Chatbots – Market Updates 34#; week-ending 9th December, 2016

MICROSOFT LAUNCHES ITS ZO CHATBOT ON KIK

Microsoft has launched Zo, which is essentially a censored Chatbot like Microsoft’s Chinese chatbot Xiaoice. Zo is underpinned by Natural Language Processing with constraints to avoid controversial subject matter. Another way of looking at Zo is that it is trained in diplomatic skills, which is a skill not everyone has! Its Chinese counterpart, Xiaoice has 40,000 million followers and has already appeared as a news reader on television.

Zo has the potential to become a strong brand, within the Chatbot market.

MARKETING, SALES AND SERVICES: FUTURE USE OF CHATBOTS   

A new report by Coleman Parkes Research and Oracle called ‘Can Virtual Experiences Replace Reality’ has been published with some interesting insights for validating the future role of Chatbots:  

 The need for change:     

• 94% of consumers do not care whether brands disappeared
• 85% of consumers believe brands must play a bigger role in improving their quality of life

The research forecasts Chatbots will fundamentally change the customer experience:

• By 2020, a large percentage of brands will have incorporated Chatbots into their marketing, sales and services so that customers can move themselves down the sales funnel by interacting with the business on their own terms.
• 80% of brands say they have already implemented or are planning to implement Chatbots by 2020 to better serve customers.
• Digital experience will be reshaped by 2020 to better cater to digital customers who increasingly favour self-service to human interaction.

TRANSPARENCY MARKET RESEARCH – THE FUTURE OF CHAT

Transparency Market Research has published some interesting findings about the future of Chatbots:

• 2015: the global Chatbot market was valued at US$113.0 million.
• 2015: North America US$52.7 million Chatbot revenues.
• 2016: 27.8% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) for Chatbot revenues.
• 2024: Chatbot global revenues expected to US$994.5 million.
• 2024: Tech titans’ revenues to reach US$626.3 million.
• Large enterprises expected to make best use of Chatbots.

API.AI (GOOGLE), MICROSOFT AND FACEBOOK

These three organisations have amassed over 120,000 software engineers developing Chatbots.

STARBUCKS TO LAUNCH THEIR OWN CHATBOT

Starbucks is to launch its own My Starbucks Barista Chatbot during 2017, designed as a conversational ordering and payment system. It will include the ability to cross-sell and up-sell such as Starbucks-branded gifts and products. Another feature will be using conversation for gifting through a partnership with Tencent / WeChat that has successfully implemented this capability in China. 

TENCENT / WECHAT ACCELERATING CHATBOT CAPABILITIES AS CHINA CONTINUES TO STAY AHEAD OF THE USA

Here are some of the features TenCent’s WeChat capabilities has deployed operationally in China showings its Chatbot leadership position against the USA and the ROW.

1. Conversational commerce

2. Conversational advertising

3. Price comparisons

4. Quick payments  

5. Mobile account top-up

6. Pay bills

7. Voice print

8. Track deliveries

9. Order food and goods

10. Make reservations

11. Converse with a smart devices (IoT)

12. Fitness tracker

13. Charity fund raising

14. Gifting 

GOOGLE HOME UPGRADES ITS CHATBOT

Google Home software developers can now create voice-activated events using the Actions on Google platform. Actions can trigger direct events such as "send my boss a text," or conversation events such as "what's the weather forecast tomorrow?" This enriched feature is closer to Amazon’s Alexa’ Skills, which now has around 5,000 pre-programmed events.