In coming months, users of Facebook's Messenger app Microsoft's Skype and Canada's Kik can expect to find new automated assistants offering information and services at a variety of businesses These messaging "chatbots" are basically software that can conduct human-like conversation and do simple jobs once reserved for people Google and other companies are reportedly working on similar ideas Reaching a chatbot can be as simple as clicking a link in an online ad or scanning a boxy bar code with a smartphone camera "Bots are the new apps," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said last month as Facebook is widely expected to unveil similar tools for its Messenger chat
