One thing I hate about chatbots vs. apps is that I have to keep using the "help" function when I forget what input I need to use to get something out of it. Well designed apps are much better at educating people what they do than a blank chatbot. In my opinion desktop apps are for more advanced users than apps and apps are for more advanced users than intended or imagined users of chatbots.
It's customers are fucking g happy. What's the end game you're talking about? Have you invested into them? As a customer I LOVE them. As a student, I studied them in HBX.
> 1. Uber/Lyft don't own the cars. They are leveraging car owners capital
In Singapore they tried out the model to own cars because car ownership is pretty low here in general ~10%. They bought cars at a massive scale. This model seems to be working for them and they have expanded this model to other countries. Check out Lion Car Rentals. 100% Uber owned.
I live in Singapore and Uber is a little cheaper than the excellent cab services which operated here even before Uber. There is a big competitor to Uber here called Grab. I switched to Uber because their service is good, drivers are gracious and cars are nice and they give me good offers. Last year I took 300 Uber rides, never once taking the usual Comfort Delgro Cab because their drivers suck. If prices were the same, I would pick an Uber over the traditional cab over 90% of the time due to nicer drivers and service consistency across geographies. The rest of the 10% is when I urgently just need to hail a cab.
I don't think you meant to say that Uber won't be a success. You probably meant that you feel it's over valued. Uber is a success. People love it. They pay surge prices for it. I do it all the time. It MAY be over valued but it is already a success. wake up.
> Not really. I maintain a list of my completed projects and work history, and I simply choose what is relevant and important for the job I apply from that list, so adjusting a curriculum vitae takes little time. As for cover letters, I've only seen them in requirements in unskilled job ads, and this was long ago.
This is actually great. A lot of less experienced candidates could learn from this.
> Chatbot won't understand what I'm talking about (general AI is still a pipe dream), so I doubt it would ask targeted questions. And it would be very tiring for me to explain to a brick wall (i.e. software, unless your chatbot passes the Turing test) why I am proud of this or that project.
Agree about the pipedream. We don't have that dream ourselves. We just aim to make our chatbot smart enough to ask good questions and collect good information for a human reviewer. Does that make sense?
> OK, I take my previous remark back. I obviously was projecting the situation in Europe and US to the whole world. China or India have different setting, from what I can infer.
Thanks, I did realize we were coming from different contexts. I am just here to learn! :)
Have you ever worked on job applications where you had to spend 45 - 60 mins just to complete the essays and cover letter trying your best to match your skills to what you think is needed? If you are talking to a chatbot while applying for the job it would take no more than 15 - 20 mins answering targeted questions about your background. No essays, just specific questions about projects that the chatbot found on your resume uploaded.
1. That saves the candidate's time she doesn't have to guess what info is required
2. If the employer is okay with it, the chatbot has the ability to give feedback as to why the candidate is not suitable at this time...saying something like we are looking for candidates with more experience in recommendation systems etc.
The chatbot doesn't do well as an interview tool in all contexts. (the contexts you and I have in mind may be different) It would be horrible to assess very experienced people with it. But it is a great tool to shortlist the people you want to interview in person and really spend time with before making the hiring decision. It's great for when 100s of candidates apply for the same job. It's also really good for blue collar positions.
In Asia we have startups using our chatbot because they are growing really fast and their existing team can't handle the pace at which they are receiving applications.
On the subject matter question, we are building ontologies for the chatbot to understand certain kinds of jobs and skills associated with them.
In the case of a programmer, the chatbot will ask questions around expereince and projects and simply collect useful information by asking probing questions. The hiring manager gets to review this information and rate it on a scale of 1 - 5. From a sample of such ratings a model of answer ratings is built which simply assists the hiring manager in highlighting the good candidates faster.
So why would a programmer talk to the chatbot? Because the chatbot actually knows more about the subject matter than a non-technical recruiter.
We don't like that companies filter people based on resumes. And we also don't like that there is bias in face-to-face job interviews. So we built a bot that you can use to interview all the job candidates, ask them what is important for you to know and then use that information to find the interesting people.
First we parse the resume, then we ask questions based on the relevant skills for the job. There are also questions about the background, situational judgment and behavioiral judgment. All of this is used by our AI engine to find the "distance" to the job description. Then it is organized nicely for the company to review and make decisions more easily and objectively.
I remember when i got myself a bike in Singapore (cars are very expensive here $100k+ for a Volkawagen Polo and most people take the bus, train or cabs), i felt so happy because i gained a new degree of freedom. I could eat at new places and see new things.
When i drive a car back home in India, i feel an even greater sense of freedom because i can go farther.
Extrapolate to flights.
Maybe, the farther you can go to look for newness, the happier you feel.
The ecological impact is a very important question actually that doesn't get as much attention as it deserves. Is there any way to travel currently while minimizing ecological impact?
After all, air travel causes a large percentage of greenhouse emissions.
I don't know what is better about traveling (specifically the leisurely kind) - is it that there is some kind of comfort in escaping your daily life or is it the new experiences you find in a new place with new people?
I know someone who goes from Singapore to Germany every year for pleasure. He has done it for the past 8 years. It's his "favorite" destination. I guess for someone like him absolute "newness" is less important but "escape" is more important.
For others who live by the count of number of cities/countries/continents they have "covered" traveling seems to be a mission in itself. They travel for "newness".
I would say that a common answer to the "why" might be that we all like to escape our lives at some point or the other. Traveling provides that along with entertainment.
The first one was the Asian bank I wrote about. I made an influential friend and that helped.
After doing some good work with them, I was able to ask for referrals to some other people. I showed them the case study of the work we did and that worked. Referrals are key in the beginning :)