/ 7 chatbot trends that will steal the show in 2022
Alexander Wijninga
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5 min
The chatbot has made quite an advance this year. Partly because of the global pandemic, many companies were forced to take their online business to a higher level. Online growth put customer service under considerable pressure, and the helping hand of automation tools was more than welcome. Research shows that 1 in 5 consumers now makes a purchase via a chatbot. For 2022, various sources even expect that 70% of customer interaction will be handled by AI. This is partly down to the sky-high expectations of the consumer. Research shows that 42% of consumers think it is important for a company to be available 24/7. It will therefore come as no surprise that the technology behind the chatbot has also taken big steps to meet these expectations. In this article we take you into the future of the chatbot: the chatbot trends we expect to see in 2022.
The chatbot is expected to play a role in various phases of the customer journey in 2022. Until now the chatbot has mainly played a role in handling customer questions (aftersales). For 2022, however, we expect a shift in this and the chatbot will mainly be present at the start of the customer journey. This is also known as conversational selling: making a purchase within a conversation.
The consumer has meanwhile gained more confidence in the chatbot and is happy to be helped by the digital employee when making a purchase. Research shows that 47% of users have no problem paying via a link the chatbot sends. In fact, paying via the chatbot is considered more user-friendly. It is easy and fast; the consumer is not bothered with pop-up screens or new windows. What is more, an increasing number of chatbots have software integrations with payment systems; think of Mollie, Moneybird or ApplePay.
The personality of a chatbot is an important aspect of the digital colleague. The chatbot's persona makes the bot authentic, and says something about the company. Research shows that 74% of consumers would like the chatbot to introduce itself at the start of the conversation. On top of that, 53% of consumers developed a more positive attitude towards a company when the chatbot responded in a fun, humorous way.
We can therefore assume that ‘human’ chatbots are increasingly on the rise. Bots with a ‘human touch’ keep the consumer engaged in the conversation, and make them less inclined to cut it short. Artificial intelligence means the chatbot will understand the consumer better and better. AI chatbots will learn to recognise consumer behaviour patterns, which lets them help the consumer faster.
Once the chatbot is up and running, it can show interesting figures. Thanks to the many conversations the chatbot can hold at the same time, and the statistics involved, companies can draw accurate conclusions from them. The customer's train of thought is mapped out more and more. In this way the customer service agent learns to understand both the chatbot and the customer better, which makes the cooperation between bot and human steadily stronger.
Thanks to the big technological steps made in the field of chatbots, companies spend less and less time building and maintaining a chatbot. Artificial intelligence is becoming ever more powerful, and means the chatbot learns more and faster. Thanks to conversational AI technology, chatbots can deliver a personal service. The AI chatbot has a big influence on the customer experience, and is therefore able to build a positive relationship with the customer. This produces higher customer satisfaction and gives positive feedback a boost.
Social media currently form the centre of most of the social interactions that take place. Social media are no longer only there to connect with friends and family. Positions are taken and shared, products and services ordered, reviews shared and: from here the customer can easily contact companies. Partly because of the speed people are used to on social media, the chatbot is increasingly to be found on various social media channels. It is one of the chatbot trends that cannot be skipped this year either.
This chatbot trend has been noticed by the social media channels themselves too. Facebook, for instance, has started offering a chatbot function. It is speculated that Facebook brought this into being mainly to test how far chatbots were wanted on the platform; the bot's possibilities are in fact fairly limited. Nevertheless the chatbot on Facebook was generally considered a great success, and many social media platforms have followed its example.
WhatsApp is the channel where most Dutch people are to be found: in 2020 that was over 9.3 million. With customer-friendliness in mind, more and more companies are choosing to extend their customer service with WhatsApp. It is, after all, far more user-friendly to be available on the platform people are already on every day.
A message to a company is quickly sent. Many of our customers were therefore looking for a way to give the consumer an answer just as quickly. This medium also often produces a rise in the number of customer questions. A chatbot on WhatsApp makes sure those customer questions get an answer as fast as possible. The chatbot on WhatsApp is therefore one of the most popular chatbot trends, and we expect to see it rise substantially again in 2022.
When you think of a ‘chatbot’, you probably think straight away of customer service. We are seeing all sorts of new, creative ways in which the chatbot is used, though: with the HR chatbot in particular. Many companies benefit from a digital colleague that can supply employees with all sorts of answers about their contract, holiday days or company policies.
The chatbot is increasingly used internally. Think of an onboarding process, for example. The chatbot can take new colleagues step by step through the company and its protocols and policies, by means of explanations, documents, videos and images. On top of that, chatbots are increasingly used by IT departments; the bot answers common problems, which lets the IT department focus on the trickier issues.
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