Indian enterprises emerged as a global leader in Bot deployment with 67% of the companies having actively deployed over 300 bots across their organisation, reports ‘Automation Now & Next’.

“Automation has become a strategic priority for business leaders across India as a fallout of the pandemic. But it has also become core to digital transformation efforts,” said Milan Sheth, executive vice-president of the IMEA Region for Automation Anywhere.

Chatbots are now the most prominent use case for AI in businesses, states Gartner's 2021 Hype Cycle for Customer Service and Support Technologies. Chatbots with conversational AI have been available for a while, but since the pandemic, adoption and proper operationalization have only increased. The ability of brands to select the best chatbot platform and deploy chatbots that have a measurable impact on their business is now booming at a rapid pace.

Conversational Chatbots are quickly taking the centre stage as the most effective customer touch point. Starting from 24 x 7 customer service to product selling, conversational chatbots help an enterprise in delivering unmatched experience to its clients. With the rapid rise in chatbot deployment, new innovations like omnichannel bots, voice bots, etc., are taking the concept to the next level.

In this article, we have listed three of the most significant trends that are expected to bring a new wave in the chatbot industry.

Omnichannel Communication Bots

Today, businesses may interact with their customers through a variety of channels, including social media, email, and messaging services like WhatsApp. Hence, customer service must be accessible through these channels as well.

According to a recent study, businesses who invest in an omnichannel customer interaction strategy can boost their conversion rates by 47% and experience a 90% increase in retention. As a result, the bot vastly enhances the entire customer experience by diverting a large number of routine requests away from the support staff, promptly answering a large number of customer concerns, or directing them to the appropriate party.

When it comes to addressing consumers' questions, closing deals, and upholding their brand promise, businesses need to innovate on a continual basis and offer really seamless, always-on experiences.

Kustomer, an US based entity has recently developed a chatbot product that allows its clients to communicate through every touch point. Starting with chatbots for SMS and WhatsApp,   Facebook Wall Posts & Ad Comments, Proactive Messaging, and more, the present chatbot service contains it all. Moreover, this chatbot also provides analysis of the conversations, thereby aiding with an in depth view of the customer experience and expectations.

Payment Integration with Chatbots

By the end of 2025, it is anticipated that the global transactional value of mobile payments will reach $12,407.5 billion. While bots have proven to be quite effective at handling consumers' everyday demands and routine transactions, they can also be made to play a significant part in speeding electronic payments. More bots will be integrated with digital wallets and payment platforms like Razorpay, enabling users to make purchases without ever leaving a chat app, enhancing user experience.

Chatbots may now guarantee encrypted transactions that preserve client data dependable and secure thanks to the most recent advancements in AI. In fact, a Juniper analysis found that using AI chatbots in FinTech might result in savings of USD 7.3 billion by 2023. Although most transactions have already been converted to digital forms, the payment processing industry is only anticipated to expand in the near future.

Ella, a conversational bot developed by Alacriti, is designed to receive the payments from different platforms. Currently, Ella facilitates seamless integration through messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger and intelligent voice assistants like Alexa and google assistant. With Ella, a customer can easily pay through both — messenger and voice assistant.

Effective Voice Bots

According to a survey by Accenture‍, the majority of users of messaging services prefer voice-based over text-based interfaces. The usage of conversational bots to assist customers via voice and text is becoming more popular since it enhances the user experience.

IVR (interactive voice response) conversational technology provides human-like interactions by providing answers to queries and streamlining self-service. With conversational IVR, your consumers may ask questions of a bot in their own words without having to navigate through a confusing menu. Additionally, it can assist consumers with disabilities, such as those who struggle to see small print on a screen, by enabling them to access the information they require in the simplest way possible.

Yellow.ai, an US based firm has developed an automated speech recognition and response  technology that enables fast, accurate and lifelike conversations in multiple languages, dialects, speaking style and emotions for a variety of use cases like customer self- service, agent assistance and speech analytics. 

What’s Next?

AI chatbots are highly successful and have achieved results when used with the external objectives of lead generation, commerce, and customer support. But recently, they are also proving their worth for internal use cases within the organisation for functions like HR, IT, Product training, etc., and will continue to do so in the coming time.