July 31, 2019
July 31, 2019
Contributor: Laurence Goasduff
The proliferation of chatbots in the modern workplace calls for IT leaders to create a conversational platform strategy that ensures an effective solution for employees, customers and key partners.
Chatbots continue to be a hot topic among media, end users and vendor communities. This is no surprise, as chatbot technology — which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to mimic human conversations — is beginning to mature and offer more sophisticated solutions. This is primarily because of improved, AI-enabled language capabilities.
As a result, more organizations are investing in chatbot development and deployment. In the 2019 Gartner CIO Survey, CIOs identified chatbots as the main AI-based application used in their enterprises. “There has been a more than 160% increase in client interest around implementing chatbots and associated technologies in 2018 from previous years,” says Van Baker, VP Analyst at Gartner. “This increase has been driven by customer service, knowledge management and user support.”
Thanks to their ability to use natural language processing to map spoken or written input to an intent, chatbots are rapidly entering the workplace. “The tools and software being used today need to simulate this behavioral trend and supplement faster, better and more efficient collaboration in the workplace,” says Baker.
By 2022, 70% of white-collar workers will interact with conversational platforms on a daily basis. This expected growth is on par with the increase of millennials in the workplace. Because chatbots cater to millennials’ demand for instant, digital connections that keep them up to date at all times, millennials will likely have a large impact on how well and how quickly organizations adopt the technology.
The proliferation of enterprise chatbots comes with some challenges. The market is crowded with more than 2,000 vendors, many of which are ill-equipped to deliver and maintain chatbots. To ensure your chatbot solution is an effective one for all stakeholders, implement governance policies and apply these best practices as part of an overall conversational platform strategy.
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Recommended resources for Gartner clients*:
Four Channels for Conversational Technologies
Governance and Best Practices for Chatbot Development
*Note that some documents may not be available to all Gartner clients.