New Delhi, Jul 31 (IANS): Chatbots will become the primary customer service channel for roughly a quarter of organisations in the next five years, according to a Gartner report.

Chatbots and virtual customer assistants (VCAs) have evolved over the past decade to become a critical technology component of a service organisation's strategy.

"When designed correctly, chatbots can improve customer experience and drive positive customer emotion at a lower cost than live interactions," said Uma Challa, Senior Director Analyst.

A recent Gartner survey revealed 54 per cent of respondents are using some form of chatbot, VCA or other conversational AI platform for customer-facing applications.

"Customer service and support (CSS) leaders have a positive future outlook for chatbots, but struggle to identify actionable metrics, minimising their ability to drive chatbot evolution and expansion, and limiting their return on investment (ROI)," said Challa.

Another recent research found that the number of chatbot messaging apps accessed globally will increase from 3.5 billion in 2022 to 9.5 billion by 2026.

This 169 per cent growth will be driven by the increasing adoption of omni-channel retail strategies by e-commerce players and the rising integration of chatbots within messaging platforms, according to Juniper research.

"Retail spend over chatbot messaging apps will account for over 50 per cent of global chatbot retail spend by 2026," the report mentioned.

Additionally, as chatbot traffic grows, machine learning must be used to assess past conversations and further automate the omnichannel retail experience over chatbots.