Chatbots expected to cut business costs by $8 billion by 2022

Chatbots could help trim business costs by more than $8 billion per year by 2022, according to new research which is anticipating a surge in automated customer service programs as companies move to embrace artificial intelligence (AI). Health care and banking, industries which manage large volumes of human interaction, are set to benefit most from the new technology, the study published Tuesday from analysis firm Juniper Research suggests. It predicts that between three-quarters and 90 percent of queries in these areas will be dealt with by "chatbots" within the next five years, resulting in cost savings of up to $0.70 per interaction. "We believe that health care and banking providers using bots can expect average time savings of just over 4 minutes per enquiry, equating to average cost savings in the range of $0.50-$0.70 per interaction," the research company said. Chatbots currently account for business cost savings of $20 million globally, but their ability to deal comprehensively with human problems is limited.