It’s been just two weeks since IBM showed off the power and future of Watson in Las Vegas, and the company is at it again. This time in San Francisco, and this time with a deep developer focus.

Taking place at the Innovation Hangar in downtown San Francisco, IBM’s Watson Developer Conference was home to thousands of developers, coming from all over the world to learn about the power of cognitive technology.

Opening the event, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty set the tone for what’s to come in the world of tech.

.@GinniRometty: @IBMWatson is the #cognitive/#AI platform for business #WatsonDevCon #devops pic.twitter.com/9NdcF5xGiP

— TechPORTFOLIO (@TechPORTFOLIO) November 9, 2016

IBM Chief Digital Officer Bob Lord made a major announcement, impacting designers, developers, data scientists, and programmers.

Advancing #cognitive and #APIs: The million-member @Topcoder community partners with @IBMWatson ► https://t.co/Ia0CkpB9iM #WatsonDevCon #AI pic.twitter.com/ztSO4BdgPJ

— TechPORTFOLIO (@TechPORTFOLIO) November 9, 2016

While the conversation centered around cognitive technology, attendees were especially interested in the topic of bots.

You had me at bots.#WatsonDevCon

— annebot 💯 (@annebot) November 9, 2016

To say people were excited would be an understatement.

Then again, judging by how far language and tone analysis has come with IBM Watson, “excited” might be just the word needed to appropriately generate a positive sentiment data set.

The top bot-related takeaways from #WatsonDevCon

1) Developers who are building bots need to keep it simple. Don’t throw the kitchen sink at the bot dev process.

If you're a #developer, don't build a #bot to solve all company problems, says @mattmakai of @Twilio. Solve one problem first. #WatsonDevCon pic.twitter.com/NaBbsWDBix

— Tech Ed Canada (@TechEdCA) November 9, 2016

Consider the language, tone, and sentiment of users to build-in appropriate responses.

Emotional analysis helps build empathetic chatbots. Need to analyze anger 😡 disgust 😵 fear 😨 joy 😃 & sadness 😭: @rama_akkiraju #WatsonDevCon pic.twitter.com/4tQAksHhfp

— TechPORTFOLIO (@TechPORTFOLIO) November 9, 2016

2) What kinds of user experiences should bots create? Conversational or intelligent conversation? These questions generated a few different perspectives from speakers at #WatsonDevCon.

First, developers need to think about how and where someone will use a bot. Some conversations don’t need to appear to be driven by intelligence if they’re just functional.

Brands & services need to make themselves available in the context of how people spend their time—@chrismessina of @Uber #bots #WatsonDevCon pic.twitter.com/qinKyNoHLQ

— TechPORTFOLIO (@TechPORTFOLIO) November 9, 2016

There are a few things that are important to consider in making a bot feel conversational.

What conversational bots need to understand:
○ User intent
○ Context
○ Emotions being displayed
—@rama_akkiraju at #WatsonDevCon #cognitive pic.twitter.com/WvVs45CEBt

— TechPORTFOLIO (@TechPORTFOLIO) November 9, 2016

To build an effective conversational bot, @rama_akkiraju suggests making it display compassion #WatsonDevCon #cognitive pic.twitter.com/oIqtCKctNS

— TechPORTFOLIO (@TechPORTFOLIO) November 9, 2016

Or maybe it’s more simple than that. Amir Shevat, Director of Developer Relations at Slack, said bots should pass the beer test, not the Turing test.

Bots need to pass the beer test, says @ashevat of @SlackHQ. You should want to take a bot for a beer after engaging with it. #WatsonDevCon pic.twitter.com/PwuulEQ43c

— TechPORTFOLIO (@TechPORTFOLIO) November 9, 2016

3) The bot revolution is just beginning.

While bots can already do a lot, panelists on the “Intelligent User Engagement with Chat Bots” panel agreed that there is much opportunity ahead in totally untouched areas and industries.

Where are we in evolution of #bots? "We are like cave people talking about spaceships. It's very early."—@ashevat @SlackHQ #WatsonDevCon #AI pic.twitter.com/6VJIeRbhdo

— Tech Ed Canada (@TechEdCA) November 9, 2016

For businesses that are transitioning to use bots and cognitive technology, the opportunity for developers has become clear.

You, the #developers, are the builders of the next century, says @GinniRometty #WatsonDevCon pic.twitter.com/CxgzdwlPvA

— Tech Ed Canada (@TechEdCA) November 9, 2016

But opportunity doesn’t stop there.

The final takeaway from #WatsonDevCon: bots are poised to change more than just the world of tech, they’ll soon change tertiary industries and professions as well.

Great insights by the amazing @chrismessina of @uber at #WatsonDevCon https://t.co/bhAeKvf6xm

— Brian Roemmele (@BrianRoemmele) November 9, 2016