Lyle Hauser, CEO of The Vantage Group, discusses in his new blog post the future of chatbots and artificial intelligence in the business world.

1. LYLE HAUSER
Chatbots are Poised to
Become Even Chattier

2. “Press one for more options.”
“I want to talk to a representative.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that. Press one for more options.”
If you desire more human interaction when making phone calls or searching the
Internet, the outlook for that is often bleak. Instead, you are prompted to speak
with a chatbot, a robotic assistant that functions as the automated voice
answering services, popup chats, and more. On the phone, the robot disguised
as a recorded human voice prompts you to press numbers along the windy path
to answering a question or getting the information you need. Most often, those
faces are not the actual people typing, at least initially. In all cases, the chatbot
feature allows for customer service to begin without manual human effort.

3. What do the robot woman on the phone at
the bank and the woman on your
smartphone all have in common? Essentially,
voice assistants are for personal use while
chatbots are for businesses. Voice assistants
like Siri help individuals. Chatbots are
designed for the public, leading them down a
funnel that hopes to solve problems in an
automated way. If necessary, though,
chatbots may eventually result in speaking to
an actual human.

4. In 2019, 40% of businesses will be using chatbots. The same study
shows that in that group, 46% will use them for voice commands, 26%
for team collaboration efforts, 24% help with scheduling, 14% for
customer service, and 13% for IT management purposes. In all, 16%
of companies are currently using artificial intelligence (AI) for sales
and marketing. Those numbers are bound to increase over time.

5. The rewards of using this technology are
numerous, particularly for big businesses.
Chatbots’ natural language processing (NLP)
capabilities make them robust virtual assistants.
Their increasing intelligence can also provide
companies with data about their customers.
Chatbots are becoming very common, but not all companies
are buying into the trend so easily. About 50% of
organizations have not started using chatbots or AI because
of concerns with privacy, security and costs.

6. The clear trajectory of chatbots makes preparing for them a
must-do for businesses. Obtaining education on the
technology’s inner workings, implementing best practices,
and beginning implementation at a comfortable pace is
advisable. The common fear that robots will replace humans
is not as urgent a threat as many think. For the most part,
businesses are investing in improving employee skills instead
of replacing them with machines.
Empathy seems to be the missing element in most situations.
Whether chatbots can learn that, only time will tell.

7. THANK YOU!
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