“Your wait time is 2 hours.”

Can you hear the screaming from the customer? Long wait times to speak to a human agent to deal with a customer service concern is becoming normalized and many businesses are seeking alternatives to avoid this calamity. Conversational AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is lending itself to the revolution in time saving and sanity replenishing solutions. Customers are turning to AI and chatbots to get their needs met swiftly. According to a LivePerson commissioned report with PureSpectrum, 5,172 consumers were surveyed with “83% of consumers worldwide would browse or buy products in messaging conversations” instead of waiting to speak to someone on the phone. 

Trusting and relying on instant messaging with a business is very important to defining relationships with customers. 61% of customers in 2021 have a positive reception to conversational AI, which is nearly double from the previous year’s sentiment. The graph below illustrates an uptick in feeling more comfortable messaging with a bot if the option is available.

An affinity for AI represents the future of customer taste, and not providing the option to customers can be a sink or swim moment for retaining support and return behavior from consumers.