Juniper Research expects that chatbots will play an increasingly important role in the technical and commercial development of instant messaging (IM) services such as WhatsApp and Snapchat over the next five years or so.

However, despite the succession of big name travel companies launching chatbot-based services, the study identifies retail, finance and healthcare as the sectors likely to see the most immediate benefits.

Topline figures from the research suggest that, globally, the number of subscribers to instant messaging services will reach 4.2 billion in 2021 compared with 2.3 billion in 2016.

However, the research argues that chatbots are an opportunity for businesses “to expand their in-app offerings beyond a mere messaging service.”

And while IM subscriptions will increase by 12% every year until 2021, the growth in chatbot use will outperform this. There will be 2 billion chatbot users by 2021, with businesses “in the west” learning best practice from China. The CAGR for chatbot use outside China over the next five years is predicted to be 190%.

Although the research doesn’t look at travel specifically, it identifies six mobile chatbot hurdles which apply across all sectors:

• value proposition
• trust in the technolgoy
• monetisation strategies
• mobile messaging fragmentation
• chatbot discovery
• response times

Juniper’s take on the “trust in the technology” issue is that when ebay and Amazon start to introduce bots, the benefits will filter down and bot use will become normalised for online consumers in general.

Click here to read to read Juniper’s press release.

Related reading from Tnooz:
Car rental sector gets the message more clearly than hotels, OTAs and airlines (March2017)
What now for chatbots in travel? (Jan2017)

NB: Image by Julia Tim/BigStock