You might text robots as often as your friends

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