Processing payment transactions using artificial intelligence messaging services

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018183737-A1
Application number	US-201615389108-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 22, 2016
Priority date	Dec 22, 2016
Publication date	Jun 28, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

The disclosure relates to systems, methods, and devices for processing payment transactions between a user and a merchant using a messaging bot. In particular, a commerce system allows the user to initiate a communications session with a messaging bot associated with the merchant using natural language. One or more embodiments use natural language processing to analyze messages from the user to the messaging bot, and from the messaging bot to the user, to identify a product and a request to purchase the identified product. Based on the identified product and the request to purchase the product, one or more embodiments initiate a payment transaction on behalf of the user based on a natural language conversation and without redirecting the user away from the communications session. Additionally, one or more implementations provide a payment initiation message from the messaging bot to the user indicating that the payment transaction was initiated.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
initiating, by one or more servers, a communications session between a user and a messaging bot associated with a merchant, the messaging bot comprising an artificial intelligence messaging service; receiving, by the one or more servers, one or more messages entered by the user into a messaging user interface for the communications session between the user and the messaging bot; analyzing, by the one or more servers using natural language processing, the one or more messages to identify a product and a request to complete a transaction between the user and the merchant for the product; initiating, by the one or more servers, a payment transaction on behalf of the user based on analyzing the one or more messages using natural language processing; and providing, in connection with the communications session, a payment initiation message from the messaging bot to the user indicating that the payment transaction was initiated.

2 . The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein analyzing the one or more messages to identify the product comprises identifying, using natural language processing, a description of the product in the one or more messages entered by the user into the messaging user interface.

3 . The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
analyzing one or more messages for the communications session to determine a context of the communications session based on the one or more messages; and providing, during the communications session and based on the determined context, a message comprising a suggestion from the messaging bot to the user to purchase the product.

4 . The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying one or more interests of the user based on a user account associated with a social networking system; and providing, during the communications session and based on the identified one or more interests, a message comprising a suggestion from the messaging bot to the user to purchase the product.

5 . The method as recited in claim 4 , wherein providing the payment initiation message from the messaging bot to the user comprises entering the payment initiation message in a messaging thread according to a chronological order of messages between the user and the messaging bot.

6 . The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein initiating the payment transaction comprises:
providing, to the merchant in response to identifying the product and the request, a request to initiate the payment transaction between the user and the merchant; and receiving, from the merchant, a response indicating that the payment transaction was initiated.

7 . The method as recited in claim 6 , wherein providing the request to initiate the payment transaction comprises providing, to the merchant, payment information and a product identifier for completing the payment transaction.

8 . The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein initiating the communications session between the user and the messaging bot comprises initiating a messaging thread involving the user and the messaging bot via a social networking system at the one or more servers.

9 . The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising initiating and completing the payment transaction between the user and the merchant within a messaging flow of the communications session and without redirecting a client device of the user away from the messaging user interface to complete the payment transaction.

10 . A system comprising:
at least one processor; and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to: initiate a communications session between a user and a messaging bot associated with a merchant, the messaging bot comprising an artificial intelligence messaging service; receive one or more messages entered by the user into a messaging user interface for the communications session between the user and the messaging bot; analyze, using natural language processing, the one or more messages to identify a product and a request to complete a transaction between the user and the merchant for the product; initiate a payment transaction on behalf of the user based on analyzing the one or more messages using natural language processing; and provide, in connection with the communications session, a payment initiation message from the messaging bot to the user indicating that the payment transaction was initiated.

11 . The system as recited in claim 10 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to analyze the one or more messages to:
identify, using natural language processing, a description of the product in the one or more messages entered by the user into the messaging user interface; and select, based on the identified description of the product, the product from a product database associated with the merchant.

12 . The system as recited in claim 11 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
identify, based on the identified description of the product, a plurality of possible products from the product database; and provide, in connection with the communications session, a message from the messaging bot to request additional identifying information from the user for identifying the product.

13 . The system as recited in claim 10 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to provide, during the communications session and based on the determined context, a message comprising a suggestion from the messaging bot to the user to purchase the product.

14 . The system as recited in claim 10 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to initiate the payment transaction comprising:
providing, to the merchant in response to identifying the product and the request, a request to initiate the payment transaction between the user and the merchant; and receiving, from the merchant, a response indicating that the payment transaction was initiated.

15 . The system as recited in claim 14 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to provide the request to initiate the payment transaction by providing, to the merchant, a payment token for a payment credential of the user and a product identifier for completing the payment transaction.

16 . The system as recited in claim 10 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
receive payment information associated with the payment transaction from the merchant; and process, using the payment information, the payment transaction with a payment network associated with the payment transaction on behalf of the merchant.

17 . The system as recited in claim 10 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to initiate the communications session between the user and the messaging bot by initiating a messaging thread involving the user and the messaging bot via a social networking system.

18 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a computer system to:
initiate a communications session between a user and a messaging bot associated with a merchant, the messaging bot comprising an artificial i

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Subbarayan Anand
• Parasuram Yegnashankar
• Song Shuo
• Mittal Akshay
• Liu Xishuo

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• H04L51/02

  using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages · CPC title

• H04L67/306

  User profiles · CPC title

• G06Q20/3223 Primary

  Realising banking transactions through M-devices · CPC title

• G06F17/279

  Physics · mapped topic