While chatbots have been one of the biggest business communication trends for the last couple of years, 2023 is shaping up to be the year where chatbots go from a ‘nice-to-have’, to a ‘need-to-have. The chatbot industry is expected to reach $454.8 million U.S. dollars by 2027 but this might happen much earlier as more companies realize that they are losing customers to their competitors who did invest in keeping up with customer expectations.
Chatbots are particularly popular in industries that have a high volume of customer interactions – such as retail, travel and hospitality, finance, etc. and used across sales, marketing and support functions. Whether you are looking for a chatbot that offers simple conversations, or a multi-lingual, AI-enabled chatbot, keep reading to know the chatbot trends that will shape businesses in the coming years.
Key chatbot statistics for 2023
Before jumping into chatbot trends for 2023, let’s look at some important chatbot statistics.
8 chatbot trends to watch for in 2023
1. Continued rise in the adoption of chatbots
Customers have become incredibly reliant on transacting online – whether that’s to make inquiries, make purchases or find support. Chatbots offer real-time responses and 24/7 availability, which is why customers have begun to expect from all businesses. It is also why chatbots are being increasingly adopted across customer support, sales, marketing and other functions.
Aside from their accessibility, chatbots are also becoming more useful to both businesses and customers alike, as they are getting smarter. AI enabled chatbots can help businesses proactively reach out to website visitors, send customers updates on messaging channels, offer resolutions and alternatives based on customer intent, and a whole lot more. These are a great addition to companies to stay on top of their competition and offer customers the best shopping and support experience.
2. Increase in use cases for better customer experiences
Chatbots were first launched in 1966 as an academic pursuit to find whether a program, named ELIZA, could reasonably sound like a human being. We’ve come a long way since ELIZA – chatbots have diversified use cases across personal and business needs. Specifically in businesses, chatbots have gone from simply greeting website visitors to initiating conversations, nudging customer behaviour, and responding based on customer intent.
Every day we find an interesting way that a business has used its chatbots to create delightful, effortless and creative ways to ease or improve their customer experiences. Whether they build improved functionalities in-house, or use third-party integrations, chatbots can now accept payments, book tickets, qualify leads, build a community, and much more.
For instance, companies like PayPal and Mastercard have already launched chatbots to help users with account balances, set payment alerts, manage their cards, and collect final customer payments.
3. Simulate human-like conversations like never before
During the early stages, chatbots were able to perform only minimal activities and often ended in an endless chatbot loop which would frustrate the end user. This was because they functioned based on specific keywords rather than understanding the context or intent.
With developments in technology, chatbots now use AI, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (Ml) to learn from and mimic human conversations. These chatbots analyse previous conversations to understand intent and deliver relevant answers to users.
4. Powering the new capabilities of messaging apps
Did you know that there are more than 300,000 chatbots in operation on Facebook Messenger alone? Chatbots are now becoming commonly integrated with messaging channels, including WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, Instagram, and more.
Messaging platforms enable businesses to stay connected with customers on their preferred channels. This boosts customer engagement and creates loyal customers for the brand. Integrating chatbots with messaging platforms opens up more opportunities to boost customer experience, improve sales, launch targeted marketing campaigns and enhance lead generation.
Multiple messaging channels are available, and managing brand presence on multiple channels becomes a tedious task. Freshchat allows you to integrate chatbots into any messaging channel, including WhatsApp, Google Messages, Apple Business Chat, Line, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. You can easily manage all your chat requests from multiple channels from a single window, without toggling between tabs.
5. Voice bots will grow in popularity
The market for voice and speech recognition is expected to reach $26.8 billion by 2025. With the rise of conversational AI, voice bots are gaining popularity. It has also been proven that 71% of customers search online using voice instead of typing.
Customers now use voice bots for everyday activities, including setting up reminders, shopping, cooking, and listening to the news; the possibility is endless. Voice bots are on the rise, and by 2023 they will make their way into most industries, including travel, banking, and more.
6. Powering personalization in customer support
One of the biggest challenges when chatbots were first used in customer communications was that they ‘sounded robotic’ and customers missed the experience of speaking to humans. This is no longer the case.
Chatbots can now pull data from a visitor or customer’s previous interactions and personalize recommendations or suggested actions, thereby boosting the customer experience. They can also employ their machine learning insights to find common customer patterns and offer contextually relevant information. For instance, if a customer reaches out to a store website chatbot and asks about the availability of an item, a previous version of chatbots could only answer YES or NO; now, based on the common next question asked by other customers, the chatbot can simulate human interaction with something like “Hey, unfortunately that item is not in stock, however here are three similar options that other customers have bought”. Taking it a step further, if this is a repeat customer, the chatbot can even say “Hey, we don’t have that item in your size right now, would you like us to notify you when it is back in stock?”
These two options will significantly improve the customer’s experience, and your bottom line as well.
7. Make collecting customer feedback easier
Chatbots should be enabled to collect customer feedback after each conversation. A simple auto feedback form that pops up at pre-programmed events increases the chance of collecting customer feedback because it is instant, and doesnt require the customer to leave the site and check their email or phone, like they previously had to.
With sentiment analysis, chatbots can self-diagnose whether the conversation went well or not while aggregated insights can identify room for improvement overall.
8. Optimize internal workflows with automations
We have seen an increase in the trend for chatbots to enhance the customer experience. But chatbots will also take over internal workflows and streamline operations from small to enterprise-level companies.
The usage of chatbots in support is also highly beneficial to the agents. Chatbots automate and resolve common queries, letting agents work on complex ones. This brings down the agent ticket load.
Furthermore, chatbots will be adopted by human resource teams to maintain employee records and answer common employee queries. They can also be trained to complete common screening interviews and guide new hires through the onboarding processes.
9. Take social media conversations to the next level
Social media is no longer just a platform for users to connect with friends and family, but it is becoming a platform for users to interact with brands. Users are now making purchases, reviewing products, and also raising support queries via social media.
Many brands have already started using chatbots to understand consumer behavior and their activity on social media to send targeted ads and messages and enhance customer shopping and support experience.
Using Artificial Intelligence to analyze these large volumes of data helps brands quickly and easily identify trending topics and user behavior quickly and easily.
10. Deploying chatbots will become easier
Chatbots are no longer associated with long-line coding to be learned to integrate with your live chat or messaging channels. No-code bot builders now let you deploy the chatbot on your website within minutes.
With this, companies can easily deploy chatbots for support, sales, and marketing and have them up and running to drive results at a faster rate.
Choose Freshchat chatbots to deliver business results in 2023
- Freshchat chatbots are powered by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing (NLP) to offer customers real-time engagement and faster resolutions.
- Freshchat bots are multi-lingual and can offer support in over 35 global languages.
- The conversational language that Freshchat allows helps boost customer engagement by responding with small talk instead of following scripted robotic answers.
- You can easily connect Freshchat bots with popular messaging channels, including WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, Facebook Messenger, and Google Business Messages.
- Freshchat bots can also be set up to seamlessly hand over chats to human agents at the right time so customers don’t get stuck in an endless chatbot loop.
- You can also easily connect our chatbots with our native help desk and CRM products – Freshdesk and Freshsales, to enhance your support and sales offering. Furthermore, you will also have access to over 1000 apps in the Freshworks Marketplace to seamlessly manage your tech stack or boost your service strategy.
- The chatbot widget is completely customizable to reflect the look and feel of your brand.
- You can get data-driven insights on your bot performance and optimize it for higher efficiency.
Want to try Freshchat chatbots for your business in 2023? Get started now.
