The promise of conversational AI is immense. We envision intelligent bots on platforms like WhatsApp, Slack, and Microsoft Teams that can do more than just answer simple questions — they can guide users through complex workflows, conduct interactive training sessions, and provide personalized, multi-step support. However, the reality of building these sophisticated agents often collides with a fundamental constraint of the web: the stateless soul of HTTP.
Every message a user sends arrives at our backend as a discrete, independent request. The server, by default, has no memory of the previous ten messages. This presents a significant architectural challenge. How do we build a bot that can remember it’s in the middle of a quiz, guide a user through a multi-part lesson, or handle any conversation that requires context?