Increased acceptance of chatbots and AI
Automation has been around for decades, but in 2020 people started using chatbots more routinely. Since then, acceptance has continued to increase and business owners expect more disruption in the coming years.
- “92% of businesses are considering investing in AI-powered software in 2024.” ― 2024 Gartner Digital Markets
- Business leaders shared their top 3 feelings about the AI hype are excited, optimistic, and motivated. By contrast, less than 10% of respondents said they felt overwhelmed, frightened, or worried.” ― 2023 Clutch
- “Overall consumer chatbot usage has doubled since 2020.” – 2022 Simplr
- “Nearly every technology startup is now, to some degree, investing in AI, and companies large and small in other industries are beginning to deploy the technology.” ― 2021 VentureBeat
- “Eighty-two percent (82%) of survey respondents believe AI will disrupt their business over the next 5 years. Of that group, the most common expectation was that AI will completely transform their businesses in the next 5 years.” ― 2023 Clutch
- “97% of companies anticipate new teams, such as training, customer support, and HR, to adopt generative AI in the near future”. ― 2024 Writer
How LLMs like ChatGPT have changed chatbot production
The flash arrival of ChatGPT at the tail end of 2022, and then other LLMs (Large anguage models) like it, prompted an explosion of revolutionary new AI tools. LLMs have transformed customer service chatbots and it looks like generative AI is here to stay.
- “Our latest research estimates that generative AI could add the equivalent of $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion annually across the 63 use cases we analyzed—by comparison, the United Kingdom’s entire GDP in 2021 was $3.1 trillion. This would increase the impact of all artificial intelligence by 15 to 40 percent.” ― 2023 McKinsey
- “We estimate that the technology, once implemented at scale, could increase productivity by 30% to 50%—or more. And according to a 2022 BCG survey of global customer service leaders, 95% expect their customers to be served by an AI bot at some point in their customer service interactions within the next three years.” ― 2023 Boston Consulting Group
- “Gartner predicts that by 2025, 80% of customer service and support organizations will be applying generative AI technology in some form to improve agent productivity and customer experience.” 2024 Gartner webinar
- “96% of organizations expect AI to be a key enabler for their company, showcasing widespread recognition and trust in the capabilities of generative AI.” ― 2024 Writer
AI forecast statistics on chatbot adoption
The market size of conversational AI (including chatbots, voice bots, and other chat-based services) is increasing, as well as for chatbots specifically and the software, technology, and services that support them.
- “The conversational AI market size is expected to increase from USD 10.7 billion in 2023 to USD 29.8 billion by 2028.” ― 2023 Markets and Markets
What chatbot adoption means for customer service
Statistics show advanced AI chatbots are opening up opportunities for customer service teams tackle backlogs of calls and messages, so they can focus on more rewarding and profitable tasks. In response, customers have now come to expect fast, convenient, personalised support services and McKinsey reported in 2023, “AI-enabled customer service is now the quickest and most effective route for institutions to deliver personalized, proactive experiences that drive customer engagement”.
- “Research shows that high-performing service organisations are 2.1 times more likely than underperformers to be using AI chatbots. The same study also found that 64% of agents with AI chatbots are able to spend their time solving complex problems, versus 50% of agents without AI chatbots.” ― 2022 Salesforce
- Even in small contact centres, “74% report that AI increases revenue”, “87% say that AI reduces agent effort,” and “92% report that AI saves time resolving customer issues.” ― 2023 8×8
- “Gartner projects that one in 10 agent interactions will be automated by 2026, an increase from an estimated 1.6% of interactions today that are automated using AI.” ― 2022 Gartner
- “Roughly two-thirds of current jobs are exposed to some degree of AI automation… The good news is that worker displacement from automation has historically been offset by creation of new jobs, and the emergence of new occupations following technological innovations accounts for the vast majority of long-run employment growth.” ― 2023 Goldman Sachs
The benefits of automating processes extends into several distinct areas of service support to improve the overall experience for your customers:
KEY: Personalise customer chatbot experiences
Using advanced AI chatbots to effortlessly personalise customer experiences is one of the biggest opportunities to innovate in customer service today. Statistics show there’s high demand for it, but companies don’t always deliver.
- “Our research shows that 71 percent of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. And 76 percent get frustrated when this doesn’t happen.” ― 2021 McKinsey
- “66% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, yet 66% say they’re generally treated like numbers.” ― 2020 Salesforce
KEY: Speed up your support service
Improve your average response time to customers and increase your customer satisfaction score while also making use of free live chat services to swiftly pass customers over to your team if human help is needed.
- “63% of customers will leave a company after just one poor experience, and almost two-thirds will no longer wait more than 2 minutes for assistance.” ― 2021 Forrester
- The advantages of using live chat “include improved website experience, increased average order value, increased sales, lead generation, and a better understanding of customer requirements.”― 2021 Business Wire
Did you know? The average conversation length for chatbot-only chats is 1 minute 38 seconds.
Introduce a live chat handover and the average conversation extends to 15 minutes 21 seconds, but here’s the good news: As your live chat feed starts to highlight where customers struggle, or where your bottlenecks are, you can quickly improve your processes and information. As a result, instant chatbot resolutions go up, and the time your team members spend on longer live chats goes down. Your support teams soon become more efficient and service transforms.
KEY: Provide a better multi-channel support service
Customers expect to be able to find support on any channel, so if you’re currently not providing this, statistics show it pays off to rapidly improve your omnichannel customer experience.
- “74% of customers have used multiple channels to start and complete a transaction.” ― 2020 Salesforce
- “76% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments, yet 54% say it generally feels like sales, service, and marketing teams don’t share information.” ― 2020 Salesforce
KEY: Offer customers a 24 hour service
We know from experience there’s high demand from customers for support round the clock, since 35% of the customer requests our AI assistants deal with come in when customer contact centres are closed. Introduce an AI assistant and you can answer every query, any time.
Predictions for chatbots usage and the future of work
As next-generation AI assistants start to disrupt every industry, from recruitment and pensions to dating and betting, analysts can now look way into the future to estimate the real world impact. Adoption rates, consumer spend, and live chat usage are all significantly on the up.
- “While support requests over messaging spiked over the past year, more traditional service channels like email and phone plateaued.” ― 2021 Zendesk
- “Chatbots are projected to see over a 100% increase in their adoption rates in the next two to five years and are the leading AI use cases in enterprises today.” ― 2021 Deloitte
- “Stena Line ferries has seen a 55% increase year on year in the number of conversations handled by their AI assistant since 2015.” ― 2022 EBI.AI
- “The Live Chat Software Market is anticipated to grow at 7.29% CAGR by 2026 due to factors such as…advantages of live chat software over conventional client support.” ― 2021 Business Wire
- “Half of today’s work activities could be automated between 2030 and 2060, with a midpoint in 2045, or roughly a decade earlier than in our previous estimates.” ― 2023 McKinsey
Statistics show one of the biggest benefits of using advanced AI chatbots in customer service is the cost saving. Real world examples have already emerged, from tech companies to local government, where costs are going down at the same time as customer satisfaction is going up.
- “By 2026, conversational artificial intelligence (AI) deployments within contact centers will reduce agent labor costs by $80 billion.” ― 2022 Gartner
- “With 5 million members, 6 million phone calls per year and 3 million chats per year… TechStyle saved $1.1 million in the first year in operations costs and achieved a score of 92 percent in its member satisfaction survey.” ― 2022 inc.com
- After launching an advanced multi-department AI assistant, Barking & Dagenham London Borough Council “saved around £48,000 in six months” and “customer satisfaction is up 67%.” ― 2022 EBI.AI
Start saving today
If you’re thinking of launching an AI assistant to reduce your customer service costs, use our savings calculator to estimate your return on investment (ROI). Barking & Dagenham council achieved 533% ROI in just nine months.
It only takes around 10 minutes to launch an AI assistant, so there’s nothing holding you back from reaping the benefits.
