Microsoft has teamed up with Michelin-starred chef Heston Blumenthal on a Skype bot designed to improve people’s culinary skills.
The “Heston Bot” provides cooking tips, flavour pairings and anecdotes from the chef and each month will be updated with seasonal menus.
The bot also comes with videos messages from Blumenthal with additional tips and tricks on how to be a pro in the kitchen.
“Anyone who’s curious will have access to tips and techniques updated throughout the year, as well as recipes to make everyday cooking easier,” Blumenthal said. “People will get a real insight into how I think and how I cook, and I hope everyone is inspired to experiment and have fun with my recipes.”
Dean Withey, co-founder and CEO, ubisend, commented on the move: “The ‘Heston Bot’ is such a fun and creative idea to encourage people to get cooking. It demonstrates how technological developments in artificial intelligence have made it possible to build chatbots that are smarter and much more versatile than ever before.
“The benefits of AI and messaging services are that they not only allow brands to improve and enhance the consistency of the service they offer, but they also delight users. They offer a novelty experience that cannot be delivered by any other means of digital contact. Microsoft’s partnership with Heston Blumenthal is a great example of this – a persona that has been brought to life through a chatbot that shares gourmet recipes to encourage behaviour change and also makes people happy.”