Technology has been driving change and of late, Artificial Intelligence is being discussed as one of the next big things. It is expected to alter customer interactions with the introduction of chatbots.
These are revolutionizing how we do business, how the customer service department works and how sales and marketing take place.
The Ever-Evolving Role of Chatbots
Leading organizations such as Salesforce feel that chatbots are likely to make a significant impact on the micro-moment exchanges.
The VP of Mobile Messaging for Salesforce in an article discussed that chatbots have been relieving their agents. They are no longer stuck doing mundane tasks such as gathering information. Bots are taking over these tasks and agents are doing the real work now.
Chatbots can provide assistance in another business area i.e. marketing automation. Staffing employees for 8 hours a day is difficult.
It’s almost impossible to keep them for 24 hours a day. Chatbots make for a great replacement as they can be available on the clock for 365 days.
Research by HubSpot says that ever since chatbots are integrated with Facebook Messenger, customers have become more respective when they are engaged via Messenger as compared to email.
The average open rate for broadcasts on Messenger was 80 per cent whereas it was 33 per cent with email.
Also Read: What are Intelligent Apps (I-Apps)? Features, Examples & Uses
So, Will Chatbots Replace Humans?
If chatbots are such better customer service agents, they will probably replace humans, right? Hold on, chatbots may be smart and responsive but they are not emotionally intelligent like human beings.
Bots can mimic human conversations successfully but they still struggle to comprehend them. They can’t accurately understand the tone and context of the message. It is going to take a few years for them to correctly interpret human emotions.
Therefore, chatbots can’t replace human. They are only taking over the mundane tasks which used to keep the agents occupied. Because of that, they couldn’t perform other tasks related to customer service which actually mattered.
What Do the Numbers Say?
If you check the statistics, they are swinging in the favour of bots. The Gartner report says that by the year 2020, 85% of the customer and business relationship will be without human interaction.
It seems that the use of chatbots will rise. Which is great because Chatbots will make a lot of business processes easier. That does not mean the role of humans will completely eliminate.
Final Words
When chatbots will completely take over the universal tasks, you can expect customer service to get more responsive and interactive. But one thing is certain, they can’t replace humans.
