IoT devices and appliances are increasingly making purchasing decisions, influencing sales and shaping industries.By an estimate , more than 15bn devices will be transaction capable by the year 2028 .

Algorithmic trading has been around for a while, however, checks and controls by humans are always kept in palce before decision-making, allowing for only selective autonomy or goal-driven autonomy to the machines.The autonomy however, is ever-increasing at a much faster pace, thanks to the unprecedented advancements in AI and High Performance Compute (HPC) hardware becoming generally available.The continuous advents in algorithms has made AI seeping rapidly into the "Smart Devices and Appliances" and soon a large majority of transactions, currently being done by the humans, will be taken over by the machines.A smart refrigerator with an AI camera, for an example, keeping track of food items stored and picked and then ordering "stuff" on your behalf as needed, is a reality already !

As this advancement continues to grow and automate various transactional tasks which usually a human customer would do, businesses must adapt to serve these "new breed of customers" - Machines, powered by algorithms and data!This shift , on one hand, poses grave challenges and on the other opens up new opportunities for businesses.Its imperative that all businesses need to optimize their processes, develop new targeted marketing strategies, and ensure seamless user experiences for this new breed of customers.

To remain competitive, we must embrace this change and invest in technology, analytics, and employee training to cater to the evolving needs of their machine-based counterparts.Are you geared up to generally handle AI Capable M2M in your business, and in particular, to handle the immense pressure and new ways of responses these Bots expect?What basic capabilities would essentially make a business - "bot customer ready" ?Let's pick some top elements directly impacted by this paradigm.

Ability to interact with and entertain "bot customers"

By an estimate, 20-30% of e-Comm sites will be obsolete for their lack of support and interaction ability with the "Bot Customers" !The bare minimum capability needed to stay in the game is - to let bots discover your storefront, browse through the catalogs and search , compare, select and add products to cart before making the final payments.All possible via robust APIs and bot-readable (scrapable) content.

Handling "Machinas" -(a.k.a.bot personas)

I came across this interesting term "Machina" in a quick bullet on this topic by Rik Reppe.Isn't it highly intriguing to imagine the persona or "Machina" of these customer bots, the way it would be or should be ?When machines start to actually finish off the interactions , currently done by human customers, some of those would be solid "market researchers" (with unmatched ability to find best deals available) , or "shrewd negotiators" , pressing for ever better value with presumably their equivalent service bots or a "picky choosy complainant" asking for host of customized features and services.Whatever persona those may come with, it will be hard to tackle without having an equally smart capability in systems across the board, CRM, Sales, Pricing, Decisioning, Support - you name it !

"Algos negotiating with Algos" !May the better algorithm win !Definitely the Customer Experience (CX) as it appears today, would be far too different and pegged on altogether different parameters .Some of the digital strategies like Recommendations , omnipresence across ad channnels, Influencer promotions, and algo driven sales would have to transform , largely considering that now it's not the humans, but smarter machines whom those will have to influence.

Continuous Value Projection

The Buying Bots, running algos representing human masters, will have to repeatedly convince the humans of their efficiency , speed and cost effectiveness, of negotiating and purchasing smartly and also elminating wasteful purchases where possible.More of this would be required to maintain trust and justify a bot's value.For the Sellers, the CX would be driven by "Machina"s !

Expanding beyond the usual bill payments or grocery/food items purchases, more intangibles would seep in quickly.Handling the "asthetics", "brand preference", "life time value delivered" as perceived by the algorithms instead of the humans, will become prime considerations for the marketers.How would CX designers conceptualise and lay down the experiential journeys for this entire chain?Would CX be remarkably beyond the usual "sight", "sound", "smell","touch","taste" propositions that are currently prevalent and designed for the humans?

Rapid adaptability and quick updateability would be the essence on both, Buyer and seller sides, to keep better at doing what the other half expects those to do !

The battle for Control

An important dimension to consider is the imminent desire of a human to "be in control".I am sure a Smart refrigerator owner wouldn't want to allow a "free-hand" to the appliance, to shop for anything and everything autonomously, lest it could go haywire and may put an unprecedented financial burden when the bots go haywire in many un-anticipated situations.Example, an upcoming long vacation that may reduce the need for food items etc.which the bot did not foresee !"Purchases made with human approval in the loop" should be perfectly fine though.

The absence of touch, smell and feelings for the Robots will keep things complicated in the UX/CX arenas but that will be shortlived.Innovators would soon break Tech barriers in these arenas as well, putting a humongous demands on the systems in place.In summary, the challenges to be addressed are manifold and the "bot-customer paradigm" is already a reality, even if in a nascent stage.The pace at which this will grow will be unprecedented and will wipe out those who dare to write this off as a fictional crap.Those who embrace this change and invest in technology, analytics, and employee training to cater to the evolving needs of their machine-based counterparts, will survive !the time to act is now.