The Robots Are Coming

Blog (Part 2)

AI is still a relatively new form of digital marketing to consumers and consumers

still feel there is some level of uncertainty and risk using chatbots (Trivedi, J.,
2019). We are no strangers to peoples “doomsday” mentality when it comes to
robots taking over the world, and can we really blame them? We have been
programmed to believe that the introduction of Artificial Intelligence is likely to
replace many jobs and ultimately make the human race redundant, just watch
every movie made about Artificial Intelligence. To many, chatbots are just the
beginning of the end of the world (ignoring the obvious signs that the human race
is the worst thing that ever happened to the planet). However, despite all this
studies have shown that chatbots can have a positive impact on e-commerce and
provide “interactive and engaging brand/customer service encounters” (Chung,
et al., 2018). Research has shown a surge in consumers using chatbots, finding
that more than a quarter of the population are using chatbots, in some form (The
Future Is Now - 37 Fascinating Chatbot Statistics, 2021). Yet, despite the increase
in the use of chatbots worldwide and the benefits they bring to consumers
research shows that 86% of consumers would rather human interaction then
interacting with artificial intelligence, with 71% of people indicating that they
would “less likely use a brand if they did not have human customer service”
(Press, G., 2021). So here lies the global predicament, Chatbots have proved to
enhance digital marketing communications by providing large scale, quick access
to helpful information, which ultimately leads to customer satisfaction
(Paliwal,S., et al ., 2020). But there is still a large variety of opinions among
consumers about chatbots and AI in digital marketing (Müller, L., et al., 2019).
We are reacting, every human stereotype in AI movies, thanking the robots that
help us, while wishing they didn’t exist.
Yet, despite are natural pesmissim for AI there is undoubtedly a benefit not just
to organisations but to consumers as well, more on this in the next blog.
Reference

Chung, M., Ko, E., Joung, H. and Kim, S.J., 2018. Chatbot e-service and customer
satisfaction regarding luxury brands. ​Journal of Business Research.​

Müller, L., Mattke, J., Maier, C., Weitzel, T. and Graser, H., 2019, June. Chatbot
Acceptance: A Latent Profile Analysis on Individuals' Trust in Conversational Agents. In
Proceedings of the 2019 on Computers and People Research Conference​(pp. 35-42).

Paliwal, S., Bharti, V. and Mishra, A.K., 2020. Ai chatbots: Transforming the digital
world. In ​Recent Trends and Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things
(pp. 455-482). Springer, Cham.

Press, G., 2021. ​AI Stats News: 86% Of Consumers Prefer Humans To Chatbots​.
[online] Forbes. Available
at:<https://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2019/10/02/ai-stats-news-86-of-consumer
s-prefer-to-interact-with-a-human-agent-rather-than-a-chatbot/?sh=6196cc642d3b>
[Accessed 6 February 2021].

SmallBizGenius. 2021. ​The Future Is Now - 37 Fascinating Chatbot Statistics.​ [online]

Available at:
<https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/chatbot-statistics/#gref> [Accessed
6 February 2021].

Trivedi, J., 2019. Examining the customer experience of using banking Chatbots and its
impact on brand love: the moderating role of perceived risk. ​Journal of internet
Commerce​, ​18(​ 1), pp.91-111.