Have you ever wondered what the future holds for chatbots? The chatbot industry is growing exponentially, and many people wonder whether they should invest in this new technology. In this blog post, we will explore the history of chatbots, their business applications, and how chatbots might be used in the future. What is an AI Chatbot?

A bot is any virtual agent or software application that interacts with customers on social media channels by using either text or voice messages. "AI" stands for "artificial intelligence," meaning these applications are given anthropomorphic properties so they can think like people. Applications such as Siri, Cortana, and Alexa all fit the bill of a chatbot.

Not all Chatbots use ai. Some can be efficient with the help of conditional logic trees built by a human programmer. But the best chat solutions employ both human-built touch and artificial intelligence. Chatbots have many uses that range from helping you navigate your bank account to providing customer service for business customers.

Businesses often use them in the healthcare, retail, and travel industries. Some popular applications include the Hipchat bot (Atlassian), Alexa (Amazon Echo), and Facebook messenger bots (Facebook). Instagram also recently jumped on the chatbot bandwagon by releasing Instagram Automations.

Back to the Future: A Brief History of Chatbots and Ai

Joseph Weizenbaum created the first chatbot on May 13, 1966, at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (AI Lab - csail.mit.edu). The ELIZA program ran conversational text with a human user to simulate conversation while using keywords from an input dialogue to respond accordingly. It then replied to those inputs until it reached another keyword triggering a new response.

In 1973, a variation of ELIZA was created by Kenneth Colby at Stanford University called PARRY. Unlike ELIZA, PARRY simulated conversation with a human user and attempted to respond as if it were paranoid or schizophrenic in nature. Weizenbaum had programmed ELIZA using psychoanalytic principles from his studies at Harvard Medical School. He worked there between 1964-1970. He had developed an interest in psychiatry because of its close relationship to artificial intelligence research: "I felt that psychiatrists should be more concerned about AI than most."

Since these first chatbots emerged onto the scene, any number of bots have been coded, including SmarterChild (1999), Cleverbot (2005), and AliceBot (2006).

Chatbots can be built and maintained by humans or artificial intelligence. And while many small businesses previously struggled to tap into these fast-moving technologies, new tools and platforms have emerged to help companies tap into these technologies.

Tools like ManyChat allow you to build conditional logic and intelligent chatbot automation for Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and even your website using their visual builder tools. No coding experience is needed. They even offer a free course! You can also learn about ManyChat and use the platform on the Baby Got Bot YouTube Channel.

If you want to integrate ai into your ManyChat Chatbots, you can use tools like Janis AI or DialogFlow by Google to create your chatbot, train it with natural language processing and build an engaging customer experience.

Another excellent tool for those in the Restaurant industry is Feebi which is ai built specifically for the Restaurant industry. Feebi allows the chatbot to answer up to 80% of chat inquiries and quickly hands off messages that need the human touch.

Also, for Restaurants, there is an all-in-one platform called Tap The Table, making a fully integrated chat automation strategy a breeze. These tools make it easy for companies to start using Chat automation to help more customers and land more business.

Many businesses wrongly believe that chatbots are annoying and may scare customers away, but the numbers tell a different story. Most (87.2%) consumers have neutral or positive experiences with chatbots (Source: Drift). Additionally, the average satisfaction rate of bot-only chats is 87.58%. This is almost two percentage points higher than the satisfaction rate for conversations that get passed over to human agents! (Source: Comm100)

Businesses not utilizing chatbots cite a lack of knowledge about the technology and its potential. In addition, some companies may worry that bots will replace human employees. Still, in reality, they're more than happy to work alongside their robotic counterparts - especially when it comes to repetitive tasks where humans excel.

Use Cases for Chatbots

Let's explore how companies use chatbots today to help customers, drive sales, and become more efficient.

Chatbots drive sales:

By 2023, $112 billion worth of eCommerce transactions will be made via chatbots. By leveraging push factors to drive retail sales and upsell certain products, a Chatbot's power can help your company reach new levels in both online marketing and cart recovery notifications, which keeps customers coming back for more. As Juniper Research predicts, it will only grow exponentially from here on out!

Chatbots can also help recover lost sales with the help of abandoned cart automation. According to Chatbots Magazine, using abandoned cart chatbots alongside Messenger boosts eCommerce revenue by 7-25%. And Consumers are not turned off by chatbots either. Approximately 74% of consumers use chatbots to research or buy products and services.

Kia is a company that uses Messenger bots to drive engagement and sales. Users can interact with Kia's 'Kian' by searching 'Kia Motors America' in the Messenger app. Kian began as a promotional tool for the new Niro car model during the 52nd Super Bowl in February 2018. Since then, Kian has expanded to handle any of the questions that a salesperson would be able to answer. Kian can also help with roadside assistance, bill payment, and locating a Kia dealership near you.

The Kia Messenger bot sees 115,000 users per week on average and gets three times more interactions than the Kia Website. Octane AI developed Kian in conjunction with CarLabs and the mobile agency Ansible. Learn more about this case study at digiday.com/marketing/personalization-allow...

Chatbots simplify customer service support and answer FAQs.

Chatbots can help take a huge chunk of the burden of customer service and inquiry off of human agents, plus save a company thousands of dollars. Chatbots can save businesses as much as 30% on customer support costs. (Source: IBM).

A great example of a FAQ and customer service support bot is Evernote. The Evernote Chatbot was created using Sprout Social and helps customers with technical issues, customer support ticket status, and feature requests. It also Prompts customers for the information that agents need to assist the customer (e.g., ticket number, version number), making the chatbot-to-human handoff efficient and straightforward. The Evernote chatbot has been a success, with a reported 18% decrease in replies sent per conversation and an 80% increase in customers helped on Twitter (this is a Twitter chatbot). (Source: sproutsocial.com/insights/case-studies)

Another company that found profound success with a chatbot is Charter Communications. Charter Communications found a way to save its company money and time by switching to an automated chatbot. Before, they received 200,000 live chats per month, with 38% of these being forgotten passwords or usernames for services that can be handled automatically through the bot. When Charter switched over, it only took six months before there was 300% ROI, and the bot managed 83% of all chat communications!

Chatbots for lead generation:

When a company creates an engaging chatbot experience on its website or social media page (and gets shared), this helps create leads for companies without using advertising dollars. 55% of businesses that use chatbots generate more high-quality leads. (Source: Drift)

One of the easiest ways to drive lead generation and sales is through a Facebook Messenger bot and a comment growth tool. The Comment Growth tool enables a Facebook business page to automatically initiate a Messenger conversation after a user comments on a page post. This means you can make money directly from your Facebook posts, and even better, you can track the user and the sale from beginning to end.

Learn more about the comment growth tool

Book Tickets To Events/Shows With Chatbots

Chatbots are used to purchase tickets. For example, built into Ticketmaster's mobile app, users can chat with a bot which then helps them navigate their way through the purchasing process and ensures they get the best seats possible for their budget! The Ticketmaster chatbot utilizes natural language processing to help users search for tickets and purchase them. Payments happen via lined Credit Cards or Gift cards right inside the app, and e-tickets and receipts are delivered instantly to the user's linked email account. The Ticketmaster app is made more intelligent by using Google Dialogflow ai technology. (source: cloud.google.com/dialogflow/docs/case-studi..)

Use Chatbots to book appointments.

Many businesses are using chatbots to help manage customer inquiries and book appointments. For example, Sales Rabbit Is a company that books meetings for sales teams. They used a form that exchanged emails between the rep and the prospect. After switching to a chatbot, they can qualify leads and book time on their sales team's calendar immediately. SalesRabbit has a 40% lift in the conversion rate of requests to meetings held and a 50% increase in qualified leads. source drift.com/case-studies

These are only some ways chatbots are helping businesses and consumers alike. No matter what industry you're in, there are likely many ways your business can be helped by using Chat automation with bots! As We say in the chat marketing industry, "There is a bot for that."

The Future of Chatbots

Chatbots will continue to grow in popularity and increase their use cases. They will be used as customer service and sales assistants, among other tasks. The chatbot market size is projected to grow from $2.6 billion in 2021 to $9.4 billion by 2024 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.7%. (BusinessInsider) More Businesses will adopt this technology, with 80% of businesses expected to have chatbot automation by the end of 2021. (Outgrow).

And with more messaging users than actual social media users already here, and that number continues to grow, the future of chat is bright. We'll see how this technology evolves, but one thing is sure: business applications lie ahead for those who invest now!