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Huffington Post's chatbot tells Netflix viewers what to watch next

The Huffington Post?s entertainment division is creating a dialogue with readers regarding what to watch on Netflix through a chatbot that provides recommendations on Facebook Messenger. 

The pervasiveness of chatbots has led many publishers to jump to Facebook Messenger and other messaging applications with their own AI solutions to create a stronger bond with consumers through a two-sided conversation. Huffington Post Entertainment is hoping to be the go-to source for the well-known problem of what to watch next through an interactive chatbot that provides users with the best titles to fit their needs.

"At The Huffington Post, we are always looking for new ways to deepen our relationship with our audience," said Christine Roberts, mobile editor at The Huffington Post. "This bot is a great opportunity for us to interact with our readers on a more direct level. 

"Figuring out what to watch on Netflix can be difficult - in fact, many of our top Entertainment stories address this topic - so we wanted to create something would make our readers' lives easier," she said. "The recommendations in the bot were either written by current HuffPost editors or pulled from past HuffPost reviews."

Chatting up experiences
Huffington Post Entertainment is hoping to connect with the wide range of consumers who are interested in Netflix and are looking to find the next best thing to watch. Facebook Messenger users can now message with the publication?s chatbot to find something to watch on Netflix and learn more information. 


Users can message the Huffington Post Entertainment page on Facebook Messenger to start the process. The chatbot will answer back with an introduction and ask users whether they would like to watch a movie or a TV show. 

The chatbot provides users with pre-created answers, so they can click on either one of the two and it will automatically send the chosen response. The Huffington Post Entertainment messenger will then look into whether individuals are interested in comedy or drama by first asking ?are you in the mood for drama.? 

For those that are not interested in drama, they can click the arrow button to scroll through the different genres which then says ?or would you rather a good laugh,? and ?or how about a docuseries.? Once a genre is selected, the chatbot provides a show within the qualifications. 
Netflix users can then click ?tell me more? to learn more about the show, scroll for more options or select view on Netflix, which brings users directly to their Netflix app open to the selected program. 

Chatbots preservation 
Ferrara Candy Company?s Trolli brand similarly translated its brand quirkiness for a chatbot on Facebook Messenger that offers a range of activities in chat form, including giveaways and several surprises meant to appeal to young users (see more).

Whole Foods Market also got in on the chatbot frenzy, but with a new twist, serving fans on Facebook Messenger recipes with instructions that are personalized based on a user's responses (see more).

"Chatsuite developed a content management system specifically designed to allow marketers and publishers like Huffington Post to optimize their content for the social messaging marketing channel," said Asaf Amir, CEO of Chatsuite, the developer behind the chatbot. "Through the use of a proprietary randomization engine, Huffington Post is able to build libraries of content used to schedule and program movie and TV recommendations to users."