Exceeding customer expectations isn't as easy as it used to be. High inbound message volumes and rising customer care standards have left support teams hustling to keep resolution times low. It's officially time to call in the bots. Customer service chatbots, that is. Don't panic--no robot can replace a diligent customer service professional.

Image credit: Shutterstock ---Shares March 10, 2017 Chatbots, computer programs that mimic conversation with people by using artificial intelligence, "can transform the way you interact with the internet, from a series of self-initiated tasks to a quasi-conversation," The Guardian declared last year. Related: Top 10 Best Chatbot Platform Tools to Build Chatbots for Your Business Chatbots have been in use a long time, albeit in different forms. The automated customer-service robots that help navigate you through those seemingly endless phone trees when you call an 800 number were an early form of chatbots. So were the fake accounts that used to spam you on AOL Instant Messenger back in the opening days of the 2000s. Today, chatbots are much more sophisticated and make use of some pretty high-level artificial intelligence (AI).

The chatbots making headlines in recent years have become famous for one thing--failing. There was Coca-Cola's #MakeItHappy campaign, in which Gawker tricked the company's bot into tweeting lines from Hitler's Mein Kampf. Then came Tay, Microsoft's infamous AI-powered Twitter bot that learned to spew racist comments in less than 24 hours. Equally unforgettable was InspiroBot, which was designed to generate inspirational quotes for posters and ended up producing such memorable messages as, "Cats are going to fill the world with pain" and "Try to tell yourself that you are horrible." The technology behind conversational bots is still relatively new, and many companies have raced to innovate without necessarily thinking through possible flaws and loopholes.

Customer service chatbots perform those daily activities diligently which can potentially get monotonous for human employees. With telephone losing its primacy, chatbots when integrated through mobile apps, social media and web chats can quickly become a preferred channel of communication. For the travel industry, such customer service chatbots could prove to be a boon. Besides the benefit of booking and scheduling flights, chatbots can help integrate additional services via social media platforms. Passenger experience can be free of stress if chatbots are employed during the journey.

Chatbots, computer programs that mimic conversation with people by using artificial intelligence, "can transform the way you interact with the internet, from a series of self-initiated tasks to a quasi-conversation," The Guardian declared last year. Chatbots have been in use a long time, albeit in different forms. The automated customer-service robots that help navigate you through those seemingly endless phone trees when you call an 800 number were an early form of chatbots. So were the fake accounts that used to spam you on AOL Instant Messenger back in the opening days of the 2000s. Today, chatbots are much more sophisticated and make use of some pretty high-level artificial intelligence (AI).

They can be used to perform a variety of different functions within the realms of customer service, customer interaction and many different "top of the funnel" advertising and marketing initiatives. While chatbots have been around for a while, they recently blew up in popularity when Facebook allowed branded chatbots onto its Facebook Messenger app. Instead of having to call and sit on a phone waiting to ask a five-second question, you can simply message a customer service chatbot and get your answer in a flash. Chatbots can play a large role analyzing customer data, and optimizing sales and marketing strategies in light of this analysis.

Chatbots, computer programs that mimic conversation with people by using artificial intelligence, "can transform the way you interact with the internet, from a series of self-initiated tasks to a quasi-conversation," The Guardian declared last year. Chatbots have been in use a long time, albeit in different forms. The automated customer-service robots that help navigate you through those seemingly endless phone trees when you call an 800 number were an early form of chatbots. So were the fake accounts that used to spam you on AOL Instant Messenger back in the opening days of the 2000s. Today, chatbots are much more sophisticated and make use of some pretty high-level artificial intelligence (AI).