At a time, when talk about the usefulness and effectiveness of chatbots is dominating the landscape, it is perhaps pertinent to ask this question: If chatbots do find their way into the daily activities of society, what will happen to websites and mobile apps? For chatbots can do the same work, while also giving users the human element, aided by conversation, understanding and emotions.
Let us look at ways in which chatbots could spell the end of messaging apps and websites
Research says that 96 per cent of organisations feel that chatbots have are going to be important players in the future. And this means that many of the bigger businesses are going to invest in bots. Let us look at messaging apps for example. In India, WhatsApp has more than 250 million active users, and this figure grows every year, so the market is huge!
Already as of 2015, use of mobile messaging surpassed that of social media. This means that in the future, if and when messaging apps become the most-used way for people to communicate, there could be a need for business to use computers to help keep in touch with the large number of users and customers at any given point. This is where chatbots could come into the picture and help make things cost-effective and easy to communicate with a large number of users per second.
The aspect of speed comes next. While broadband and WiFi connections have improved so much that websites can load in the blink of an eye, it also depends on kind of connectivity and stability of device being used. However, with a bot, everything is already loaded, and there is the added element of striking a conversation with the consumer and getting the point of the company across. It has already been established that a little more than one-fourth (27 per cent) of customers around the world are keen on artificial intelligence (AI) based-systems. And if these tools can provide speed, something that modern users (especially youngsters) crave, then the bots will be better-suited to handle this change.
Another very important point is the tangible factor that makes it tedious to use messaging apps and websites. Every app and site has its own interface, and this requires users to keep switching between learning about each interface. And this can be long-drawn and demanding. With a chatbot, however, nothing of this sort is needed, and all that the user needs to do is speak out his/her query because in a decade or so, bots will have developed the ability to completely understand a humans point of view, and this will only help in establishing better relations and quicker decision making.
While messaging apps and websites have seen some heady days, there could be a time when the two are even rendered completely obsolete thanks to the vast potential of a chatbot.
