This is a guest blog from guest author, Umana-Anderson Victor. 

Nowadays everything is leading towards automation. Customers want instant engagement and businesses want good customer satisfaction. Something that aims to provide a solution to these problems are chatbots. So, what is a chatbot, a chatbot is a computer program or software that automates conversation with users. Facebook recently gave out some data that may show you the value of chatbots for business websites. People and businesses exchange two billion messages a month, 56% of people prefer to message than speak to customer service, and more than half of people are more likely to buy from an organization they can message (Grabber). There are more advanced bots powered by artificial intelligence, but most are just programmed with pre-designated conversation trees and pre-specified responses (Dhami). There are many reasons why chatbots are useful the first is that it optimizes resources. Chatbots work without salaries as well as function 24/7, it also only takes a one-time investment to get started with a chatbot for your business. Another benefit is instant responses to consumers, they solve customer issues quickly which results in a positive user experience and possibly even a sale. Also, you can enable the chatbots to complete payments without the user having to leave the page, a simple way is by using PayPal which makes the orders quick and effortless. Conversations can be held across multiple chatbot platforms (Messenger, WeChat, WhatsApp) which increases businesses audience/customer base. Chatbots also allow businesses to collect more customer data and metrics which gives insight into customer’s preferences and needs. Chatbots allow you to do various things like, customer support, ability to make orders, scheduling appointments, sharing updates and news, and tracking orders. Some of the brands that already use chatbots are, Sephora, Starbucks, National Geographic, and Taco Bell (Guest)

Chatbots are already being used and will for sure be something we will see more of in the future.