Stay up to date with the latest news in the chatbots and messaging space
🤖 Businesses are starting to get value out of using chatbots. Companies like Sephora, Nitro Cafe, 1–800 Flowers, Marriott, Snap-Travel, and Coca-Cola have started to see returns from their chatbots investment.
👨👩👧👦 330 million people used Messenger to contact a business for the first time last year.
📞 Interactions with customer service via legacy channels like email and phone have fallen in the US by 7% in the last two years, according to new data shared with BI Intelligence from Aspect Software.
📱 Almost 1 million people started using social media for the first time every day in 2017. That’s equivalent to more than 11 new users every second!
👮 WeChat is poised to take on an even greater role in China. An initiative is underway to integrate it with the country’s electronic ID system.
💬 Apple is preparing to roll out a new feature in iMessage called Business Chat that will allow consumers to chat directly with businesses through Apple’s messaging platform.
🤷♂️ By 2020 consumers will handle 85% of their engagement with businesses without ever interacting with another human being.
🙋♂️ Humans open up more when they know they're talking to a bot.
🍷 UK grocery chain Lidl has launched a fully-automated Messenger chatbot to help customers select the best wine for their meal.
👽 Grove raises $2.1M to find the sweet spot between old-school financial advisers and chatbots.
😸 Mars' petcare brand, Perfect Fit has built a chatbot aimed at providing customised petcare advice.