By 2022, more than 95 percent of contact centers will have chatbots deployed, Frost & Sullivan predicts in a new report.
Other big investments will include messaging bots and virtual assistants, the report said.
And while artificial intelligence will allow for automation of more complex tasks, Frost & Sullivan does not expect AI to substantially replace humans. On the contrary, live agents will be needed to build relationships with customers, the firm said.
Among the other technologies to be prioritized are customer journey analytics, e-learning, quality monitoring, social media analytics, speech analytics, unified agent desktop, workforce/performance management, web interaction analytics, and web collaboration tools. Top interaction channels include chat/chatbot, email, interactive voice response, live agent, messaging bot (Facebook, WeChat), the internet of things, mobile customer care, proactive outbound, video/video kiosk, virtual assistant (text, voice), web, and social media.