Can Robots & Chat Bots Completely replace the traditional mode of service delivery (Customer Service Executives)

Chatbots have taken the position to be your very personal chat assistants, whether as a tutor or a fashion counsellor, thanks to the ever-evolving technologies. Though bots have been around for quite a while, the recent surge in artificial intelligence and natural language processing has made it popular like never before. And with the ever increasing numbers of smartphone users, accessing chatbots have become both fun and easy.

Globally, the chatbot market has seen explosive growth since 2015, growing at 35 percent CAGR. Reports estimate $8 billion in annual savings from chatbots, with 80 percent of businesses considering implementing them. Big advances being made by the big five — Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon — today jostle for headlines with the innovations being led by nimble startups.

Posing many competitive advantages over apps, these chatbots require no downloads, can be instantly used, it is easier to build and upgrade and most importantly faster and cheaper than apps.

While on one hand it has many advantages, on other hand its effectiveness in conversing with a human without a human intervention is often questioned. There certainly are questions that bots might not handle well, but the booming artificial intelligence gives a hope on the lacunas that it can overcome. Can it serve as 100%  replacement for the traditional mode ?????? If Yes then the threat looms large over  Call Centers.