Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
1 / 12
Table of Contents
3 Introduction
12 Conclusion
2 / 12
Mark de Bruijn,
Head of Marketing EMEA & MEE
SAP Hybris
3 / 12
Market Catalysts in the
Chatbot Revolution
Like most disruptive technologies, there are several external influences that have
contributed to the rise of chatbots in recent years. The first is the ongoing
developments within the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the second is a
behavioural shift in how we use technology to communicate.
4 / 12
5 / 12
95% of respondents in the SAP Hybris survey felt that their usage of chatbots
would grow in the coming years. However real world uptake remains relatively slow
with only 19% of the respondents in the SAP Hybris survey said they were currently
using chatbot technology.
The tentative uptake figures are mirrored in Sophisticated chatbots that draw on NLP and
external data. Just 9% of Fortune 500 companies deep learning, are capable of providing rich and
currently work with bots, according to immersive experiences, resulting in increased
Forrester Research. customer satisfaction, brand loyalty and even
sales conversions.
While usage is still in its infancy, interest levels
are growing, with a significant number of The perceived benefits of chatbot technology
deployments in the pipeline. In fact, nearly 77% were reflected in the SAP Hybris survey.
of respondents in the survey said they had near-
term deployment plans or were seriously Improved efficiency and increased customer
considering the benefits of chatbot technology. satisfaction were seen as the two top benefits of
chatbot technology, with 60% of respondents
WHY IS INTEREST SO HIGH? rating these factors as either ‘important’ of
Chatbot technology is an increasingly attractive ‘very important’.
proposition to businesses for many reasons. Even
the simplest rule-based chatbot offers enticing These were followed closely by increases in
benefits, such as the automation of repetitive conversions (55%), cost effectiveness (53%) and
tasks, increased availability, more efficient use of better use of human resources (45%).
resources and reduced operating costs.
6 / 12
11% WhatsApp
While nearly three quarters (72%) of Amongst respondents with existing chatbot
respondents felt that their customer service deployments, Slack was the most utilised
department would benefit from the use of application. The collaboration platform was
chatbot, sales, marketing and social media were followed closely by both Facebook Messenger
also seen as departments likely to profit from and LINE.
chatbot deployments.
The SAP Hybris survey found that existing
A BLEND OF HUMAN AND CHATBOT deployments were split 50/50 across integrated
INTERACTIONS and standalone applications.
While the benefits to the business are clear,
respondents felt that striking a balance between
human services and chatbot interactions
remained critical to the success of chatbot
deployments. Nearly half of all respondents said
that they felt that their customers would prefer to
use humans for the majority of interactions, with
the help of chatbots for simple tasks.
7 / 12
8 / 12
9 / 12
It could be argued that many of the challenges making chatbots more human posed a significant
that chatbots face can be traced back to challenge. Other top challenges and concerns
limitations of artificial intelligence. In 1950, Alan included development and maintenance (35%),
Turing proposed a procedure to test a machine’s finding the right balance between human-based
ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour and chatbot-based interactions (33%) and cyber
indistinguishable from that of a human. Although security (9%).
some systems have come close, not a single
machine has passed the Turing Test in any There are also challenges when it comes to
meaningful sense. utilising chatbots beyond simple interactions. For
example, it is expected that chatbots will play a
For many in the development community, the central role in ecommerce in the years to come,
Holy Grail of chatbot technology is to be able to but without integrated payment functionality, the
provide customers with an equivalent level of ser- use cases for chatbots as a sales tool remains
vice to that of a human. While great strides are limited.
being made in the area of AI, expectations must
be managed if the value of chatbots is to be fully By recognising the capabilities and limitations of
recognised. chatbot technology, and working with them, it is
possible to overcome most – if not all – of these
A lack of human finesse was the single largest challenges and fully recognise the value that
barrier to entry amongst survey respondents, chatbots provide.
with 66% of the professionals polled stating that
66% 35% 9%
33%
Making bots Development and Finding the right Cyber
more human maintenance balance between human security
and chatbot interactions
10 / 12
Respondents to the survey were invited to provide a quote about their views on how
chatbots will impact business. Many agreed that chatbots will be a “game changer”
if they become the “primary touchpoint between customers and organisations”.
One respondent described it as “inevitable” that “Chatbots will be the voice and ‘face’ of your
they will become a standard feature of all digital business within a decade, but today the tech
platforms.” has far to go before it will really add value.
Conversational UIs work great in some
The comments reveal interest in the efficiency contexts but are inefficient for many tasks, so
gains that chatbots offer as virtual employees bots will not replace online stores and visual
who “can work 24/7” and there was interest in interfaces for a long time, if ever.”
the data that chatbot interactions can provide to
“inform and shape products and services “Chatbots suppliers should find a way to let
going forward”. clients know what they are really capable of,
and what kind of input they can process, in
A number of respondents focused on the need order to avoid over expectation.”
for both human and chatbot interactions in order
not to “lose credibility” with customers. What do you think?
For example:
11 / 12
12 / 12
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as
their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE
(or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. All other
product and service names mentioned are
the trademarks of their respective companies. See
http://global.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx for
additional trademark information and notices.