Latest Conversational AI Statistics for Brands in 2024

Statistics around conversational AI indicate consumers' trust in the technology has grown manifold to the extent that they trust it to accomplish complex tasks and converse with context. This is a far cry from 2019, when one-third of customers who started a chat (with a live agent or virtual agent) had to go elsewhere to complete their inquiry or task. Conversational AI chatbots had the lowest first contact resolution rate (FCR), and users felt it was fit for basic tasks and nothing more. In fact, 48% of users who used chat exclusively vowed never to use it again, reports Accenture! 

Jump to 2024.  

Today, conversational AI statistics paint a different picture. Technology advancements enable bots to talk like humans and solve complex multi-step problems agentless. What happened and what more can happen in this exciting space is what we seek to answer in this article. 

As you plan your conversational AI investments and initiatives for the year, this carefully curated list of statistics and insights will give you a snapshot of trends, market opportunities and risks. Let’s start. 

Conversational AI market size and opportunity 

Research predicts a dramatic surge in the use of conversational AI bots. The AI industry, as a whole, was valued at USD 150.2 billion in 2023, solidifying its position as a catalyzer behind technological evolution and business transformation. It is poised to reach an impressive $32.62 billion by 2030, indicating sustained growth and integration into various sectors, specifically retail, healthcare and finance. 

B2B companies stand to gain more in terms of investor trust than B2Cs by rolling out chatbots for customer service. The modern B2B customer perceives this as a sign of tech-savvy and customer-centricity. Speaking of demographics, millennials absolutely love chatbots for their instant response, round-the-clock availability and self-service options. 

It's an understatement to say that businesses are excited about chatbots. By 2025, the chatbot market will be worth more than $1 billion. The chatbot market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 23% from 2023 to 2032.

Gartner predicts that enterprises will increasingly recognize the potential of chatbots, and around 50% will spend more on bots than on traditional mobile app development. Clearly, bots are poised to be the leading customer interface of the future. 

What’s more? 

Generative AI (GenAI) will be a part of 80% of conversational AI offerings in 2026, a significant increase from 20% in 2023.

 Back to basics: Conversational AI vs. Generative AI: Core Differences 

Conversational AI – Industry-specific statistics 

Conversational AI solutions, bots particularly, are adept in situations that demand prompt, high-quality and personalized responses. However, conversational AI is also finding a place in narrower, industry-specific use cases. Let's see how. 

Finance

In the financial sector, conversational AI finds widespread applications in customer self-service, using voice bots and moderated communities to answer queries pertaining to borrowing rates and insurance claims.  

• In 2022, 37% of the American population (98M people) interacted with a banking chatbot and this number is poised to grow to 110M by 2026, reports the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 
• Banks save an average of $0.60 per chatbot interaction, as reported by Opus Research. 
• JP Morgan utilized its COIN chatbot to analyze intricate back-end contracts, resulting in over 360,000 hours of labor saved, as noted by The Financial Brand. 
• eMarketer reveals that 43% of digital banking users in the US favor using live chat or chatbots to resolve issues. 

Retail

The world idealizes human interaction in shopping, but that’s far from the truth. Today, the world is embracing conversational AI-driven shopping, owing to its 24/7 availability and objective response. These statistics are a testament to the growing popularity of conversational commerce:  

• According to Statista, 34% of retail customers feel comfortable conversing with customer service through an AI chatbot. They use chatbots for near-me store locators, deal of the day and order status checks. 
• 40% of U.S. consumers claim they used retail chatbots in 2019 for varied use cases, from customer support to personal shopping assistant. 
• Chatbots can boost e-commerce revenue by 7%-25% for companies with perfect implementation.  

Conversational Commerce: Your Fast-Track to Retail Stardom

Brick-and-mortar stores have given way to virtual shopping assistants that wow the modern customer with event-driven automated responses that sound near-human, share personalized shopping recommendations and troubleshoot regular shopping queries.  If you’re new, start by exploring these use cases of conversational commerce, and then scale as you see revenue growth: 

• Send welcome messages to first-time visitors 
• Share order updates 
• Touch base with customers after they leave your store 
• Curate deals of the day based on browsing histories and wish lists.
• Simplify refunds, exchanges etc. 

 Get the deets here: A-Z Guide on Conversational Commerce

Software development 

Erstwhile thought to be a gray-matter-dominated space, software development is now gradually opening up to conversational AI, especially in code completion, testing, error diagnosis and debugging. Code translation and migration are also sometimes streamlined and optimized using chatbots. 

• By 2028, 75% of software engineers will extensively use conversational AI coding assistants, a big leap from less than 10% at the beginning of 2023. 
• 50% of software engineer leading roles will explicitly demand generative AI oversight by 2025. 
• White-collar workers interact with conversational platforms on a daily basis, indicating how important it is to be familiar with AI chatbots at work. From content management to customer service, conversational AI plays a vital role in cutting the effort of your workforce, enabling them to do more in less time. 

From 6 Clicks to 1 Request: How chatbots empower your workforce 

Nancy, your designer, wants to access a file stored on DropBox and mirror it on her desktop. Traditionally, she’d follow six steps to do this simple task. But with a chatbot equipped with natural language processing (NLP), she shoots just 1 verbal request, and the task is done! 

Travel & Hospitality 

Travel and hospitality industries are already leveraging chatbots, with a fourth of companies utilizing them for customer queries and bookings.  

• According to Drift, 33% of individuals are willing to utilize a chatbot for making hotel or restaurant reservations. 
• Travel chatbots are deemed valuable by consumers. In a survey by Humley, two-thirds of respondents find them either useful (40%) or very useful (26%) for managing business and work travel arrangements. 
• The same Humley survey indicates that 37% of users would opt for an intelligent chatbot when coordinating travel plans or comparing booking options. 
• If a travel chatbot can save time and money, 87% of users express a willingness to engage with it. 

User feedback about conversational AI tools 

No two consumers are the same. And different audiences might have widely different reactions to conversational AI. 

However, the numbers indicate that most consumers see conversational AI in a positive light. It all depends on how smartly brands program their virtual customer assistants and automated support bots. As expected, bots aligned with a customer's preferences and expectations and those that can handle complex queries score well on customer satisfaction.  

Capterra's findings indicate that 58% of online shoppers are at least moderately interested in using conversational AI tools for online shopping, mainly for items like apparel, electronics and home goods.  

Only about 20% of the people surveyed by CDP found the experience of interacting with a chatbot irritating. However, 64% of people said they would rather have access to a live agent. 27% couldn't tell whether their last customer service interaction was with a real person or a chatbot. This showcases how seamlessly chatbots can be integrated into customer service processes. 

This indicates that marketers and customer service teams need to work harder on building sophisticated conversational AI chatbots that don't grate on customers' nerves. And ensure the chatbot experience complements what human agents can provide.   

Trust and transparency with conversational AI 

The big question: Can conversational AI be trusted? Does it keep your data safe and private?  

Well, people are skeptical, and they have every right to be. Here's what the research tells us. 

A significant 85% of U.S. consumers are worried about receiving inaccurate information from conversational AI tools. According to Capterra's survey on AI shopping security risks, over 64% of U.S. consumers have concerns about the data privacy practices of conversational AI tools.  

Conversational AI in customer service 

How is customer service — a field based on chat, conversations and empathy — impacted by conversational AI? Let's understand from these stats.  

Conversational AI has ushered in a paradigm shift in customer service dynamics, redefining traditional models with proactive, personalized and efficient solutions.  

Read more: The Essential Guide to AI for Customer Service 

• Gartner anticipates a 24% increase in call center investments in 2024, driven by conversational AI tools. The focus on customer-facing solutions, such as 24/7 support through AI chatbots, is set to become the norm, shaping a more convenient customer experience. 
• According to the MIT Technology Review, nearly 90% of contact centers report measurable improvements in complaint resolution speed and enhanced call volume processing using AI.  
• The same report indicates that executives see an 80% improvement in customer satisfaction, service delivery, and overall contact center performance. 
• IBM research shows that chatbot-led customer service interactions turn out 30% cheaper for brands than agent-led interaction. 
• The potential time-saving impact of chatbots is monumental, with researchers estimating a cumulative savings of 2.5+ billion hours of customer service time by 2023. 
• Deloitte's findings back these efficiency claims, reporting that chatbots reduce the average handle time of customer queries by an impressive 77%.  
• VentureBeat predicts that conversational AI solutions could slash the cost of providing customer service by 30%. 

Read more: How to Use Conversational AI for Customer Service  

Final thoughts 

Businesses across sectors have woken up to the potential of conversational AI and are figuring out ways to leverage it. So, if you haven't started your conversational AI journey yet, the time to act is now. 

Sprinklr's conversational AI platform enables businesses to handle 55% more cases with generative AI integration, giving more bang for your buck. Build and deploy a sophisticated chatbot with a no-code, 3-step process that optimizes itself with LLM data sets. Eliminate hard-coded decision trees and build intents organically during conversations. 

The best part? 

There is a 30-day full-featured free trial of the Sprinklr Conversational AI platform, just for you, on the house. Claim your trial and watch your business soar!