Automation is a term used to describe technologies that can complete processes by themselves. Without question, this has been a defining force in human progress going back to ancient civilizations. For instance, water clocks in ancient Egypt and mechanical automata designed by Heron of Alexandria. Such systems serve as evidence of the human desire to reduce manual effort. In the 18th century, the advent of steam power played a massive role in this, announcing the start of manual labor being replaced by machines. [Source: Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution ]
In the latter half of the 20th century, automation extended beyond physical machines. It dove into the software realm with the emergence of bots. These are applications that perform tasks by running scripts automatically over the Internet. The oldest likely dates back to the late 1980s, and the first ones were used on Internet Relay Chat, or IRC.
In the past two decades, bots have become integral to multiple modern industries, ranging from customer service to digital marketing. They also play a pivotal role in cybersecurity, continuously monitoring network traffic for suspicious activity. In the past few years, they have found a footing in various competitive spaces. That is what gets analyzed below.
Bots in Video Games
Automated opponents in multiplayer video games became popular in the 1990s. That first happened in Doom, which introduced multiplayer bots with basic pathfinding and shooting patterns. Nonetheless, games like Half-Life and Quake III Arena took these non-player characters to a whole different level, as they were enhanced with complex scripted behaviors in these titles.
But that was players competing against software, which, while good, was nowhere near world-class. In the late 2010s, AI started to get more and more talked about, and its implementations grew. In 2017, OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, came out with OpenAI Five, a Dota 2 bot. This program, which could play the five-on-five video game Defense of the Ancients 2 by Valve, only two years later managed to beat two Dota 2 world champions on a live stream for everyone to see their superiority.
Today, the world’s best chess players confess that they can no longer beat competent-made engines, something also voiced by Magnus Carlsen, the world’s top-ranked player. According to this article about the use of bots in games of chance, the same holds in the poker world, where AI-driven bots like Claudico, Libratus, and Pluribus have demonstrated the potential to outperform human players.
Bots in Social Media
Is social media a competitive space? Of course. The social networking market is projected to be worth $206 billion. It has become a battleground where visibility reigns supreme, and the marketing-savvy can make millions. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X, the most famous ones, rely on sophisticated machine learning models to determine which content rises to the top, which usually also gets facilitated through engagement. That is where automation steps in. [Source: Social Networking – Worldwide ]
On X, formerly Twitter, the trending algorithm amplifies posts with rapid engagement, meaning it prefers content that triggers emotional responses. Influencers and brands employ engagement bots to boost stats that lead to trending posts. That not only happens on X but also on platforms like Instagram, which leads to seemingly organic growth but distorts authentic competition.
Many have expressed ethical concerns. But, brands still see bots as handy tools for running cost-effective campaigns, even though this violates platform guidelines and user trust.
Bots in Customer Service
Older PC users may remember SmarterChild, an intelligent agent/bot developed by ActiveBuddy and utilized in Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and Windows Live Messenger. It answered basic questions using predefined scripts and could perform tasks like giving FAQs and weather updates.
In the 2010s, far more complicated virtual helpers appeared on the Web, and one of the first was IBM Watson, which could answer queries posed in natural language. Then came Zendesk’s integrated chatbots, which proved to be a modern game-changer in the customer service arena and announced things to come. Nowadays, Gartner estimates that 80% of businesses employ AI chatbots.
Now, although these cannot yet match the capabilities of highly trained staff, they can address issues like order tracking or password resets quite adequately. They can do this quicker than their human counterparts and deliver uniform responses. In the years to come, they will probably squeeze out human customer support agents altogether, and a battle will rage over which company will be able to develop and market the most efficient and human-like virtual assistant.
Bots in Finance
Electronic trading systems debuted in the 1970s, and rudimentary automation tools in finance showed up with early online banking interfaces as scripts that aided in handling transactions. In the 2010s, robo-advisors popped up on the scene, and currently, around 70% of all equity trades are conducted automatically by algorithms. Moreover, advisory bots, like Talkbank’s Buffet, are now changing how people approach finance. The same goes for tools such as Cleo, which automate micro-saving based on account balances.
Bots reduce response times and cut costs, all while minimizing human error. Those who can afford them gain a distinct edge.
Due to their increased adoption in all industry segments, financial jobs will be reduced, even with concerns that poorly trained ones can make mistakes, like favoring specific clients and mishandling user data.
Final Words
The surge of automation, while heralding progress, casts a long shadow. Beyond the allure of efficiency, the article reveals a landscape riddled with ethical quandaries. The distortion of genuine engagement on social platforms, the looming threat of widespread job displacement, and the potential for algorithmic bias in finance all demand critical attention. While embracing technological advancement, we must not overlook the erosion of authentic human interaction and the widening digital divide. The unchecked proliferation of bots risks not only unfair competition but also a fundamental shift in societal values, demanding a proactive approach to regulation and responsible innovation.
