It’s nearly the end of the month.  There are still a few days to go until pay day and you need some cash.  You don’t want to call one of those “Pay Day Loan” companies you see on daytime TV, as you don’t fancy paying 1,583,942% interest on a couple of hundred quid.  So what do you do?  Well, you might be able to ask your smartphone to ask your dad.  Nicely.

You have a “digital assistant” on your smartphone, called M.  “M, I’m a bit tight for cash.  Can you ask dad if I can borrow £200 please?”  “Sure” says M.  Meanwhile dad is sat at home, trying out his new high-back chair from HSL or waiting for Ronnie Corbett to deliver lunch.  Suddenly dad’s smartphone springs into life.  It’s M.  “Derek, it’s M.  Your son/daughter wants to borrow £200.  Is that OK?”  “Yes”, says dad.  M then immediately transfers £200 from dad’s account to yours.  This may all sound like something fanciful from that futuristic bit in Back to the Future Part II.  But this could be happening right now.  And it’s all down to those pesky folk at Facebook.

They are the Champions

Most of us that use Facebook carry its Messenger app on our smartphones.  It’s the quick and easy way to communicate with our friends and family and it’s quite often cheaper than texting.  But Facebook wants Messenger to do more.  Much more.  It wants Messenger to become M.  And it wants M to become a personal assistant to all of us.  It also wants M to do much more than the like of Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana.

Siri and Cortana are quite handy if you’re feeling a bit lazy and you want to ask a simple question such as, “Where’s the nearest chemist?” or “Can you play me some music by Queen?”  You can also use them as a verbal short cut for sending a text or calling someone.  But that’s about all they can do.  Facebook wants M to be able to make instant purchases on our behalf.  And not just when you want to ask M to buy you a DVD from Amazon.

Ho-de-Ho!

Imagine you’re sat in work and it’s your other half’s birthday.  You’ve already hastily flung a card and a bunch of flowers at them before you fled to work this morning.  But now you think it’s time to arrange something special.  So you grab your smartphone.  “M, can you book me a table at Tony’s Trattoria at 7:30 tonight please?”  “Certainly”, says M. A couple of minutes later, M pipes up again.  “Tony’s Trattoria has just confirmed your booking tonight at 7:30”.  Job done.  As time goes on of course, M begins to know more about you.


M will suddenly ask you random questions.  It’ll know what films, music and shows you like.  It’ll know when a new movie or album is out that you might like.  It’ll remember anniversaries and birthdays.  Before you know it, you and M are best buddies.  But could this be stretched out even further?  If companies such as Tony’s Trattoria are using it, could major companies, organisations and local authorities use it in place of call centres and IVR systems?  (We made up Tony’s Trattoria by the way.  Or at least David Croft & Jimmy Perry did, as it was the local restaurant in Hi-de-Hi!)

You Only Get Free Parking in Monopoly

Imagine you’ve received a parking fine and you just want to get it out of the way before it doubles in price.  “M, could you pay my parking fine please?  It’s reference 48395P”.  “Certainly”, says your chirpy digital assistant.  Two minutes later, M chirps at you, “Your parking fine with the local council has been paid”.  Now this transaction could have greater consequences than the previous scenarios we’ve outlined.

You already have a connection with Dad on Facebook as you’re “friends” on the social networking site.  You also “like” Amazon and Tony’s Trattoria.  But what possible connection outside of Facebook and Messenger could you have with your local Council’s parking department?  Well, it’s entirely possible that M could be rolled out to all major businesses, utility providers, local authorities and more.  You won’t even need to have a Facebook or Messenger link with them.  So gone will be the days when you had to dial a call centre, negotiate your way around an IVR or be placed on hold.  Well, that appears to be the plan anyway.  But will everyone embrace it?

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Of course not.  Not everyone uses a smart phone and a lot of people still want to carry out transactions in person – or at least by talking to a person.  There are still many people that don’t even pay their utility bills by Direct Debit and don’t even own a PC, never mind a smart phone.  Admittedly those people are usually hundreds of years old.  But if our kids are brought up using such systems as M, there’s a slim chance that in 20 or 30 years, they could well take over our lives.  So what would that mean for the nice folks that work in call centres?

At present, the few people that are privileged to use M are finding that it’s generally a good experience and that's mainly because there are humans lurking in the background doing all the work.  But eventually, once this system of artificial intelligence is up, running and learning, don’t expect there to be too many humans frantically fussing over its every move.

Here Comes the Pun Again

So for now, humans in call centres, receptionists in offices, personnel in banks and Tony’s nephew who takes the bookings at the Trattoria are all safe.  But it won’t be long before the systems are doing it for themselves.

For BBC’s look at Facebook’s M, click here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34070539


Contact Us
Fresh Air Studios