We’ve grown so accustomed to the technology we use every day that we hardly notice the extraordinary way communication has changed. For example, you probably just recently contacted a company through AI, or consulted a virtual assistant to get driving directions, answer questions, and customize the lighting in your smart home. All to say, we interact with robots more often than we realize! 
Siri, Google Now, Alexa, Cortana, and even Facebook Messenger are platforms upon which help build personalized, custom communications. These are chatbots that are designed to make your life easier, and more businesses are leveraging AI to bolster their brands, in the workplace and for their consumers. In fact, 80% of businesses want chatbots by 2020, according to a survey carried out by Oracle.
Here are some ways chatbots are revolutionizing the online business landscape that could have a positive impact on ROI.
On-Demand Customer Support
The value of online customer support is a biggie in this day and age. According to these recent stats in mobile trends conducted by the Pew Research Center, 77% of Americans own a smartphone. In addition, nearly 8 in 10 U.S. adults own desktop/laptop computers, and almost 50% own a tablet. Pretty much everyone is on the Internet. So, to keep up with how people interact with their electronic devices, chatbots offer 24/7 availability which is great for businesses on a budget or with limited resources.
Consumers expect excellent customer experience and time is a key factor. A chatbot is cheaper than training humans, provides answers quickly, and frees up a company’s valuable reps, increasing productivity.
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Streamlining Sales and Processes
Whether you want to automate the sales process or streamline a variety of mundane business processes across all departments, bots can take on remedial tasks to lighten your workload. Chatbots can optimize visitor interactions with your website by delivering efficient and quick customer service, but it can also influence sales. For example, Taco Bell recently launched TacoBot which allows users to order food in real time simply by sending a message via the messaging platform, Slack.
Personalization
Isn’t it nice when we think Netflix knows us when it makes recommendations on what to watch next? Ecommerce chatbots have the capabilities of a virtual assistant - providing personalized recommendations to consumers through a chatbot, and influencing their purchasing decisions at the same time. But how?
Chatbots have natural language processing capabilities which means it understands human conversational speech. Therefore, chatbots are able to determine the best products or options when a consumer asks for a specific product - a leather jacket, for example. The bot will bring up the top-rated leather jackets and can simultaneously recommend scarves to go with the jacket. Personalized and seamless.
Wrap Up
AI technology is making strides towards having increasingly engaging human conversations, and messaging platforms are honing in on the lucrative opportunity to adapt an entire bot ecosystem, which so happens to be the next function for Facebook Messenger. What’s your take on implementing chatbots to your business strategy?
