The chatbot technology, also known as conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI), is gaining traction. Some experts claim that the Golden Age of Chatbots is here. More and more industries are investing in this technology to work faster, more efficiently, and with higher returns. Let’s look at how (and why) the use of chatbot technology is exploding.
The Growing Use of Chatbots and its Use Cases: A Statistical Perspective
In terms of the widespread acceptance of chatbot technology, the research paints a positive picture:
- Skyrocketing growth: According to research, the projected worldwide market size of chatbots will be more than $1.3 billion by 2024.
- A crowd-favorite: Around 69% of consumers feel more confident about brands they can message. In fact, around 10,000,000,000 messages are exchanged between people and businesses on Messenger every single day.
- A multitude of use cases: As per data by Facebook for Business, eCommerce shoppers message with brands due to advantages such as product/pricing information (45%), instant responses anytime (35%), and personalized advice (31%).
- Ease of transactions: Ubisend predicts that 1 in 5 consumers would potentially buy goods and services from chatbots.
The writing is on the wall: Chatbots are increasingly driving business revenue, boosting customer happiness, personalizing the user experience, and delivering a superior customer experience on the whole. Its future is undeniably positive.
The Future Needs For Chatbots: An Industry-Wide Outlook
Now that you have a good understanding of how chatbots are gaining traction, let’s deep dive to understand its current and perceived industry-wide applications:
- Insurance: Integrating chatbots that leverage Natural Language Processing in Insurance has provided businesses with an edge. In fact, data claims that around 71% of insurance executives believe that customers will increasingly prefer interacting with an insurance chatbot over a human agent by 2021.
The seeds have already been sown. Take, for instance, Generali’s use case, which uses AI to solve the complex issue of returning unclaimed assets and property (an Industry-first) as well as addressing issues related to home and auto insurance policies and claims:
The results of using this chatbot? The brand was able to:
– Streamline customer support and enhance the user experience
– Monitor the chatbot interactions to gather insights on performance goals, user engagement. etc.
– Drive greater efficiency of human operations with the bot ‘taking over’ straightforward tasks leaving the human agents to focus on more complex, higher-level questions.
– Leverage cost benefits (upwards of US$1 million in its first year of deployment)
- Banking: Chatbots are also being deployed in Banking to accelerate the digital transformation and keep up with the changing user demands. According to Forbes, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of chatbots into the Banking landscape. As per research by Cornerstone Advisors, at the beginning of 2020, only 4% of mid-size banks and credit unions had deployed a chatbot. By the end of the year, that percentage had more than tripled to 13%. The research further suggests that around 16% of banking institutions intend to invest in chatbots in 2021. Chatbots are going to become central in driving a seamless user experience–as mobile banking has done all these years.
One of the best examples of the use of chatbots in BFSI is Bank of America’s AI chatbot, ‘Erica,’ the financial digital assistant. The bot is available on the mobile banking app and assists customers with simple tasks such as paying bills, offering financial advice, letting users see e-statements, etc.:
According to reports, Bank of America claimed that a staggering 6 million people had leveraged the services of the digital financial assistant in 2019 and provided assistance for over 35 million customer requests!
- Education: Another sector that will greatly benefit from the use of chatbots is the education sector. Take, for instance, the example of the following chatbot which ‘reminds’ students to prep for tests and keep up with their classes:
With remote education becoming the norm, owing to the ongoing pandemic, Universities and Schools can leverage this intuitive technology to keep the faculty and students informed of the latest developments, safety measures being taken (when the school/university re-opens), and answer simple as well as repetitive student queries instantly.
- Healthcare and Life Services: The healthcare sector is fairly advanced in its use of chatbots to deliver a superior service to the customers–from easing the burden of the medical staff by taking over admin work to assisting patients in symptom triaging and treatment, chatbots are ruling the healthcare sector.
Did you know that according to a Stanford University 2020 report, there will be a rise in the “data-driven physician and in how health care stakeholders share and interact with digital medical records?” For instance, UCSF and Northwell are using coronavirus-specific chatbots to deliver quick test results and check in on quarantined patients:
As per industry estimates, the global healthcare chatbot market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.56% from 2021-2027 to reach US 967.7 million by 2027. Clearly, healthcare chatbots are going to undergo astronomical growth in the coming years (hardly surprising).
- eCommerce: As is with all the sectors mentioned above, the eCommerce sector too is readily embracing the chatbot technology to remove friction points in the user journey. These chatbots are also helping brands to deliver a hyper-personalized experience as GearBunch’s bot demonstrated below:
With the global chatbot market expected to reach $1.23 billion by 2025, eCommerce businesses need to integrate chatbot technology to provide a speedy, satisfactory, and seamless customer experience in the fiercely competitive eCommerce landscape.
How Chatbots Will Enhance the Customer Service, Support, and Experience
Finally, let’s look at how chatbots are revolutionizing the customer support field. From answering FAQ-type customer queries to tackling more complex issues, chatbots are ‘self-learning‘ and becoming more intelligent with every customer interaction. Take a look at Cathay Pacific’s bot for instance which enables customers to make reservations, answer questions about the latest travel restrictions, and cancel bookings:
It also provides assistance related to baggage allowance and boosts customer satisfaction, thanks to a seamless user experience.
With the customer service company being one of the hardest-hit sectors owing to Covid-19, as per the Harvard Business Review, businesses need to regroup to strategize and integrate this multipurpose technology and ease customer anxiety while enhancing the user experience.
The Bottom Line
Needless to say, chatbots are transforming the way businesses are conducting business as well as ironing out customer issues, and creating a seismic shift in the way users are connecting with brands on a deeper, more intimate level. Chatbots can supercharge your business with speed, efficiency, and increased user satisfaction, making it a winning strategy.
Long story short, chatbots are the future of successful business and the future is here.
Author bio:
Ashwini Dave:- Ashwini is passionate about Business, Entrepreneurship, E-commerce, emerging technology and Digital Marketing. She is working with Acquire as a digital marketing expert. She is a free soul and adventurous scholar who spends her free time with herself and loved ones, music, as well as watching & playing sports. She is ocean addicted and on roads being a thrill-seeking traveler to get new experiences as she looks at life as our very own works of art.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashwini-dave/
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