Here is a good example of how Google wave can be used to deliver new and powerful services.
Salesforce.com have used their CRM APIs to build an automated customer support robot. It is a demo of a system that could be used by a mobile phone company. It attempts to solve customer problems and generate effective automatic responses to customer issues. If these fail the robot puts the customer through to a real customer representative. The robot knows the user profile and products they have, and can therefore start the interaction form a position of knowledge.
The system requires the end user to be a wave user but clearly demonstrates the advantage of these rich forms of immediate interaction. The interaction between the customer and the robot form part of the customer record and can be referenced by the sales person then or at a future date.
Although a demo, this seems to be one of the first such real world applications. As the market for Wave grows, more such applications will appear. They show the power of Wave as not just a communication media but as a effective brand engagement tool.
