Customer Care and the Growing Role for Chatbots

During SpeechTEK, which was held in late April in Washington, D.C., hundreds of customer care professionals gathered to wrestle with the shifting sand that is customer care, particularly the challenges and opportunities presented by automation in the form of virtual assistants or chatbots. The conference provided insights that included answers, objections, and more questions. Companies spend massively on customer care and automation will reduce costs. In Tuesday's keynote panel, Cognitive Code's Chief Operating Officer (COO) Brian Garr said industry observers estimate customer care spending to be nearly $500 billion. Everest Group estimated in 2016 that call center spending was $300 to $320 billion annually.