Chatbots: A Leading Marketing Tool

The year was 1950 when Alan Turing published the article “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”. It included the “Turing test” which is now a criterion of intelligence and depends on the ability of a computer program to interact as a human being. It was in that same article that the foundations of chatbots were laid.

Chatbots Market Overview

What exactly are they? They are computer programs able to conduct a conversation via auditory or textual methods.

How do they work? They are designed to spot patterns and act when a certain keywords or phrase has been inputted.

A brief timeline of chatbots

ELIZA (1966) and Parry (1972) were the first chatbots, and they were able to simulate typed conversations. Since then, chatbots only grew to become one of the most used marketing tool that is used today. Many companies, especially those in retailing such as Nordstrom, use chatbots to help their customers find the right outlets or adequate shopping solutions.

In the second decade of the 21st century many companies created chatbots. The intelligent personal assistant such as Siri was introduced in 2010 by Apple. Google launched two chatbots: Google Now in 2012 and Google Home in 2016. In 2014 Amazon released its personal assistant Alexa, and a year later Facebook launched its M Chatbot, accessible via Messenger. Retailers are also taking advantage of chat bot technology, so in 2016 Nordstrom had also begun implementing chatbots to help with online customer service. The chatbot boosted sales tremendously.

Chatbots and Businesses

The following statistics show just how big chatbots are.

27% of consumers around the world are interested in tools based on artificial intelligence
40% of consumers don’t care whether a chatbot or a human helps them if they get what they need
61% of consumers think that the chatbots will exist for a long time
69% of consumers said that they interact with a chatbot at least once a month

Chatbots are only going to expand their capabilities and with an annual growth of almost 25%, the global chatbot market will reach $1.23 billion by 2025. With the help of artificial intelligence they have a bright future.

Check out this cool infographic from https://www.16best.net/blog/chatbots-gone-wild/ which outlines more predictions of the sort as well as more mind-blowing data.

Cheers!