Though chatbots are a relatively recent invention and consumers have been slow to get on board with them, they’re definitely here to stay, especially when you consider that they tend to be popular with younger generations. As today’s teenagers transition into adulthood, chatbots are going to be a major player in customer service. Here are a few facts that demonstrate the coming trend.

• In a survey of 1,000 US consumers, nearly half (49%) said they’d prefer all their customer service interactions to take place via chat or texting. Of the generations surveyed, millennials were the most in favor of customer service chat.
• In a survey of 5,000 people across six countries, 38% said they had an overall favorable view of chatbots compared to just 11% who had an overall negative perception of them (the rest were neutral). Since chatbots are such new technology, there are many kinks to be worked out and the percentage of people who view them favorably should rise substantially.
• Approximately 69% of people say they use a digital assistant or chatbot at least once a month and 61% said they believed chatbots were here to stay.
• One out of every four consumers couldn’t say for certain whether their last customer service interaction was with a bot or a human person. This suggests that the lines between the two are becoming more blurred as chatbots become more accurate at assisting customers and more lifelike when it comes to displaying personality.
• The majority of people still prefer to be assisted by a real person when they have a customer service interaction. However, 40% say that they don’t care who or what helps them so long as their problem is actually resolved or their questions answered. This demonstrates that accuracy is most important of all. Also, as the younger generations replace the older ones, the hesitance in chatting with artificial intelligence will subside.
• Ease of use and efficiency were the two most important factors when it came to respondents who had positive experiences with chatbots. People don’t care as much about chatbots with personality if they can accurately and quickly resolve their problems though personality is a nice touch.

Chatbots are only going to grow in popularity in the coming years so now is the time for businesses to start thinking about incorporating them into their customer service strategy.