Chatbots made quite the splash, back in 2016 when they first burst into the scene and were touted as the next big disruptive technology that would replace apps among other things. The pipedream ran dry quite soon when in 2019, a Forrester report, declared that most of the chatbots were poorly implemented, in effect “ruining customer experiences” and – in the worst-case scenarios were, nothing more than “virtual idiots”. Different research agencies reached similar conclusions. Nearly 50% of the consumers in Europe, the USA and ANZ surveyed in 2018 said that automated chatbots were at best ‘annoying’ while 54% of online US consumers stated that interactions with customer service chatbots had “a negative impact on the quality of their lives”.

As 2019 drew to a close, the future of chatbots looked bleak. They were no closer to replacing apps than we were to achieving World Peace. In an unexpected quirk of fate, however, thanks to the COVID-19 effect, the need to go digital was accelerated lightyears into the future. The pandemic gave birth to a paradigm shift in completely revolutionizing the way businesses connect, collaborate and communicate with their customers. Chatbots received a new lease of life and integrated into apps as supplementary tools, thereby extending functionality and improving overall usability.