Since Facebook and Kik have opened their platforms, inviting members to build chatbots, there has been a positive and optimistic sentiment around chatbots. Gartner has predicted that by 2020 chatbots will power 85% of all customer service interactions. Many other marketing tasks will be delegated to chatbots as we run into the future. Chatbots, computer programs that simulate conversations are applied to business and marketing functions that require interactions. Instead of interacting with a human, chabots are used to resolve a query while being able to save cost, add convenience, enhance experience and scalability and be available for 3.a.m requests too!

As businesses continue to find ways of cutting costs and improving customer engagement, chatbots have become a leverage point among large companies such as WhatsApp and Facebook. These conversational agents, using text or voice commands to answer queries or guide consumers with their purchases, serve as alternative solutions to customer service representatives. As Pete Rojwongsuriya of Travelistly told Forbes, "Bots have been around for ages but the reason why it is trending now is that the advancement of AI seen on products such as Google Assistant and Siri that have gone beyond a fad to become a useful product with real impact on the mass." In this article, I'll present three real-world chatbots or virtual assistants that deliver ROI to their companies. These examples serve as use cases for companies considering adopting chatbot technology in their operations.