“Blossom, an intelligent bot within the messaging app Slack, predicts how [New York Times] articles or blogposts will do on social and also suggests which stories editors should promote by drawing from enormous stores of data, including information on story content and performance metrics such as Facebook post engagement.”

“Their conclusion is unremittingly cheerful: rather than destroying jobs, technology has been a “great job-creating machine.” Findings by Deloitte such as a fourfold rise in bar staff since the 1950s or a surge in the number of hairdressers this century suggest to the authors that technology has increased spending power, therefore creating new demand and new jobs.” [Via Tech REDEF]

Not exactly a thrilling read, but a must-read for those wanting to learn more about using offline customer data to deliver personalized experiences online.

“It’s not hard to imagine the business opportunities that M could spawn. For one, should Facebook discover a business is getting lots of inbound requests, it could partner with that company to offer a more direct, efficient service over Messenger.”

“You’ve probably heard the argument that for an app to be truly successful it needs to earn a place on your home screen… we could see another whole class of apps that not only don’t need to fight for a home screen slot, they don’t need to be opened at all to add value. And that’s interesting.’”