Page 23 - The EDIT | Q3 2017

Currently, North America comprises around half the chatbot market, with Asia Pacific making up around a quarter. Having said that, Asia-Pacific is expected to have a quicker adoption rate though than any other regions.
One of the primary areas being explored for chatbot use is in engaging potential customers. McKinsey Research reports that 29% of US customer service roles can be automated by chatbots, and 36% for sales representatives. In China, Alibaba’s customer service chatbot handled the workload of 52,000 customer service reps on their Single’s Day on 11/11/2016.
Elsewhere in the world, North Face and IBM Watson teamed up to build a successful voice NLUI web chatbot to recommend customers clothing based on their needs and preferences. As firms optimise chatbots with customer interaction data, NLUI capabilities will only get stronger, delivering a human-like interaction. Customer chat data can also help publishers build stronger profiles.
In China, most WeChat users already send each other voice messages — a potential treasure trove of data to train AI on. This also indicates the Chinese market may face little inertia transitioning from text- based interactions to voice-based NLUI chatbots.
Text-based chatbots are still at the forefront
Text-based chatbots look more poised for growth right now in most of Asia, due to the prevalence of mobile phone use. With APAC home to more than half the world’s chat app users and its mobile-
first nature, text chatbots are a natural first step, promising high engagement. For example, in China, where WeChat dominates, chatbots are already being used to book restaurants, hotels and other services. Baidu, another large player, recently launched the AI-powered chatbot Melody in their existing Doctor app.
In Thailand, three quarter
of mums use the LINE messaging app to chat. Unilever’s Knorr ‘Auntie Reply’ chatbot takes advantage of this with a bot that suggests recipes based on available ingredients.
Second to messaging app-based chatbots is integrated mobile assistants, such as Apple’s Siri or Google Assistant. In the short term, before smart home technologies gain prominence, this is likely to be the primary voice NLUI chatbot users will interact with. In 2016, Google reported that around 20% of searches are done by voice.
Discovery
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The global chatbot market, according the Transparency Market Research, is estimated to be worth USD 995 million by 2024. This means an annual growth rate of 28% in terms of revenue from 2016 to 2024. However, other stats are more optimistic estimating the chatbot market to be worth up to even USD 3 to 9 billion.
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THE EDIT ISSUE 7 | Q3 2017