HOW THE MEDIA IS COVERING CHATBOTS

Over the last year, articles written about Chat Bots has almost doubled. According to Quid, there were over 33k articles written globally on the topic with the US, UK and India publishing the most. Several themes emerged that reinforce that people are still looking to understand the market opportunity and how to best deploy Chatbots. 

Another overarching theme that was consistent is the implications on how and if ChatBots will have an impact on jobs.  In many cases, the technology is only good enough to handle some of the basic interactions while the more complex task will be routed to a person which is how Sabre plans on using its new virtual agent named Ella. Ella will start work handling basic routine service requests, freeing live agents to deal with more complex issues.

Retail, Banking, and Travel industries are the early adopters of using ChatBots to engage with consumers. Retailers like Louis Vuitton and Saks Fifth Avenue have deployed bots that serve as virtual advisors and personalized shoppers on Facebook messenger.  In Hongkong, Citi launched a Facebook messenger that allows customers to check their bank account balances and recent transactions. 

According to Gartner, 85% of customer interactions with brands will happen without ever interacting with a person by 2020. How ready are you for the conversational interface revolution?