Technology and Business Week in Review: March 11, 2017

Building a chatbot for Facebook, John Deere partners with Kespry to bring drones and aerial data to construction and forestry, and comScore launches a new product called Connected Home. These are just some of the stories we were interested in this week in the world of technology and business—here’s an overview.

Wanna Build a DIY Facebook Messenger Chatbot—No Coding Required? When people hear the words chatbots, robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning they usually react in one of two ways: they panic because they feel like they’re behind when it comes to the adoption of these types of technology, or they get excited at the new capabilities made possible as a result.

Businesses see chatbots as the next big thing, and with good reason. Chatbots can improve communication between companies and their customers with software that taps artificial intelligence and natural language processing. From a customer service standpoint, chatbots can add great value, and are significantly cheaper (and often more expedient) than their human counterparts. Even better? If you’re interested in implementing this technology in your business, you can now create DIY chatbots using Facebook Messenger—and there’s no coding expertise required.

Visit this page to create your own Facebook Messenger chatbot and if you do, please be sure to tell me about your experience.

John Deere Partners with Kespry to bring drones and aerial data to construction and forestry. The construction industry is turning to technology in a big way to enhance productivity in the building process.

We have already seen drones used to assist first responders in fighting wildfires, and we’ve seen drones light up the sky during Super Bowl. Dana Reeves, one of our team members, owns a video production company with her husband, and they use drones on client video shoots. In short, advancements in drone technology is leading to increased adoption and that’s not likely to go anywhere but up.

Now well-known tractor company, John Deere—no stranger to innovation—is bringing industrial drones to construction job sites around the world after signing an agreement with drone maker Kespry. To find out more about this strategic partnership, please check out this article shared by Diana Thompson.

comScore Introduces Home Panel to Measure Connected Devices. This week comScore launched a new product called Connected Home that measures customer usage of devices that are connected to the Internet and home networks. These devices include smart television, smartphones, streaming devices like Amazon FireTV, Roku, and AppleTV, thermostats, and other smart appliances. comScore has been experiencing challenges since last year’s announcement of an investigation into the way the company accounted for certain non-monetary transactions. Delisted from NASDAQ as a result, the company has spent more than $39 million in consulting fees to try to get its financial house in order. This new product launch is surely a nod to regaining industry credibility. To learn more about this new product from comScore, make sure to click on the link shared by my friend, Michael Becker. Michael is a great source of all info related to mobility and the connected society, so if you’re not already following him, make sure you do!

Amazon Raises Ad Stakes with Video Advertising. Is there anything Amazon doesn’t do? This week, Amazon took another step in monetizing video with the rollout of Video Ads (AVA) to advertisers working with the Amazon Media Group (AMG). This new offering from Amazon offers advertisers the ability to run an autoplay feature in videos as potential buyers browse for their next purchase. The service is available across all desktops, tablets, and smartphones. Visitors can choose to view the ads in full-screen with the sound on or off.

Before you rush off to create video for the Amazon platform, know that as always, shorter is better. Based on early testing of the new advertising platform, the video ad and placement performs best in the first five seconds of play, with an optimal running time of 15 seconds or less. For Amazon, it’s all about dominating another space and driving down the cost of video views across the marketplace.

For more, check out this article shared by Lara O’Reilly on Twitter. 

How Technology is Transforming Recruiting. Technology is constantly transforming business, including the business of recruiting talent. In order to remain competitive, you need to be attracting and hiring the best, most qualified people in your industry—whether they’re actively seeking a new position or not. Digital recruiting tools can save your company time and money, but there since there is so much more to consider, it’s hard to determine which one is best for you and your team. That’s why you should make time to participate in an upcoming webinar: How Technology is Transforming Recruiting.

Two of the industry’s leading experts, Meghan Biro of TalentCulture and getTalent’s President Shravan Goli, are hosting this free webinar event on Tuesday, March 28 from 1pm – 2pm EDT.

Here is some of key points Meghan and Shravan will discuss during this webinar include:

• How to leverage technology to reduce time-to-hire and save money
• Why passive candidates are often the most valuable candidates
• The importance of building and nurturing a candidate pipeline to set yourself up for success
• Common mistakes you’re currently making in sourcing candidates
• Automation and how it can make you a better recruiter.

Don’t miss this exciting and informative session and put these insights to work for you and your business—take a moment to register today >> Registration form here.

Photo Credit: krossiter4 Flickr via Compfight cc