  Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have long been positioned as a tool
to provide crucial data-driven decision support to people. In this survey
paper, we look at how AI in general, and collaboration assistants (CAs or
chatbots for short) in particular, have been used during a true global exigency
- the COVID-19 pandemic. The key observation is that chatbots missed their
"Apollo moment" when they could have really provided contextual, personalized,
reliable decision support at scale that the state-of-the-art makes possible. We
review the existing capabilities that are feasible and methods, identify the
potential that chatbots could have met, the use-cases they were deployed on,
the challenges they faced and gaps that persisted, and draw lessons that, if
implemented, would make them more relevant in future health emergencies.
