It’s still a relatively new technology, and with time it will continue to improve.

I have to both agree and disagree with your statement, “A bot isn’t the same as a human, it never will be”. For verbal communication (whether face-to face or over the phone), I agree without a doubt. As we pick up on various factors such as para-linguistics (tone, pitch, rhythm) etc. and this helps to receive the emotion, sincerity or intention behind the message. Which are all important aspects of advertising and sales as it helps portray emotion and build relationships, and a bot simply will not be able to do that.

However, I believe in non-verbal communication (text) bots will be able to match human — human interaction, if not surpass it. It can be difficult to pick up on someone else’s emotions over text but a bot could pick up behavioral patterns and respond accordingly. They can also provide an abundance of information then a human can, so for specific services this definitely trumps human — human interaction.