Chatbots aren’t new. Over 35 million people use voice-activated virtual assistants right now in the world. An AI-based conversational agent that mimics human conversations, chatbots are steadily gaining widespread adoption in various business functions such as customer service, marketing, sales, or even for internal process automation in industries like healthcare, banking, travel, hospitality, etc.
With more and more customers willing to talk to a chatbot for customer support, over 80% of businesses are currently investing in chatbots that can transform the way they communicate and engage with their customers and prospects. Most of these companies are motivated by the successful virtual assistants from tech giants like Google and Amazon, and their goal is to complete in a connected device’s market which is expected to reach 25 billion by 2021, up from 14.2 billion in 2019.
In general, chatbots are classified into two major types: transactional and informational chatbots. Transactional chatbots help users execute clearly-defined processes with ease, like a transaction, scheduling an appointment, renewing a subscription, returning a product, or checking their account balance. Informational chatbots are contextual chatbots that look to return the most relevant information for a search query. Like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant, informational chatbots understand and respond to user queries regardless of the sequence they were entered in.
Chatbots offer many advantages over live chat or contact center agents. Although reduced costs and intelligent self-service options are clearly a key incentive, it isn’t the only benefit.
Always On: Some customers always prefer to speak to a live agent, but what when it’s out of hours, or at peak times? A chatbot is available at their convenience at any time on any number of different channels.
Fast: Chatbots can understand and respond to specific queries in a matter of seconds. Gartner found that a chatbot was able to answer within 5 seconds of customer contact, while the average advisor took 51 seconds.
Accurate: Accuracy is key to first-time call resolution rates. Because of their high level of understanding, most advanced conversational systems can solve 80 percent of queries automatically, often achieving 98 percent accuracy.
Scalable: Live agents cannot handle so many queries at once. They need to finish one before starting another, whereas a chatbot can handle millions of conversations simultaneously, all to the same high standard.
This post will present some of the chatbot forecasts and projections, from 2020 to 2027.
2020
By 2020, an average user will have more conversations with chatbots than with the spouse. 85% of customer support interactions will be performed by a chatbot by 2020. (Gartner).
40% of a chatbot or virtual assistant applications launched in 2018 will have been abandoned by 2020 (Gartner).
By 2020, 25% of customer service and support operations will incorporate virtual customer assistant (VCA) or chatbot technology across engagement channels. (Gartner).
By 2020, 80% of enterprises will use chatbots. (Oracle)
2021
By 2021, over 50% of enterprises will spend more per annum on bot creation than mobile app development (Gartner).
By 2021, AI will handle almost one in six customer service interactions globally. (Gartner).
The global chatbot market will see an estimated investment of $4.5 billion by 2021 (Opus Research).
According to Opus Research, by 2021, 4.5 billion dollars will be invested in chatbots. (Opus Research)
2022
70% of white-collar workers will interact with conversational platforms daily by 2022, according to Gartner.
$3.9 trillion projected AI-derived business value growth by 2022 (Gartner).
$8 billion projected business cost savings from chatbots by 2022 (Juniper Research).
75% to 90% projected percentage of queries to be handled by bots by 2022 (CNBC).
$0.70 projected chatbot cost savings per customer interaction (CNBC).
According to Lauren Foye, by 2022, banks can automate up to 90% of their customer interaction using chatbots (Juniper Research).
According to Lauren Foye, by 2022, banks can automate up to 90% of their customer interaction using chatbots.
2023
Five billion hours projected time savings for businesses and consumers from chatbots by 2023 (Juniper Research).
$112 billion projected value of chatbot eCommerce transactions by 2023 (Juniper Research).
The Chatbots Market was worth USD 946.55 million in 2017 and is projected to reach USD 5,638.64 million by 2023, registering a CAGR of 34.64% over the period 2018-2023 (Business Wire).
The global Chatbots market is valued at 840 million USD in 2017 and is expected to reach 5310 million USD by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of 36.1% between 2017 and 2023 (Reuters).
The operational cost savings from using chatbots in banking will reach $7.3 billion globally by 2023, up from an estimated $209 million in 2019 (Juniper Research).
AI, including chatbots, will have a highly disruptive impact on the management of insurance claims, resulting in cost savings of nearly $ 1.3 billion by 2023 over motor, life, property and health insurance, up from $300 million in 2019. (Juniper Research).
Business Insider estimates that up to 73% of healthcare admin tasks could be automated by AI, and the adoption of chatbots could save the healthcare, banking, and retail sectors $11 billion annually by 2023. (Business Insider)
2024
It is expected that the global conversational AI market size will rise from USD 4.2 billion in 2019 to USD 15.7 billion by 2024 at a compound annual growth rate ( CAGR) of 30.2%. (Markets and Markets).
The Chatbots Market was worth USD 1274.428 million in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 7591.82 million by 2024, registering a CAGR of 34.75% over the period (2019 – 2024) (Research And Markets).
By 2024, AI will become the new user interface for redefining user experiences where 50% of user touchpoints will be augmented by computer vision, natural language, speech, and AR/VR (IDC).
The chatbot market is anticipated to grow from $2.6 billion in 2019 to $9.4 billion by 2024 at an annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.7%. (Business Insider)
2025
The annual global AI software revenue is forecast to grow from $9.5 billion in 2018 to $118.6 billion by 2025 (Tractica).
By 2025, all customer-centric organizations that embed AI in their multichannel customer engagement will gain operational efficiency by 25% (Gartner).
2026
The global chatbot market, valued at USD 1.17 trillion in 2018, is expected to reach USD 10.08 trillion by 2026, at a CAGR of 30.9 percent, according to the current analysis of Reports and Data. (Globe News Wire).
2027
The global chatbot market is projected to reach US$ 2,358.2 Mn by 2027, at a CAGR of 31.3%. (Transparency)
