Bloomberg’s cross-firm chatbot API service can save companies time as they share information. But they are also expensive, and present firms with a fresh dilemma – how to deal with the deluge of data the bots provide them with.
Launched earlier this year, the cross-firm chatbot service allows for firms’ internal information to be shared with counterparties. A two-way API, using natural language processing, provides structured data and context to Instant Bloomberg (IB) chats. This reduces the need for data to be manually replicated between chat streams.
READ MORE: Bloomberg beefs up communications with cross-firm chatbots
To have full access to every chat, users report that costs could reach US$1 million a year, with costs starting at US$30k for lower levels of access. Weighing up the benefits of additional data and market colour, alongside efficiency gains, against that price, could be a difficult call, say traders. Some buy side firms report interest in the service, with caveats.
Those who do opt-in are now looking for the best way to process these resulting swathes of data. They are faced with a familiar buy-versus-build quandary: pay a vendor to process that information for them to use in their operations, or build a mechanism themselves?
Building an AI tool in-house is an expensive job, and one that could end in a net loss if Bloomberg decides to offer a similar service themselves later down the line.
Bloomberg declined to comment.
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