GARTNER HYPE CYCLE & CLOUD COMPUTING

I have created this post as I found this assignment to be very interesting. There are always limitations to an assignment, word count, timing, etc. Therefore, here on my blog page, I though I would add some more videos I found, images and place my full report below. I have also added some of my own thoughts about the videos, the advertising and some additional thoughts on the future. Hope you enjoy!

Online Prezi presentation is also available, search Annette Bisinella or go to: http://prezi.com/o0i99sx_zj_0/gartner-hype-cycle/

Gartner, Inc. is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. They deliver technology-related insight necessary for their clients to make the right decisions, every day. Their clients range from CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors (Gartner, Inc. 2012). Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner, Inc. is able to work with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 5,000 associates, including 1,280 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries (Gartner, Inc. 2012).

Cloud computing, an emerging technology featured in the Hype Cycle is focused on below, and the key phases and development this technology has progressed through.

The Gartner Hype Cycle

The Gartner Hype Cycle is a methodology that’s been used effectively by Gartner since 1995 (Gartner, Inc. 2012). The Hype Cycle provides a graphic representation of the maturity and adoption of technologies and applications, and how they are potentially relevant to solving real business problems and exploiting new opportunities (Gartner, Inc. 2012).

The Gartner Hype Cycle methodology gives you a view of how a technology or application will evolve over time, providing insight into managing its deployment within the context of specific business goals (Gartner, Inc. 2012).

The key phases in Gartner’s Hype Cycle

Each Hype Cycle drills down into the five key phases of a technology’s life cycle (Gartner, Inc. 2012):

1. Technology trigger: A potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant publicity. Often no usable products exist and commercial viability is unproven.
2. Peak of inflated expectations: Early publicity produces a number of success stories—often accompanied by scores of failures. Some companies take action; many do not.
3. Trough of disillusionment: Interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.
4. Slope of enlightenment: More instances of how the technology can benefit the enterprise start to crystallize and become more widely understood. Second- and third-generation products appear from technology providers. More enterprises fund pilots; conservative companies remain cautious.
5. Plateau of productivity: Mainstream adoption starts to take off. Criteria for assessing provider viability are more clearly defined. The technology’s broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off

Activity streams, wireless power, Internet TV, Micro Blogging, EBook Readers, 3D Printing, Speech Recognition, NFC payment and private cloud computing are some technologies that have featured on Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle by Gartner, Inc. Cloud Computing is the technology I will be focusing on in this report (Gartner, Inc. 2012).

Cloud Computing

Cloud is a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-related capabilities are provided as a service to customers using Internet technologies. It is a computing paradigm where the boundaries of computing are determined by economic rationale rather than technical limits alone (Gartner, Inc. 2012).

Cloud services cover a spectrum, including system infrastructure (e.g., computing, storage), application infrastructure (e.g., process server, database), full applications, information services (e.g., search) and business services (e.g., order fulfillment) (Gartner, Inc. 2012).

There are three main delivery models (Gartner, Inc. 2012):

• Public cloud, where a cloud provider runs a shared-service environment accessible to any buyer. Community cloud limits access to a set of buyers (e.g., government agencies). Public and community cloud offer economies of scale, but concerns about security, privacy, trust and control limit mission-critical uses.
• Private cloud, where the enterprise has exclusive use of an isolated cloud, by implementing a cloud itself or offloading to a cloud provider's virtual private environment. Both approaches reduce elasticity and cost savings versus public cloud, but mitigate some security concerns.
• Hybrid cloud, which coordinates external cloud services and internal resources (either private cloud or traditional infrastructure) to assemble a solution. For example, a cloudbursting approach could dynamically extend a private cloud to a public cloud for extra capacity. Hybrid cloud needs careful planning.

All forms of cloud computing change the way that businesses consume, manage and price IT, requiring new mind-sets and relationships between IT and the business (Gartner, Inc. 2012).

One of the first movers in cloud computing was Salesforce.com, which in 1999 introduced the concept of delivering enterprise applications via a simple website (Mohamed, 2009). Amazon was next on the bandwagon, launching Amazon Web Service in 2002. Then came Google Docs in 2006 which really brought cloud computing to the forefront of public consciousness. 2006 also saw the introduction of Amazon’s Elastic Compute cloud (EC2) as a commercial web service that allowed small companies and individuals to rent computers on which to run their own computer applications (Biswas, 2011).

This was soon followed by an industry-wide collaboration in 2007 between Google, IBM and a number of universities across the United States (Mohamed, 2009).

As this media attention and early break through begins, we see Cloud Computing first appear on Gartner Inc 2008 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, as part of the Technology Trigger phase.

As cloud computing proves to be self-sustaining, 2009 saw Microsoft’s enters the market with the launch of Windows Azure (Gartner, Inc. 2012). Suddenly, there were major players jumping on to cloud computing from left, right and center. This is why we see Cloud Computing shift from Trigger Technology phase to Peak of Inflated Expectations phase of 2009 Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies

As the hype of cloud computing continues, we see Cloud web platforms and Private Cloud Computing appear on the 2010 Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies. Still in the Peak of Inflated Expectations phase, main runners Google, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon and salesforce.com begin to invest in the creation of web platforms and private cloud to improve their products and begin offering live and trial versions to clients (Babcock, 2010). Negative press also begins to revolve around Cloud, questions regarding its sustainability and security features cause Cloud Computing the drop towards Trough of Disillusionment (Gartner, Inc. 2012).

These are some videos that show examples of Cloud Security. You will see there is difference in technique of advertising.

On the 2011 Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies (also current Hype Cycle used for 2012), you can see cloud web platforms has crept past the Peak of Inflated Expectations and is making its way down the curve towards the Slope of Enlightenment. In other words, cloud computing is about to explode. Cloud platforms are often the very first thing to be added to any businesses. This is how they gain the insight and motivation to explore other cloud avenues.  In other words, once an organization begins to see the effectiveness of using certain web-based applications / websites to both, promote their goods/services via social media as well as help further analyze important data (for decision making events), they often decide to jump into cloud computing head first (Gartner, Inc. 2012).  It should be noted that in the businesses world, those who “get there first” stand to make the largest profit, and for many serious businesses, getting into cloud computing may help turn their fairly successful mid-level organizations into the powerful empires of the future (Gartner, Inc. 2012).

Here are some video's of the leading investors mentioned above, advertising Cloud Computing........

IBM CLOUD SOLUTIONS - BARI FISHING INDUSTRY

GOOGLE DOCS

AMAZON CLOUD PLAYER

WINDOWS 7 - TO THE CLOUD

These videos really captured my interest in Cloud Computing. Like the cloud player, a fustration we all share with IPods, IPhones, IPads, not being able to switch computers and load all of our movies and music onto them. This is a fantastic feature one I have never heard of before, and will now be looking into.

Windows really has had some issues in media with some previous versions fustrating users, and alot of customers switching to Apple. I think this is brilliant way for Windows to go! Their focus is on businesses, and the way that is portayed is as if the business is a multi national company. However you soon see they are only a small coffee shop. They are really reaching out to all markets of the business world, and I thought in a 30 second ad, really got a million ideas and thoughts across to me.

Google Docs is a great idea, but when compared to some of the other ads, it doesnt get you as excited. In my mind, I felt as though showing me simple things such a "new ability to scroll through pages" meant there still may be more work to be done, and the previous version may not have been so user friendly.

My very favourite is the bari fishing industry. Immediatly you think, if a fishing industry can improve that much, then so can my business! The amazing part is that they are able to use Cloud Computing out in the ocean without any difficulties as well. Seeing as though most of us struggle for phone reception in our homes!

Future of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a disruptive force. The impact will be huge for IT vendors. As new business models evolve and become the province of not just consumer markets, much will change (Gartner, Inc. 2012). Futurologist Dr James Bellini says that “A company’s most valuable resource will be its connected eco-system. We’ll probably have at least 80pc of employees based outside an organisation. In the UK today there are already four million free agent workers and that’s set to grow considerably. Businesses that don’t change their model and move to this ecosystem approach simply won’t survive” (Telegraph, 2011).

John Jester, general manager for Microsoft’s UK Enterprise and Partner Group, made the point that client motivations for moving to cloud computing have changed over the past 18 months. “When the cloud first came to market a couple of years ago the first thing that came to mind was cost and efficiencies but now the priority is that it offers new capabilities,” he said. “Around 70-80 per cent of overall IT spend goes on running the IT infrastructure,” he added. “The cloud offers an opportunity to bring that down. That’s where it gets to be really exciting; new ways to drive collaboration internally” (Telegraph, 2011).

According to a recent Carbon Disclosure Project report, companies that streamline operations to improve IT performance will not only reduce capital expenditures but they’ll shrink energy consumption and carbon emissions. The group estimated that, by 2020, U.S. organizations that move to the cloud could save $12.3 billion in energy costs and the equivalent of 200 million barrels of oil (Cantu, 2011).

One other factor that’s driving demand for cloud computing is the explosive growth of data. According to projections by Century Link, by 2015, the world will see a four-fold increase in the amount of data being created and replicated. And once all of that data comes into being, you need a way to store it all securely and allow end-users to access it efficiently (Cantu, 2011).

And that demand is driving cloud in the future.

THIS IS IBM REINFORCING BUSINESS GROWTH THROUGH CLOUD AND POSSIBILITIES OF BUSINESSES BEING LEFT BEHIND IF THEY DONT USE CLOUD

THIS IS IBM TAKE ON THE FUTURE OF CLOUD COMPUTING

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT....

Watch this video below and then think, if we all expect our lives to become easier through technology and innovation, like in the video your about to watch. Then it can only be true that if businesses, schools, transport, do not keep up and grow with new emerging technologies then they will be left behind.
If Ballarat University does not continue to update its course work,  computers, facilities, then students will not apply for courses there. They will choose a uni that can ensure they are supplying the best up to date education possible that they need for the future.
If business is not able to keep up same technology as rest of market place, they will eventually shut down. People will lose their jobs. They will not be able to fulfil the demand requirments efficiently as other businesses would. Their costs would eb higher and therefore profits less.

Then to take another step back and think, it makes sense that those who adpot these new technologies early will be gaining larger piece of the market place, better trust and image with consumers, larger profits earlier and more experience. It will be harder for those businesses who adopt the technology later to keep up and be able to provide competitive price.

In studying a Bachelor of Business I thought this was valuable information, even if Cloud computing fails, the way technology can evolve and seeing how others have like IPad on hype cycle, has proven that emerging technology is important for our future. And even more important when your wanting to build a business in the future. We need to keep an eye on these, as they can shape our future and daily lives.

References

Babcock, C. (2010) Cloud Ready For App Development in 2010, Retrieved May 16, 2012 from http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/222200177

Biswas, A. (2011) A history of cloud computing, Retrieved May 14, 2012 from http://www.cloudtweaks.com/2011/02/a-history-of-cloud-computing/

Cantu, A. (2011). The History and Future of Cloud Computing, Retrieved May 17, 2012 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/dell/2011/12/20/the-history-and-future-of-cloud-computing/2/

Gartner, Inc. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.gartner.com/technology/home.jsp

Mohamed, A. (2009). A history of cloud computing, Retrieved May 14, 2012 from http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/A-history-of-cloud-computing

Telegraph (2011). In the future cloud computing will be the only choice, Retrieved May 17, 2012 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/technology/microsoft-cloud-computing/8667512/In-the-future-Cloud-Computing-will-be-the-only-choice.html

WEEK 10 QUESTIONS

Trust is not associative (non-symmetric)

Trust relationships are not automatically two-way. Just because Party A trusts Party B it does not automatically follow that Party B trusts Party A.

Trust is not transitive

Just because trust has been established between Party A and Party B, it does not automatically follow that Party A will trust everyone that Party B trusts or Party B will trust everyone that Party A trusts.

Trust is always between exactly two parties

Trust is always established between two parties. This may be between two individuals, an individual and an organisation, two organisations, an organisation and a partnership between two other organisations and so on. Just because there is trust between two parties does not mean that there is trust between everyone within those parties. Party A may trust the partnership between Party B and C but will not automatically trust Party B or Party C individually.

Trust will involve either direct trust or recommender trust

Direct trust is where one party trusts the other party directly and recommender trust is where one party trusts another party based on the recommendation of a trusted third party.

http://wiki.uni.lu/secan-lab/Direct+and+Recommendation+Trust.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=96BbTjHBpOQC&pg=RA1-PA728&lpg=RA1-PA728&dq=trust+is+not+transitive&source=bl&ots=4dmbevDcBp&sig=AOL0unoORnISC-UavDyEdBONuIM&hl=en&ei=n_IdSoaeJtWUkAWh28G3DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8#PRA1-PA724,M1

Question 2a

Have a look at the following websites. What are some of the elements that have been incorporated to increase your trust in the sites? If there are some aspects which decrease your level of trust describe them as well.

http://www.eBay.com.au
Some elements incorporated in this website to increase trust include a help centre to explain how to buy and sell on eBay and how to protect yourself. A discussion board where you can chat with other eBay members, an answer centre for member to member questions, a site map to allow for easy navigation of the site, the ability to use Paypal to settle transactions, a security centre that discusses all aspects of security on eBay and a feedback forum.
We have gone into alot of detail about EBay and trust, security and community feel before in previous weeks questions, so I will not paste specific examples as you would have seen them before.

http://www.anz.com.au/
The ANZ website incorporates a number of elements to increase trust including a logon to internet banking, where individual registered number and password is used to log on. No user information can be obtained without being able to correctly enter these in.

The security and privacy statement includes:
 

About this Security and Privacy Statement

Security of information

Information collected

Collection of IP addresses

Advertising and tracking

Cookies

How we handle Email

Use and Disclosure of Information

Acceptance and Changes to Security and Privacy Statement

You can click on  any of these to see full information about the settings. They are clearly written out and definition of words such as 'cookies' and explanation of what they are is also included to ensure everyone can understand the statement.

I would like to highlight the collection of IP addresses. This I have pasted below. Have a read, and my opinion is that any one reading this would feel sense of trust using this site, simply based on this security statement.

Collection of IP addresses
It is necessary for ANZ to collect your IP address for your interaction with various parts of the ANZ website. Your IP address is the identifier for your computer when you are using the internet.

For instance, ANZ collects and stores your IP address when you log into ANZ Internet Banking. As part of our security for ANZ Internet Banking, ANZ uses this information when we attempt to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions in Internet Banking. We store your IP address for security and audit purposes. Your IP address will not be used by us or released to any third party except in the case of security, inappropriate behaviour or fraud issues, such as unauthorised access to your or our computer systems or fraudulent transactions.

Contact details are important! They cant create trust as ANZ have very detailed list for various types of enquiries. Mainly for when customers have issues such as "Report a hoax" or "stolen credit card". Having this list and having seperate contacts like this shows customer how serious ANZ takes their enquiries. Also means they do not have to listen to 25 options on a main phone line. They can direct themselves to the correct department. See the list below, I find it to be quite impressive. Availability of time is there and also an alternative online option is available.




ANZ probably relies as much on its reputation as one of Australia's four major banks to create trust as it does on anything on its website. Also customers generally looking for best interest rate and home loan option rather than trust. I think everyone has trust in banks, expcept that minor mishap that Bendigo Bank had with releasing customer information over the web........ but I think that was more of an internal staff issue than their website.

Type of enquiry	Contact numbers	Online enquiry & more information
General enquiries	13 13 14Intl: +61 3 9683 9999 24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Online enquiry
Report a hoax or suspicious email	13 33 50Intl: +61 3 9683 8833 24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Report a suspicious email  Forward a suspicious email
Internet Banking & Phone Banking registration	13 13 14Intl: +61 3 9683 9999 24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Internet Banking Phone Banking Online enquiry
Internet Banking & Phone Banking enquiries (re-set password, pay anyone, technical problems)	13 33 50  Intl: +61 3 9683 8833 24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Internet Banking Phone Banking Software settings
Transaction dispute or enquiries	13 13 14Intl: +61 3 9683 9999 24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Online query & more information
Lost or stolen credit cards	1800 033 844Intl: +61 3 9683 7043	Report lost or stolen card
ANZ Merchant Services	1800 039 025 24 hours a day, 7 days a week	Online enquiry More information
Compliments, suggestions and complaints	1800 805 154Weekdays 8am - 7pm (AEST)	Complaints and compliments Lodge online
ANZ switch board	+61 3 9273 5555
Media relations	+61 3 9273 5555 Paul Edwards Stephen Ries	Media room Email Media relations ANZ Media relations Level 9, 833 Collins st Melbourne 3008
Shareholder services (for Shareholder enquiries only)	+61 3 8654 7682	Shareholder services Email Shareholder services
Enquires in relation to subpoenas, garnishee orders and statutory notices	1300 279 754	Service of all legal documents
Customer identification review process	1800 606 269 Intl: +613 8699 6947 Weekdays 9am - 8pm (AEST)	ANZ Reply Paid 87345 Richmond VIC 3121 Australia

http://www.thinkgeek.com/
I found this site had o navigate around, but perhaps you need to be a geek as the name suggests, to understand some of the navigation. As you will be able to see below, the security is not as 'full on' as ANZ site may be.

Privacy

What is your Privacy Policy?
We take your privacy very seriously. We will never rent or sell your information to any third parties, we only use the information we collect from you to convey your order information, or to send you catalogs and e-mails at your request.
Please read our Official Privacy Policy for more information.

Security

Is ordering on your site secure?
Absolutely! We take security very seriously, and we do whatever we can to protect our customers' sensitive data. Credit card information for web orders is protected in the following ways:

• 128-bit encryption to and from the servers and web browser.
• Credit card numbers are not stored in our database. We keep on file only the last 5 digits in cases where we need to verify the card that was used.
• Once the information is transmitted to our servers for processing, we use even stronger encryption in the back end to transmit the request to our payment processor to verify the credit card and place an authorization for the order total.
• If the authorization, address verification and risk assessment all clear, the order is accepted and a one-time unique ID is associated with the order for purposes of billing the previous authorization. This ID cannot be used to place further authorizations or bill more than the original auth. It contains no identifiable link to the credit card number.
• Once that ID has been used to bill the order (which happens only once the order begins shipping), it is no longer valid and cannot be used to authorize or bill again.

Altough the information is direct and targeted towards the websites target market. Unlike ANZ where it needs to cater for all people, of all intelligence levels.

Regular online shoppers would probably be confident with these security measures, but new or few time shoppers may be hesitant in the way it is presented with monkies and formatting.

http://www.paypal.com.au/
The Paypal site is all about creating trust. Immediatly after entering the website you can see a 'security' section

Security

PayPal has partnered with Crime Stoppers to help you stay safe online. Learn how to identify fake and phishing emails and find out how PayPal helps prevent fraud and protects eligible purchases.

Staying safe online

Protection against unauthorised payments

Buyer Protection

 

And another great feature that really gets that trust over the line is the Crime stoppers picture associated with this security section. I dont think any one could say this site is not trust worthy. The approach paypal takes is showing how secure and trustworthy they are, but also teaching users how to be safe on their other transactions on the web.

If a website uses paypal as a payment option, users or businesses will not hestiate to purchase items.

I dont believe there are any negative features of this site.

Question 2b

Find a web site yourself that you think looks untrustworthy.

A website that I think looks untrustworthy is http://www.buyandsellaustralia.com.au/ This is a website that brings buyers and sellers of items together much the same as eBay. The reason I find it untrustworthy is that unlike eBay, it does not incorporate any safety measures. There is no feedback mechanism, just a few seller testimonials (which seem a bit suspect) and no buyer testimonials at all. There is also no means of contacting the owners of the site if anything goes wrong. The "Contact Us" tab simply brings up a form to be filled in for the owners to contact you. Whilst the website and the people using it may very well be legitimate, I would be very reluctant to purchase anything listed on it unless I could afford to lose the money involved.

WEEK 7 QUESTIONS

1) Check this link to my ‘intelligent’ cybertwin which I also mentioned in the Powerpoint. You may like to create your own cybertwin as well. The more you 'train' your twin, the better the responses will be. While it is just a fun exercise, Think of the opportunities. Imagine if we had a cybertwin that could answer your questions about the course. Or perhaps a shopping assistant?

Here is my conversation with Ian cybertwin…………..

You: Hi Ian, what are you up to?

Ian: Hello, just catching up on work are you?

You: Yea just doing some study, what about you?

Ian: Really Annette, you must articulate if you are going to become dastardly in any effective kind of way!

Ian: Have you thought about studying eBusiness?

You: I am, thats what made me come chat to you

Ian: What job do you se yourself doing in 10 years?

You: Director of my own company, yourself?

Ian: Did I tell you about my favorite dog? He can hold my attention longer than you.

You: haha! very funny

Ian: Oh, I want to call you 'mushbrain' now.

Ian: What are your hobbies?

You: Very sarcastic cyber twin you are!

Ian: How would you know?

You: Cos im reading your responses

Ian: I don't mind books as long as they are increasing my knowledge of playing dirty.

You: awkward.....cya


This is definatly fun to play with, and I wouldnt mind having a go at creating one myself. The concept is great, and if used on business website would need to be reguarly updated. A log of customer questions, formatting and jey words would need to be logged and recorded. New questions would need to be added to database and updated as new products or services are made available by business.

2) Write a one paragraph describing the Turing test and another paragraph describing an argument against the Turing Test, known as the about the Chinese room.

The Turing Test is a hypothetical test for determining whether or not a machine intelligence can converse like a human. The test is named after WWII-era computer genius Alan Turing, who made it up. The Turing Test is an anthropocentric test - that is, it doesn't test for intelligence in general, but merely the capacity to converse like a human being. The early, now refuted, implication was that the test measured objective intelligence. However, there could potentially be an Artificial Intelligence that merely doesn't speak human languages or understand human conversation. The Turing Test has three participants -- two subjects and a judge. One of the subjects is a person and the other is a computer. Both subjects are hidden from the view of the judge. They communicate with the judge via text-only channels. The role of the judge is to determine which text channel corresponds to the human and which corresponds to the computer. If the judge cannot determine this, then the computer passes the test.

The Chinese Room argument, devised by John Searle, is an argument against the possibility of true artificial intelligence. The argument centers on a thought experiment in which someone who knows only English sits alone in a room following English instructions for manipulating strings of Chinese characters, such that to those outside the room it appears as if someone in the room understands Chinese. The argument is intended to show that while suitably programmed computers may appear to converse in natural language, they are not capable of understanding language, even in principle. Searle argues that the thought experiment underscores the fact that computers merely use syntactic rules to manipulate symbol strings, but have no understanding of meaning or semantics. Searle's argument is a direct challenge to proponents of Artificial Intelligence, and the argument also has broad implications for functionalist and computational theories of meaning and of mind. As a result, there have been many critical replies to the argument.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-room/
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-turing-test.htm

3) Can virtual agents succeed in delivering high-quality customer service over the Web? Think of examples which support or disprove the question or just offer an opinion based on your personal experience. Write your answer on your blog page or express an opinion on this voice discussion board (it's simple to join). If you choose this option please link (live in an hour or so) to it from your blog page.

I think it can eventually deliver high quality customer service, especially when there are already online virtual agents on sites. They more act as a virtual FAQ then anything, looking for key words in your request or question and if they are not able to assist you then you will be directed to a hotline or email address.
I would never rule out any future development on the web, where we are today proves that technology can change drastically. There is a lot more work to be done in this area, but with businesses needing to continually cut costs, virtual agents will be the norm for businesses moving forward. Some people may question this, and like mobile phones, people may be hesitant in wanting to use them and would rather do things the old fashioned way and speak to a person. As always technology advancement always wins! Just like slowly phasing the home telephone out, customer call centers may be a service of the past.
Check out this website http://blog.intelliresponse.com/tag/virtual-agent/
This site advertises virtual agents and their positive attritubutes to enhancing any website. You can even try a demo out of a virtual agent.
You can you our demo here: http://www.intelliresponse.com/web-self-service-software/product-showcase.aspx

After trying it myself, I think just like Ian the cyber twin there is still work to be done, Not all questions can be answered, within reason and on topic of course. And the answers are generic, they looking for key words in your questions and suiting them to pre written responses. In the future, I believe we can become more advanced and really learn to personalise those responses. Just like when you call Vodaphone and you get a recoded voice over, you feel like you are talking to a robot, and fustration sets in. You do not want that with virtual agent. When you see the agent you connecting visually, but the responses can make or break the service being provided.

Then again, it will be all about what is best for the business and company at the end of the day. Just as Coles has re implemented its personalise service. Now having to walk customers to the items they cannot find on the shelf, instead of pointing them to an isle number. This 'old fashioned' approach can never fail when it comes to making a good customer service impression.