13 Chatbot Trends and Statistics 2024 You Cannot Afford To Miss!
Gone are the days when chatbots used to be unknown territory for organizations. Chatbots have become an integral part of communication for businesses these days.
Before the advent of the internet, face-to-face meetings and phone calls dominated the communication landscape. Years later, online forms, mobile apps, social media, and emails have become modern forms of communication.
A multitude of industries employ chatbots that help visitors navigate through a website or answer their questions. Given the highly competitive market, customers have increased expectations from brands.
Incorporating chatbots helps meet those expectations. Also, AI is constantly evolving, which means that chatbots will become more sophisticated in the future. Here, we will discuss chatbot trends in 2022 that you should consider adopting in your strategy.
Let’s brush up on your knowledge of chatbot statistics 2022.
Key Chatbot Statistics
Before going into the chatbot statistics 2022 and beyond, it’s essential to look at the state of the conversational AI market overall.
Conversational AI Market
- Research suggests that the spending on cognitive AI systems will surpass $77 Bn by 2022. The forecast for 2019 was $35.8 Bn, which means it will double by next year. A third of that spending will be incurred on software.
- A significant chunk of software spending will go towards AI applications such as chatbots and personal assistants (nearly $14.1 billion).
- The AI cognitive systems market is anticipated to experience stellar growth at 30.5% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) between 2017-2022. North America leads the global conversational AI market in terms of market size.
- When it comes to CAGR, Asia Pacific (APAC) will experience the fastest growth during the forecast period. Besides, the adoption of conversational AI software is widespread in North America.
- An increasing government spending, a large number of chatbot companies, and rising investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning are responsible for the adoption.
Chatbot Forecasts & Predictions
Listed below are key chatbot forecasts and predictions, divided by year:
2022
- Businesses across different domains would save nearly $0.70 per customer interaction, thanks to chatbots (CNBC).
- About 90% of customer interactions with banks would be automated using chatbots by 2022 (Juniper Research).
- Chatbots are projected to save almost $8 billion annually for businesses by 2022.
- About 70% of white-collar employees would regularly interact with chatbots.
2023
- Businesses and customers will save 5 billion hours on interactions because of chatbots by 2023.
- Chatbot eCommerce transactions are projected to surpass $112 billion by 2023.
- The banking, retail, and healthcare sectors will save nearly $11 billion annually by employing chatbots in customer service.
- The global chatbot market is expected to observe a double-digit growth at 34.64% CAGR between 2017-2023.
2024
- The global conversational AI market is forecasted to reach $15.7 Bn at a 30.2% CAGR by 2024.
- AI will redefine 50% of user experiences using natural language, computer vision, augmented reality, and virtual reality.
- The global chatbot market is predicted to observe an impressive growth at 34.75% CAGR between 2019-2024. Moreover, it will cross $7.5 billion by the end of 2024.
2025
- Nearly 95% of customer interactions (online conversations and live telephone) will be taken over by artificial intelligence by 2025. However, it will be tricky for customers to differentiate a chatbot from a human agent at this point.
- Businesses that leverage AI to automate their customer engagement will observe a 25% increase in operational efficiency.
- The global AI software market’s annual revenue will reach $118 billion by 2025.
2026
- By 2026, the global chatbot market will touch $10.8 billion with an impressive CAGR of 30.9% during the 2018-2026 forecast period.
These statistics indicate that chatbots are the future. However, with further advancements in AI, only capable and intelligent conversational AI platforms shall persist.
In the next section, we will look at the chatbot trends more closely.
Chatbot Trends in 2022
Given the many advantages of chatbots, rising chatbot trends, and the ever-increasing popularity of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence, adopting new technologies has become business-critical.
Here are the top 13 chatbot trends in 2022 that you should consider embracing:
1. Payments via chatbots will become more common
First on our list of chatbot trends is payment gateways. Several payment services, including Paypal, have incorporated chatbots in their payment gateways and digital wallets in 2020.
This shows that the application of chatbots is no longer limited to just customer service. For example, users simply have to type “pay electricity bill” in this application.
The intelligent chatbot would walk them through the process until the final payment.
2. Increasing popularity of voice bots
Thanks to the advent of conversational AI, voice-driven search is taking the world by storm. It is the next big thing. According to a report by Accenture, most consumers prefer voice-based interfaces over text-based interfaces on messaging platforms.
The trend of utilizing conversational bots to assist consumers over voice and text is rising. In education, travel, and insurance sectors, voice bots would greatly help.
It’s all about providing a seamless user experience!
3. Chatbots with a human touch will be the norm
One of the obvious chatbot trends is bots with a human touch. Chatbots use artificial intelligence to suggest options when customers type in their inquiries. Year after year, they are becoming increasingly sophisticated in terms of mimicking human conversation.
They will identify the right intent behind a query and provide an accurate response to that query. By learning from interactions, chatbots are beginning to pick up patterns in user behavior.
Hence, chatbots are becoming indispensable for high-impact conversations.
4. More businesses will use emotionally intelligent bots
Chatbots with emotional intelligence?
This is slowly becoming a chatbot trend with newer, groundbreaking technology. For instance, facial feature detection AI software can detect a person’s feelings.
Similarly, chatbots with emotional intelligence can figure out your mood (happy, sad, or angry) by looking for patterns in your text. It could be capitalization, punctuation, or your voice to predict your emotions.
Conversational AI with soft skills will further humanize business and customer interactions.
5. NLP-powered chatbots will drive customer service
Chatbots driven by NLP are groundbreaking for businesses with more excellent customer service scenarios. They can determine the user intent and generate responses accordingly.
They learn from past conversations with the customer to provide accurate answers. For instance, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has already incorporated NLP-powered chatbots to enhance its customer experience.
Check out this blog to learn more about how custom chatbots can help you improve customer satisfaction.
In 2022, you will observe more and more organizations adopting NLP-based chatbots to improve conversations.
6. Chatbot analytics to gain insights
To measure your performance, you need to track and evaluate data. And for that, you need chatbot analytics and insights. The good news is most chatbots today offer analytics so that you can continue to improve your strategies.
They keep a record of:
- every question asked
- every answer delivered
- every query transferred to agents
Use this information to improve your product or service. Therefore, chatbots allow you to foster strong customer relationships.
7. Multilingual bots to amplify your brand reach
Next on our list of chatbot trends is multilingual capabilities. Did you know that only 20% of the world’s population speaks English? So if you plan to expand your business globally or already cater to a global customer base, you need chatbots with multilingual capabilities.
This will offer a boost to your localization efforts and amplify your reach. But, it’s because customers prefer to use their native tongue to communicate with their trusted brands.
Multilingual bots enable you to tap into new markets and personalize the experience for your audience.
8. Chatbots to better support remote workforce
A recent report by Gartner says that about 75% of business leaders would allow 5% of their employees to work from home post-pandemic permanently.
Also, 25% agreed to permanently shift 10% of their employees to a remote work setting. Hence, it’s safe to say that such a work culture is here to stay.
In such a scenario, chatbots would become pivotal in answering typical employees’ concerns.
They can:
- answer FAQs on remote work policies
- track employee health
- notify employees of the latest changes in policies
- offer work from home tips
9. Brands will use chatbots to facilitate interaction on social media
Social media is the hub of much social interaction in present times. We have moved on from just making friends on social media to voicing opinions, ordering products and services, offering reviews, and even getting in touch with businesses. Thus, it becomes necessary for businesses to use chatbots to facilitate interaction on these platforms.
Many industry leaders in various sectors have already employed chatbots to use this vital resource to better understand customer needs and even improve ways the business can help consumers. ‘Brands using chatbots on social media’ has already become a chatbot trend.
Facebook already has a chatbot feature, but it is very limited in its capabilities; perhaps it was only a test of whether chatbots would fare well on the platform. The answer is a resounding yes. Facebook has now become a trendsetter in equipping businesses with the ability to use customized chatbots made by other parties to help in this process. Every social media platform is likely to follow suit.
10. Low code platforms to build and deploy chatbots faster
The pandemic forced companies to become more agile in their processes. This, in turn, led to the development of low-code chatbot platforms that allow businesses to deploy apps at a much faster rate.
Even less experienced users can build chatbots using these low-code development platforms.
With this approach, many organizations have deployed chatbots for sales support, customer support, service desk management, and more.
11. HR bots to speed up the recruitment process
A recruiting chatbot can filter candidates, answer their basic questions, and schedule them for interviews. As a result, they speed up the entire recruitment process.
These chatbots are helpful even after the hiring process is over. During onboarding, they can answer the most basic HR questions. This is undoubtedly a boon for large organizations with massive workforces.
12. Chatbots with self-learning capabilities will become commonplace
To stay ahead in the race, it is of utmost importance to train bots with new data and keep them up-to-date. In 2022, you can expect companies to make chatbots that are self-learning.
This means companies do not have to spend time feeding new data to bots. They will analyze the pattern in every interaction and train themselves to keep the users or customers engaged. In other words, bots will learn to improve their response capabilities based on user feedback.
13. SMS and WhatsApp-based chatbots to personalize brand conversations
While every other mode of communication, like email and phone calls, still holds ground, the most personal still remains a personal message. SMS and WhatsApp are the go-to apps that people regularly check and are comfortable conversing over.
In 2022 and beyond, chatbots are going to be leaning onto this opportunity to better connect with audiences. Many companies like Yatra and MakeMyTrip already use certain chatbot features to send flight and stay tickets directly to Whatsapp and the details via SMS. This has made the process convenient for users, and any progress would only make things easier.
In 2022, you will see SMS and WhatsApp bots create a personalized experience and facilitate open-ended conversations.
How Maruti Techlabs Designed an NLP-based Mental Health Chatbot
At Maruti Techlabs, we designed an NLP-based mental health chatbot to help employees on the autism spectrum. This bot helped improve their social skills, feel welcomed, and sense of belonging in the workplace.
The Challenge:
Winning the Microsoft-organized hackathon, AI for Accessibility 2019, inspired our client to create an inclusive onboarding framework for employees with special needs.
The FAQ chatbot they were using previously wasn’t able to answer the questions of autistic employees, so they had to see a counselor directly.
As a result, they were looking to design a mental health chatbot with human touch that would help employees on the autism spectrum navigate their day-to-day workplace challenges before they could speak with a counselor.
The Solution:
The engineers at Maruti Techlabs addressed the challenge by building a text-based NLP chatbot from scratch with particular attention to contextual management and emotional intelligence.
We designed the chatbot to act as a therapist, offering helpful advice and suggestions, leading to better resolution.
For e.g., the user says, “I cannot adjust to meeting new people.” The bot responds by saying, “I am sorry to hear that! You may find it difficult to adjust to meeting new people or feeling stressed. It is okay to feel this way! Here are some tips to help you adjust better.”
The bot now acts as a virtual mentor to 150+ neurodivergent employees and is rolled out to 30+ organizations in the first phase of the project roadmap. Thanks to the NLP-based chatbot, our client can now recruit more neurodiverse talent, helping create more inclusive and diverse workplaces.
The Future of Chatbots
A business’s success rests on many factors, but perhaps most important is understanding the needs and wants of your customer base. Similarly, you must understand all aspects of your business and customers to create a successful chatbot.
In a rapidly maturing conversational AI market, haphazardly put chatbots will vanish. Only the ones that are strategically developed and implemented across channels shall survive.
In the meantime, chatbots will continue to boost user engagement and enhance customer support.
At Maruti Techlabs, we specialize in developing chatbots for a wide range of use cases that can help businesses and enterprises quickly adopt conversational AI. Our team has extensive experience building chatbots for various industries that help our clients achieve their objectives.
Simply drop us a note here to get started on your custom chatbot journey.
