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Most people have interacted with a chatbot even if they might not know it. Fact. When it comes to chatbots, we know that most brands are in favor of them, but how do consumers feel? When it comes to customer care, do they think positively about chatbots? What situations do they want to encounter them in, and how do they react?

Chatbots have taken the tech industry by storm. As the hype for both business and recreational chatbots has increased, it can be tough to tell how widely they’re actually used, or what they’re used for. So, today, we’ll quantify their rise.

1. Businesses and customers exchange 8 billion messages per day on Facebook Messenger

There are 300,000 chatbots on Facebook Messenger alone—that’s only one place where chatbots exist and that number is only growing. Is it an overstatement to say that chatbots are taking over the world? Probably, but they are certainly carving out some serious space for themselves in the customer experience landscape.

2. Chatbots will power 85% of all customer support interactions by 2020

According to Gartner, we should expect to interact with chatbots for 85 percent of our customer support interactions by next year. People have spoken: Chatbots make support interactions faster, more accurate, and easier for both customers and agents. Including chatbot messaging in your support strategy is a natural step for companies that want to remain relevant and on the forefront of technological advances.

3. 24-hour service is the biggest chatbot benefit

A study of over 1000 American adults by Salesforce asked customers how they prefer to use chatbots, and how they hope bots will evolve in the future. They found that 64 percent of people cited 24-hour service as the most important chatbot function, with 55 percent stating the biggest benefit is getting an “instant response.” For customer support agents, this can’t go unnoticed—consumers clearly care deeply about their ability to have an immediate interaction at any hour of the day.

4. Chatbots are equally popular among millennials and baby boomers

If this fact surprises you, you’re not alone. According to the same Salesforce study mentioned above, chatbots aren’t just the preference of younger generations. In fact, in areas such as their ability to answer simple questions, easy communication, and instant responses, baby boomers were even more optimistic about chatbots’ ability to perform.

The future isn’t about downloading another app. We are moving into a world where you can do everything with a brand with simply a conversation. A conversation that remembers your preferences, learns over time, and creates the best customer experience. A conversational customer experience.

5. 45% of consumers find chatbots more convenient than phone or email

In 2016, Ovum conducted research that found that 45 percent of consumers in the U.S. and Germany prefer chatbot service interactions for their convenience. Consumers would rather not have to open a separate app, email, or web page during customer service interactions. Chatbots that streamline interactions and limit them to one channel eliminate this friction and keep customers happy.

6. 37% of consumers would use chatbots in an emergency

The fact that 37 percent of people cited their likeliness to use a chatbot to get a quick answer in an emergency shows our collective trust in chatbots extends beyond simple support and retail transactions. As chatbot technology only continues to improve, we’ll rely on them more and more to supply answers to our most pressing questions.

“Conversocial’s customers have seen the volume of conversations taking place over messaging channels grow by more than 900 percent in the past few years. For brands to continue delivering a great experience to consumers at that kind of scale, automation is required. With Assist, we are now able to combine the best aspects of messaging automation and human interaction to make connecting with a business as easy as messaging a friend”

SWORD BROS.