Research out of The George Washington University (USA) predicts as more and more business is conducted in virtual worlds, we are likely to see robots (Bots) take on bigger roles.

In “The Current State and Future Potential of Virtual Worlds ”, an article from the most recent issue of the International Journal of Virtual Communities and Social Networking (Editor-in-Chief Dr. Subhasish Dasgupta, The George Washington University, USA), researcher Dr. John M. Artz, The George Washington University (USA), examines future potential of virtual world technology from the likely to the speculative to see how it may ultimately affect virtual communities.

“Intelligent Bots will replace people in certain categories of jobs where the requirements of the job can be rationalized and committed to software,” writes Artz. “Jobs like sales, customer service, and help desks may well be assumed by intelligent avatars.”
 
According to Artz, Bots may soon find a role in education and business presentations. Today, the state-of-the-art in presentations include PowerPoint slides with some animation and perhaps some video. In the near future, the state-of-the-art may involve such possibilities as an animated avatar giving a scripted presentation and answering questions in such a way that one cannot tell for sure if the presenter is a person at the keyboard or an intelligent Bot.

(Portions of this article were taken from the International Journal of Virtual Communities and Social Networking - Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Subhasish Dasgupta.)