Interview with Tom Howe of Hydrolix: AI Bots, the Friends, Foes, and Frenemies of Online Shopping

Interview with Tom Howe, Director of Insights Engineering at Hydrolix, on how companies and consumers should view bots as the AI landscape continues to change how we all shop online. Plus, he deep dives into how to identify the good, the bad, and the ugly bot types–and what to do with them.

“Knowledge over fear,” says Tom Howe as we start our conversation. He’s light-hearted about the unknown, which probably stems from his social sciences background. It’s that foundation that’s led him into a decade or so of integrated data sciences and now provides the expertise to bridge the gap between internal engineering and customers for Hydrolix.

So, what does the merging of social sciences have to do with AI bots? Plenty. Howe breaks down the motivational energies from a company and consumer perspective to remove the stigma of fear around bots, going so far as ...