Businesses Inclination to Chatbots Deployment is Increasing

Chatbots have given business messaging a completely new makeover. Businesses are increasingly looking to integrate a chatbot for improved customer service and to better reach their target audience.

The technology powering chatbots is artificial intelligence, which enables these systems to interact with users through text or speech. The chatbot ecosystem broadly comprises of native chatbots, third party chatbots, technology providers that help build chatbots, and the deployment channels. Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are examples of native bots while using a messenger (like Facebook) to avail of a service (say a payment gateway) is an example of a third-party chatbot. Providers build chatbots that can be deployed on any platform or app, while deployment channel refers to the frameworks where a chatbot lives.

A steadily growing industry

Although companies still face the challenge of understanding the context from conversations and picking relevant content, there is a proliferation in the platforms available that let businesses and enthusiasts build their own chatbot. Apart from established players like Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, there are many startups that are helping take the chatbot industry forward and are well-funded. The growth of the chatbot industry is also good news for the development of artificial intelligence.

The chatbot industry is successfully garnering support from businesses globally.  The front-runners have been investing in chatbot technologies and continue to support some of the biggest chatbot projects. As a result, the chatbot market is steadily growing. An estimate by Grand View Research says that the chatbot industry will likely reach $12.3 billion by 2025, at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 24.3%.

Areas of interest

Chatbots will majorly be deployed for marketing, customer service, and payments. But, clearly, the segment that is poised to reap the maximum benefits is customer service. Already, businesses show a high inclination towards deploying chatbots to answer customer queries and suggesting products and services. An Oracle survey of senior sales, marketing and strategy officers reveals that nearly 80% of the respondents across four countries—France, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the UK—either already use or will likely use a chatbot by 2020. Even customers now prefer a chatbot as their primary mode of communication to get answers to their queries.

Developments in AI will fuel the growth

There have been big developments in speech recognition in recent years. As artificial intelligence evolves and helps understand the context and nuances of the spoken word better, chatbots will find greater use in decision-making. Businesses will use them to help assist with research, lead generation, and branding. And greater adoption will create the demand for more sophisticated and specialized chatbots.

Given the interest businesses are taking in the deployment of chatbots, this industry will witness exciting times ahead.

The article has been written Neetu Katyal, Content and Marketing Consultant

She can be reached on LinkedIn.