Wondering which chatbots trends will rule the tech world in the upcoming years? Read on the blog!
The chatbot is not a new technology and it dates back to 1966. Surprised? Well, you heard it right! The first chatbot ELIZA was created in 1966; however, these conversational assistants began to gain momentum from 2010 and gradually became very popular among big brands and tech companies. With the introduction of Siri in 2011, Alexa and Cortana in 2014, Google Assistant in 2016, the entire landscape of chatbots got changed and shifted towards the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP).
Since 1966, chatbots have accomplished huge milestones and come a long way. Over the past few years, the chatbot technology has evolved from simple answer machines to smart and advanced AI-powered chatbots that can effectively interact with potential customers. Undoubtedly, these conversational bots hold a promising future as various renowned companies including British Airways, LinkedIn, and Starbucks have expressed their interest in implementing chatbots into their business operations. According to the predictions by Statista, the global chatbot market will be worth 1250 million U.S. dollars by 2025.
Let’s have a look at some of the best chatbots trends that you can’t miss.
1. Chatbots Will Become More AI-Driven
Conversational AI was the talk of the town in 2018. With its machine learning feature, Conversational AI has expanded the capabilities of chatbots and will continue to improve the efficiency of these virtual assistants in 2019. Chatbots based on Artificial Intelligence will demonstrate improved ability to understand buyer context and adjust the interaction based on the unique context of each buyer. It, in turn, will help businesses make insight-driven decisions, provide seamless buyer experience, and increase conversion rates.
2. Chatbots Will Probably Take Over Mobile Apps
“Bots are the new apps” – this statement by tech mogul Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft, strengthens the popularity of chatbots.
Further, Gartner has anticipated that 25% of customer service and support operations will use chatbot technology for engaging customers, by the year 2020. Gartner has also predicted that enterprises will manage 85% of customer interactions without a human agent. These statistics indicate that a huge shift from mobile apps to chatbots will be witnessed in 2019.
Some facts in support of mobile apps replacement by chatbots:
- Users need to download an app which occupies space in their mobiles. Chatbots, on the other hand, are not required to be downloaded as they allow users to interact in a messaging app.
- In comparison to chatbots, mobile apps offer less personalization and deliver the static user experience.
- Building chatbots is relatively simple and less time-consuming than developing an Android or iOS app. Moreover, chatbots can be easily deployed on multiple platforms at once.
- Every mobile app is designed with visual interfaces including images, text, buttons, etc., but you have to understand visual interfaces related to your favorite products. In the case of chatbots, you are just required to message your preferences and it will generate search results accordingly.
3. Voice-Based Bots will be in the Mainstream
With the inclination of many tech giants such as Amazon and Google towards voice-based devices, voice technology has taken a significant leap. Voice commerce sales in 2017 was $1.8 billion and it is expected to reach $40 billion by the year 2022.
According to predictions, chatbots with voice search feature (or talking chatbots) will be more in demand. This feature will let users make their queries using voice and will also enable them to play audio files of the messages generated by bots, thus providing real conversational experience.
4. Result-Driven Chatbots will be the Next Big Thing
Chatbots are capable to store a large amount of customer data that can be used to make an accurate analysis and improve all stages of the marketing funnel.
According to a study, 80-85% of businesses will prefer to deploy customer-centric, result-driven, and advanced bots that can improve themselves by learning and give a more precise response to queries of consumers.
5. Website Bots will Continue to Evolve
According to another study, 63% of people would prefer to messaging an online chatbot to interact with a brand. Seeing this trend, many organizations will embed chatbots in their websites for engaging with users. Furthermore, the 24/7 availability of bots will transform the chat option in websites. Chatbots will provide more control to businesses over their user experience strategy, sales and marketing activities.
In a nutshell, customer communication patterns are changing and in such a scenario, chatbots have become the need of the hour to bridge the gap between customers and the brand. As a matter of fact, chatbots offer a digital interface that consumers prefer to interact with brands.
Considering to include chatbots in your business processes? Partner with an experienced chatbot development company to digitize the ways of customer engagement and acquisition, and get first-mover advantage by staying abreast with the latest chatbots trends.
