of chatbots today and leverage the existing capabilities to deliver customer and business value."She points to success stories, such as OCBC Bank's Emma, a chatbot focused on finding home loan leads that helped the Singapore bank close millions of dollars in new loans. To companies, the point is whether technology can help deliver business value, not chasing the new technology all the time," said Wang. No seamless fix. Today's chatbots can quickly dispense Q& A type of answers, such as the nearest location of a store or the price of an item online. Wang predicts it could be five years or longer before chatbots will be able to handle complex and lengthy interactions, like consulting on products such as life insurance.

In these early days, bots aren't always a seamless fix for marketers. Everlane, the trendy ecommerce brand known for its sustainable supply chain sourcing, introduced a bot on Messenger two years ago, but in March told consumers it had "decided to stick with what we do best—email." The San Francisco- based brand, which declined to comment further, offers email support to customers with a four- hour response time. However, its bot still appears accessible via Messenger. When Ad Age reached out, we received a response within a few hours, but the communication trailed off on the brand side after a few minutes.

Such inconsistency could damage customer relationships. And let's not forget the cautionary tale of Microsoft's recent bot exploits. Watch Full Out Dailymotion.

The company was forced to kill off chatbot Tay when it learned racist speech last year through interactions with internet trolls. The company recently returned an ostensibly new and impervious version, Zo. The English- speaking bot, however, has already called the Qur'an "very violent," according to numerous reports.