Title: Rise of Chatbots and its impact on customer support by the year 2040

Content:
The human race is known to come up with inventions that decide its future. Many
scholars believe that Artificial Intelligence(AI) has been the most pioneering
innovation since early humans discovered fire and invented the wheel. The
advancement of groundbreaking technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and
Machine Learning (ML) have constantly been shaping the future of humankind. The
likes of Mark Zuckerberg have welcomed the evolution of AI. He once stated- “With
A.I. especially, I am optimistic“. While according to Elon Musk, “AI can outsmart
and endanger us.” However, we simply cannot ignore how useful and influential AI is
in our daily lives.
The applications of AI and ML have delved deeply into various domains. The least to
mention are Healthcare, Transportation, Education, Media, Communication,
Manufacturing, and Customer service. Businesses worldwide are placing a significant
emphasis on enhancing their customers’ overall experiences. As a result of AI, a
massive leap in customer experience service has come up with the evolution of
chatbots.
Chatbots are AI-based systems used by businesses for communication with customers.
Customers can interact with chatbots directly via chat and voice applications.
Numerous online customer service platforms are utilizing chatbots to manage bulk
phone calls, FAQs, and other common customer service inquiries. Chatbots resolve
customer queries within no time and are accessible 24X7, enhancing the customer
experience.
The use of technologies such as AI, ML, and NLP (Natural Language Processing),
enables the bot to analyze and identify the user’s problems and instantly give the
most relevant answers to the queries.
Platforms such as Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Discord, and Slack have been
extensively using chatbots for better communication.
There are numerous advantages of using chatbots in businesses- Chatbots can
communicate with multiple customers at once. They can be used to send regular
updates about the products and exclusive offers by the company. They are available
throughout the day, which is crucial for businesses that expand globally in
different time zones. It becomes too cumbersome for businesses to have customer
care support centers at various locations across the world. There is no human
intervention involved. Therefore, chatbots can be accessed worldwide anytime.
Chatbots reply instantly, and hence it increases customer engagement. Chatbots can
also be extensively used to collect user data and analyze it further to provide
customized solutions. ML-based chatbot systems are learning from past conversations
to generate more thoughtful replies.
Roughly 40 % of internet users around the globe prefer interacting with chatbots
rather than virtual agents. With leading sectors such as retail and healthcare
rapidly turning towards digital technology, chatbots will continue to grow in
popularity in the years to come.
According to some reports, it is anticipated that the size of the global chatbot
market will expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 26%
from the years 2022 to 2030. In the year 2021, the chatbot market size was valued
at a total of USD 525 million.
It is anticipated that the growing adoption of customer service activities among
enterprises to reduce operating costs will be the primary factor driving the
chatbot market.
In the past few years, some of the most significant advances that have been made in
artificial intelligence and machine learning have been in the areas of perception
and cognition. Although there is much room for improvement in voice recognition
technology, the tech giants like Apple, Amazon, and Google have all made
significant strides in this direction with their digital assistants Siri, Alexa,
and Google Assistant, respectively.
Deep learning systems are now actively utilized to decide trades accomplished on
Wall Street and predict whether users will click on particular advertisements. It
has increased efficiency on both the consumer and the business side of things.
Chatbots can help businesses save money by generating revenue, conducting research,
generating leads, and increasing brand awareness. Other uses for chatbots include
research and lead generation.
Given the trends of the data, we can expect the chatbot industry to surpass the
billion-dollar mark in a few years. Hence, by 2040 the chatbot industry would be
having a multi-billion dollar market value.
Bank of America is responsible for creating one of the most groundbreaking
innovations. The recently introduced “Erica” is intended to assist customers in
making more informed choices regarding their finances. Customers can make payments,
check their balances, save money, and transfer funds with this chatbot, which uses
artificial intelligence, algorithms, and predictive messaging. Erica makes it
possible for users to interact via text and voice, and it then uses the information
provided to push insights to the customer.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is another company incorporating chatbots into their
customer service channel. KLM increased the number of customer interactions with
the Facebook messenger app by forty percent. The airline wanted to facilitate more
effortless conversations between its employees and passengers without compromising
passengers’ right to personal privacy. KLM was aware that its customers spent a
significant amount of time using Facebook and Messenger, so the company decided to
implement a chatbot as its platform for customer service. Messenger is now the
channel through which customers can directly receive booking details, boarding
passes, and flight status updates. On a typical day, KLM receives an average of
five messages per minute through Facebook Messenger. During peak traffic, that
number jumps to over eleven messages per minute.
These innovations with chatbots will surely pave the way for the future. by 2040,
chatbots will completely revolutionize the customer experience domain.
There are apparent constraints with AI technology. The absence of emotional
intelligence restricts the range and depth of the conversation that can take place
when AI-driven chatbots are used with customers, even though the chatbots can learn
from and predict the behavior of the customers.
The availability of trained staff and their familiarity with this developing
technology is another factor that can hinder the effectiveness of chatbots.
Chatbots can have significant limitations when it comes to different languages and
accents. This restriction turns into a significant obstacle for companies that
operate in more than one location. Maintaining the security of the customer’s data
is also a key challenge.
Even though chatbot technology has some limitations in how it can function, there
are innumerable advantages of using this technology in improving customer support.
The chatbot technology is potent enough to enhance customer support multi-folds by
2040. The optimistic thing about this technology is that ML-based systems can learn
from their own experiences and improve with time. Hence there is a high chance that
chatbot technology is perhaps “The next big thing” in the customer service domain.