Chatbots could save businesses billions of pounds, with banks and healthcare gaining the biggest cost savings.
The report, from Juniper Research predict forecasts that chatbots will be responsible for cost savings of over $8 billion per annum by 2022, up from $20 million this year.
Their key findings include –
• Responding to customer queries or advising patients on symptoms using automated messages could save $8bn (£6bn) every year across global business by 2022
• Healthcare and banking providers using bots can expect average time savings of just over four minutes per enquiry, equating to average cost savings in the range of $0.50-$0.70 per interaction
• In banking, the analysts believe over 90 per cent of interactions with bots will be successful without any human input by 2022 and in healthcare it will be over 75 per cent, up from a current success rate of 12 per cent
Banks & Healthcare Providers to Profit
Juniper expects dramatic cost savings to be made in the healthcare and banking sectors, as enquiry resolution times are reduced and cost savings boosted. Research author Lauren Foye explained: “We believe that healthcare and banking providers using bots can expect average time savings of just over 4 minutes per enquiry, equating to average cost savings in the range of $0.50-$0.70 per interaction. As Artificial Intelligence advances, reducing reliance on human representatives undoubtedly spells job losses.”
Juniper found that many bots are suited to enquiries such as healthcare diagnosis, where users can select predefined answers allowing bots to assess health issues and provide a recommended course of action. However, as AI capabilities advance, bots will be able to aid in more sophisticated healthcare diagnostics, such as monitoring and analysis of mental health.
Juniper forecast that the success rate of bot interactions in the healthcare sector (those completed without relocation to a human operator) will move from 12% currently, to over 75% in 2022. In the banking sector, Juniper expects this to reach over 90% in 2022.
Other Channels Ripe for Development
Meanwhile SMS chatbots, which are likely to be less successful in generating revenues than app-based bots, can offer a ubiquitous service for mass messaging. Governments, for example, could use chatbots in times of emergency.
Juniper believes that A2P messaging providers will adopt chatbots as a means to offer information to consumers and forecasts the number of A2P SMS sent from chatbot interactions to exceed 100 billion by 2022.
The whitepaper, ‘Chatbots ~ Critical To Businesses: Here’s Why’, is available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the new research.
Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.
Dean Withey, CEO at ubisend in response to the Juniper Research forecast, said: “We now live in an age where convenience always wins out. Brands need to solve problems quickly and efficiently and that’s where chatbots prove their worth – they’re quick and get the job done! What’s more AI and messaging services allow brands to improve the consistency of the service they offer. For example, chatbots have the ability to answer questions 24/7, they will never lose their temper with a customer and provide the quick and efficient communication that people demand.
“For businesses, one of the main benefits of AI is that it diagnoses problems people have and then points them in the direction they need to go to get it solved. It’s built on the Pareto principle; if all of the regular inbound questions a brand receives can be automated, you can remove those queries and create a larger, higher quality output for more complex queries. Being able to automate the answers to similar, simple questions is massively time efficient and has a significant impact on cost savings. It means the customer service team can provide a much better service for the same or a lower cost. They can then handle the queries that require additional support and this enables the brand to improve its customer relationship.
“The conditions are ripe for chatbots now. A perfect storm has been created where technology can now match or exceed consumers’ expectations of how brands should interact with them. There no longer needs to be a conversation gap.”
The new research, Chatbots: Retail, eCommerce, Banking & Healthcare 2017-2022, can be viewed here.