Children's charity uses Facebook chatbot to engage with event fundraisers

The Children's Society charity has been trialling an artificial intelligence-powered Facebook chatbot to generate greater engagement around its fundraising events.

The charity worked with not-for-profit digital agency Puzzle to develop the chatbot, which was designed to have conversations with Facebook users interacting with its event pages.

For example, users could ask the bot for advice on setting up a fundraising page or find out if their donation had been successfully received by the organisation. Answers to around 50 questions were programmed into the bot.

After the AI-powered bot has been in use for four months, The Children's Society will be analysing the results of the trial to see whether the chatbot did indeed boost engagement with the charity so that it can consider using it in future campaign strategies.

Lauren White, director of Puzzle, commented: "Tech doesn't have to be gimmicky - it can serve a real business purpose and deliver tangible results."