The Future of the ‘Business Chatbot’ (Interview Transcript)
How will chatbots impact our business life?
I was recently invited to talk to a small, local event. As part of the event, I was asked to talk about the work I do at ubisend and share some of my thoughts on the future of the ‘business chatbot’.
Here is a selection of the cool things we discussed. I hope you find it insightful!
Are chatbots still viable in 2019 (and beyond)?
The chatbot hype that started in 2015–2016 has finally turned into real traction. Over the last three years, we almost followed the Gartner Hype Cycle to a tee.
In 2019, I expect this traction to steadily continue. Chatbots will continue to work because their success is due to three simple factors:
- They are conversational. The world is conversational. Chatbot technology finally allows businesses to offer to their customers (or employees) the opportunity to talk to them the same way they talk to friends and family: in a natural, 1-to-1 way, on the platform they wish.
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2. They are smart. And they will only get smarter. As the industry grows, chatbots get better at delivering results, connect to more systems and third-parties, and become more efficient. There is no going back on that front; only better, faster, stronger.
3. They deliver results. As more and more chatbot solutions are deployed, data-backed success stories are coming out proving their efficiency. Again, this will only grow — particularly as chatbots are stepping out of the internal role (e.g. internal HR solution) and into public-facing roles (e.g. marketing/branding plays).
We publish our share of data-backed case studies: https://www.ubisend.com/case-studies
A couple of years ago, Gartner predicted that 80% of businesses will have some sort of chatbot solution implemented by 2020. I believe we are well on our way to reaching that number, and 2019 will be an exciting year for the industry.
How will chatbots continue to impact businesses?
Chatbots will continue to have a tremendous impact on HR.
Human resources departments often have the best use cases for chatbot automation. The department is frequently understaffed and overworked, which a growing strain on the business.
Chatbots can help by taking away repetitive tasks HR handles, such as answering repetitive questions, filtering job candidates, parts of the onboarding process, and more. All this time saved can then be reinvested in work that requires a real human touch.
Beyond HR, we will see more and more businesses use chatbots as one of their primary lead generation tools. Chatbots are incredibly efficient at helping website visitors, funnelling down the right path, and capturing leads at scale.
Early adopters have been enjoying an incredible return on investment on lead gen chatbots: https://blog.ubisend.com/discover-chatbots/enterprise-chatbots-for-lead-generation
Can chatbots be used for lead generation?
Absolutely.
There are six main reasons chatbots make great lead generation tools:
1. They can engage with anyone, helping users at any point of their journey.
2. They’re always online, never sleep or get grumpy.
3. They’re accessible. Having a conversation with a (well built) chatbot is much more natural than using most websites.
4. They can handle even the most complex funnels and steadily generate leads.
5. They can live anywhere you want them to live (widget, live chat, full page, Facebook Messenger, etc.).
6. They can integrate with software or process you need.
I go more in-depth on each of these in this article: https://blog.ubisend.com/discover-chatbots/enterprise-chatbots-for-lead-generation, including sharing data, stats, and case studies.
Do you have an event, webinar, or piece of content about chatbots coming up? I’d love to contribute some of our industry insights!
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