Chatbots to Become a Primary Customer Service Channel by 2027

By 2027, chatbots will become the primary customer service channel for roughly a quarter of organizations, according to Gartner.

“Chatbots and virtual customer assistants (VCAs) have evolved over the past decade to become a critical technology component of a service organization’s strategy,“ said Uma Challa, Senior Director Analyst in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice. “When designed correctly, chatbots can improve customer experience and drive positive customer emotion at a lower cost than live interactions.“

A Gartner customer service and support (CSS) survey of 50 respondents conducted online in January and February 2022 revealed that 54% of respondents are using some form of a chatbot, VCA, or other conversational AI platform for customer-facing applications.

“CSS leaders have a positive future outlook for chatbots, but struggle to identify actionable metrics, minimizing their ability to drive chatbot evolution and expansion, and limiting their ROI,“ said Challa. “Benchmarking chatbot performance metrics at one organization against that of its peers is not effective and can be misleading because chatbot type, design, and complexity vary widely by organization.“