Know All About Chatbots That Are Overtaking The Traditional Customer Services The current global market-size for chatbots is $3.5 billion and is expected to grow to $5.6 billion according to the research and advisory company, Gartner.
By Tahira Noor Khan •
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Aakrit Vaish Co-Founder and CEO of the conversational AI platform, Haptik, says that the biggest challenge that the chatbot industry faces is ignorance. "We have to keep educating people about the technology and its benefits. Like how can the technology help them to streamline operations, in cost optimization, data collection and management to inventory and supply chain management," says Vaish.
Chatbots, chatterbots or bots are computer software that simulate interaction between humans and machines. Alexa, Google Assistant or an automated banking bot are some examples of bots which are automating processes and saving human time by its services. Currently, there are two major variations of bots, they are Rule-based bots and AI bots.
Rule-based bots follow a specific flow command and are not dynamic in their interactions. Common examples of rule-based bots are customer service calls where you have to choose a specific number or command to know specific information.
AI or Artificial Intelligence backed bots are more dynamic and advanced in nature. They use NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming to enable a machine to be capable of having a varied and emotionally intelligent conversation with humans. Alexa is an example of the same.
Related Read: 7 Ways Chatbots Can Benefit Your Marketing Strategy
Where are bots being used?
Bots are being used in e-commerce, banking, travel, real estate and other sectors. In India, Mahindra and Mahindra, Raymonds, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Godrej, Tata Group, Reliance Group are some of the many companies using bots.
"The global market for chatbot by 2023 will be $ 5.6 billion and 36 per cent of it will come from India," says Himanshu Saxena, Co-Founder and CEO at Suzami Tech. According to Saxena, chatbots are currently being used for three basic functions, they are - Customer self-service, Operations assistance and Enterprise functions.
Related Read: Social Media Marketing Strategies With Chatbots
What is the future?
"Bots in various languages, audio chatbots and bots having more evolved conversational capabilities are the trends that will emerge stronger," says Ajit Deshmukh, Managing Director, Equirus Capital. Saxena believes Bert by Google is a groundbreaking achievement in chatbot technology.
"India is a huge market and SME market is largely untapped by the chatbot industry. This provides a huge growth opportunity," claims Saxena.
Deshmukh says investors are keen to place their bets on the chatbots. "Chatbot technology will become more prevalent in the coming times. Investors are keen to invest in it. The market for the chatbots is growing."
Related Read: Top 10 Best Chatbot Platform Tools to Build Chatbots for Your Business
