With every platform now trying to figure out how to integrate generative AI elements into their apps, the main avenues being explored include facilitated chatbot creation, giving users the ability to create their own, custom AI bots that can respond to text queries in-stream.

Which may not have a heap of value for regular users, but for brands.

The newest is ByteDance, owner of TikTok, experimenting with bot building through a new, soon to be released platform that will allow AI chatbot tailoring within different parameters.
Custom LLMs and bots are now the latest fad in the Chinese market as well, with rival of ByteDance, Baidu, launching a system for developing its own chatbot development system, which includes tools to create interactive models around a business's products and services.

Which is the real value here. If you could build a system like ChatGPT but customized for your database and around your products, that would be some very helpful tool to streamline the way you do customer service, and aid potential customers in getting better answers to their queries with less manual intervention.

Even though Western audiences haven't always warmed to this sort of thing.

Meta tried to make chatbots a thing in Messenger back in 2016, and there was also a suite of customizing frameworks and tools meant to help brands build their own digital assistants. They never really took off, though, and while AI bots are far further along, it is as yet unclear if people will be any more accepting of these systems either, although with the level of popularity to date of ChatGPT, they probably could be worthwhile experimenting with.

Meta is also building their tools for developing AI chatbots, but OpenAI recently previewed its new "GPT Store" that will provide bot customization options across several categories.

It may be the next wave as people get more comfortable using conversational types of queries, as they do on ChatGPT, so this would make it a very valuable addendum element that enables similar search behaviors aligned to your business offerings.

More interesting is TikTok's checking in on AI image generation-not just through the use of filters within the app-but an entirely new platform that is more like Midjourney. It's testing an in-stream chatbot within its app in the Philippines and also conversational prompts to help refine your "For You" feed.
It's clear that TikTok and by extension ByteDance sees generative AI discovery processes as shaping a new generation of user behaviors and, as such, it may well be worth paying attention to its developments on this front, as it looks to help more businesses facilitate such in the app.

Well, generative AI was already going to be a key trend of note in 2024 anyway, but it is also worth considering more moderate usage shifts that will come from this and how your business could best align with such using the available tools.