How Chatbots Are Redefining Mobile Apps and Their Usage

The advancement of AI and machine learning has made chatbots really good at automating simple tasks and handling various aspects of communication. While technology is still in its infancy stage, it is gathering pace and redefines the expectations of mobile apps and the experience they should provide. 

Here is a glimpse of the new trend and what it might mean for mobile app development.      

Chatbots as a New Trend in Business    

A bot is a computer program with a set of recorded scripts to automate specific tasks by chatting with the users via a conversational interface. Since mobile apps are created for instant access and the interest in real-time features is on the rise, chatbots are increasingly considered an indispensable part of intelligent apps.     

The hype around chatbots is hard to overestimate. The projected growth rate of the chatbot market size is 29.7% in just a few years: from $2.6 billion in 2019 to $9.4 billion by 2024.  Overall, according to the findings of Opus Research,  $4.5 billion would be spurred in chatbots’ industry by 2021. This definitely makes chatbots a powerful opportunity for mobile app developers to grasp. 

Benefits of Implementing Chatbots in Mobile Apps

The increasing popularity of bots is due to the numerous benefits they offer for app owners and customers alike. These include:  

Guided Automation 

Any enterprise development company places much emphasis on how an app helps to improve business processes and team effectiveness. This is why automation is at the core of modern smart apps. Chatbots that reconfirm the commands and give hints on certain actions are an effective way to bridge the gap between AI and user intent, as unattended automation may be one of the reasons why a team hates the management app.  

Enhanced Communication 

Communicating with chatbots rather than human support representatives, app users feel like they initiate the contact and can arrange the conversation tempo and depth, which increases the users’ experience dramatically. What is more, users don’t feel obliged to maintain ethical norms - they can leave the chat making no excuses or give frank yet bold answers. 

Gamification

Communicating with business bots in mobile apps and messengers feels entertaining and is a proven way to gamify the app - a useful technique app developers use to improve UX in all types of apps and appeal to the young generation. The numbers won’t lie: given the overall survey fatigue, a survey administered via a Facebook chatbot showed a 76% satisfaction rate.  

A Solution Matching Major Social Trends   

Human-bot communication is a great fit for modern society that is gradually increasing its mobile moments and develops introvert habits. Facebook Business reports that 61 % of clients marked messaging as the easiest and most comfortable way of communication. Also, 64% of respondents would send messages via chatbot as they believe that’s the way they are most likely to get in touch with the brand. 

All these advantages come with major budget savings, as chatbots introduce automation and reduce the need for human staff. 

Roles Chatbots Can Handle 

Although chatbots are primarily associated with e-commerce and online marketing, they are truly diverse in their applications and are adapted to serve any business purpose. For example:

• E-commerce and marketing: chatbots are successfully used for upselling and downselling, abandoned cards recovery, lead generation, personalization of offers, etc.
• Customer service: businesses can cut on expenses and improve customer relationshi[s by delegating customer support, internal help desk, and FAQ to AI-powered chatbots. 
• Market research: chatbots are great solutions for market research automation, especially what concerns customer insight and customer satisfaction surveys.   
• Media monitoring: chatbots can crawl the web and help you track relevant media mentions sharing latest insights in an app or private communication  
• HR: chatbots may help with candidates screening, scheduling job interviews, onboarding, employee training, and much more.
• Compliance management: bots can be used for detecting cybersecurity risks and ensuring GDPR compliance.  
• Supply chain management: business bots can handle procurement, distribution, shipping, and logistics matters.      

5 Excellent Business Bots for Ideas and Inspiration

If you have already started thinking about how to add a chatbot to your mobile application, take a look at 5 examples of popular chatbots that are used for diverse industries.  This might give you a better vision of what modern bots are capable of.  

#1 Kit 

Kit is a super useful online marketing assistant. The bot is a Shopify product and an official partner of Facebook created to help you with tasks such as running Facebook and Instagram ads, setting up a retargeting pixel, and sending out email marketing campaigns. 

What’s more, Kit will proactively reach out to you with marketing suggestions so that you can be served a portion of fresh marketing ideas each day.      

#2 NerdWallet

Entrepreneurs often struggle with finding the best solution to manage corporate finances. NerdWallet bot is great assistance here. The chatbot handles preliminary questions to help you determine your needs. Thus, it will either tell you the best credit card deals, factoring in cashback and bonuses, etc. or direct you to the relevant expert. 

What business owners like about it is that experts are independent of financial institutions, so the recommendations are not biased.   

#3 LISA

Robot Lawyer LISA (Legal Intelligence Support Assistant) is a business bot to take care of your non-disclosure agreements (NDA), as well as commercial and business leases. In a two-way app, LISA will ask a series of questions and send it to the reviewer for making changes and signing the document. With the chatbot, you will not need lawyers as the middle ground during a common legal negotiation process. 

#4 Oliver 

Oliver is a bot speaking of GDPR in an easy and entertaining way. Oliver is ready to answer your questions and give guidance on how to meet the EU requirements for data protection round the clock. The business bot is an easy solution to make your business GDPR compliant and rest on the safe side.   

#5 Staples

Staples bot brings the office supply to the brand new level. In a seamless communication with the business bot on Facebook, you can be recommended a suitable product, reorder previously purchased items, and get updates on delivery status. It’s like having a free office assistant to manage the supply.  

Conclusion

The intelligent bots’ market is growing and turns chatting into a daily experience for average citizens. Used either to communicate with your customers or to assist your team in day to day business activities - in-app bots definitely deserve all the buzz they have generated in recent years. If you haven’t implemented a smart chatty assistant in your business app yet, today might be a great day to start.