AI-enabled chatbots have seen substantial market momentum and significant industry leader activity in the customer service space — making them a technology worth prioritizing.
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Brands and retailers are increasingly investing in tech-enabled customer service solutions that can help support and convert customers — either online or in stores — in a timely and cost-efficient manner.
Using CB Insights data, we examined tech markets across customer service for consumer & retail leaders and ranked them across two metrics — market momentum and industry leader activity — to help companies decide whether to monitor, vet, or prioritize these technologies.
AI-enabled chatbots earned a recommendation to prioritize based on the market’s dominant market momentum and industry leader activity.
AI-enabled chatbots automate voice- and text-based interactions between customers and companies. They leverage advancements in conversational AI, including natural language processing, understanding, and generation.
AI-enabled chatbots can help automate a significant share of customer requests, offer 24/7 support across channels, and scale customer service departments in a cost-efficient way.
The Covid-19 pandemic has made AI-enabled chatbot solutions essential for brands and retailers to manage record volumes of customer service requests. Most AI-enabled chatbots can automatically answer 60% to 70% of requests.
These solutions are also helping convert more online customers, with online transactions via chatbots expected to generate just over $110B in sales by 2023, according to Juniper Research.
FACTS & FIGURES: Ai-enabled chatbots
- Funding: AI-enabled chatbot providers have raised more than $1.3B since 2017.
- Exits: Some chatbot providers have seen high-profile exits as industry leaders look to acquire new capabilities. For instance, Walmart acquired Canada-based Botmock and Microsoft acquired Nuance for $19.7B in 2021.
- Top-funded companies: Top-funded companies in the space include Uniphore ($607M in disclosed equity funding), Ada Support ($191M), and Emotibot ($146M).
- Geography: While the majority of deals in this space go to companies based in the US (58%), China (20%) and Germany (15%) also attract a number of deals.
Clients can dive into AI-enabled chatbots and more in our complete MVP Technology Framework: Customer Service for Consumer & Retail Leaders report.
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