33 chatbot statistics for 2025: A guide for customer service leaders

Natalie Smithson

AI enthusiast | Tea addict | Focused on using AI assistants to win the working week

Trying to keep pace with the rapid evolution of customer-facing technology can feel like a hefty task. Existing chatbots are being displaced by more advanced AI assistants that can help you cut your cost per call, deal with staff shortages, improve efficiencies, automate lead capture, cut call volumes, and more.

If you want to take advantage of this, consider these essential chatbot statistics to start building a successful business case. They’re all current with none older than 2020, sourced directly from relevant studies or articles. Cut through the deluge of data about AI, understand where customer support is headed, appreciate the commercial impact on your organisation, and tap into unique opportunities to do your best work.

TL;DR

Automation has been around for decades, but since 2020 people have started using chatbots more routinely and business owners expect more disruption in the coming years.
Statistics show advanced AI chatbots are helping customer service teams tackle contact backlogs and customers now expect fast, convenient, personalised support services.
The market size of conversational AI as an industry is increasing, as well as for chatbots specifically and the software, technology, and services that support them.
As next-generation AI assistants start to disrupt every industry, analysts now estimate adoption rates, consumer spend, and live chat usage are all significantly on the up.
Statistics show one of the biggest benefits of using advanced AI chatbots in customer service is the cost saving alongside an increase in customer satisfaction.

Increased acceptance of chatbots and AI

Automation has been around for decades, but in 2020 people started using chatbots more routinely. Since then, acceptance has continued to increase and business owners expect more disruption in the coming years.

“92% of businesses are considering investing in AI-powered software.” ― 2024

“Business leaders shared their top 3 feelings about the AI hype are excited, optimistic, and motivated. By contrast, less than 10% of respondents said they felt overwhelmed, frightened, or worried.” ― 2023

“Overall consumer chatbot usage has doubled since 2020.” – 2022

“Nearly every technology startup is now, to some degree, investing in AI, and companies large and small in other industries are beginning to deploy the technology.” ― 2021

“Eighty-two percent (82%) of survey respondents believe AI will disrupt their business over the next 5 years. Of that group, the most common expectation was that AI will completely transform their businesses in the next 5 years.” ― 2023

“97% of companies anticipate new teams, such as training, customer support, and HR, to adopt generative AI in the near future”. ― 2024

How LLMs like ChatGPT have changed chatbot production

The flash arrival of ChatGPT at the tail end of 2022, and then other LLMs (Large anguage models) like it, prompted an explosion of revolutionary new AI tools. LLMs have transformed customer service chatbots and it looks like generative AI is here to stay.

“Our latest research estimates that generative AI could add the equivalent of $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion annually across the 63 use cases we analyzed—by comparison, the United Kingdom’s entire GDP in 2021 was $3.1 trillion. This would increase the impact of all artificial intelligence by 15 to 40 percent.” ― 2023

“We estimate that the technology, once implemented at scale, could increase productivity by 30% to 50%—or more. And according to a 2022 BCG survey of global customer service leaders, 95% expect their customers to be served by an AI bot at some point in their customer service interactions within the next three years.” ― 2023

“Gartner predicts that by 2025, 80% of customer service and support organizations will be applying generative AI technology in some form to improve agent productivity and customer experience.” —2024

“96% of organizations expect AI to be a key enabler for their company, showcasing widespread recognition and trust in the capabilities of generative AI.” ― 2024

AI forecast statistics on chatbot adoption

The market size of conversational AI (including chatbots, voice bots, and other chat-based services) is increasing, as well as for chatbots specifically and the software, technology, and services that support them.

“The conversational AI market size is expected to increase from USD 10.7 billion in 2023 to USD 29.8 billion by 2028.” ― 2023

Chart showing conversational AI market opportunity

“The global chatbot market size is expected to reach USD 27,297.2 million by 2030… The chatbot industry is expected to witness a significant growth during the forecast period as they enable enterprises to substantially reduce operating costs.” ― 2023

“Statista reports that artificial intelligence software market revenue worldwide is expected to reach $126 billion by 2025. This includes applications in natural language processing, robotic process automation, and machine learning.” ― 2023

What chatbot adoption means for customer service

Statistics show advanced AI chatbots are opening up opportunities for customer service teams to tackle backlogs of calls and messages, so they can focus on more rewarding and profitable tasks. In response, customers have now come to expect fast, convenient, personalised support services and McKinsey reported in 2023, “AI-enabled customer service is now the quickest and most effective route for institutions to deliver personalized, proactive experiences that drive customer engagement”.

“Research shows that high-performing service organisations are 2.1 times more likely than underperformers to be using AI chatbots. The same study also found that 64% of agents with AI chatbots are able to spend their time solving complex problems, versus 50% of agents without AI chatbots.” ― 2022

Even in small contact centres, “74% report that AI increases revenue”, “87% say that AI reduces agent effort,” and “92% report that AI saves time resolving customer issues.” ― 2023

“Gartner projects that one in 10 agent interactions will be automated by 2026, an increase from an estimated 1.6% of interactions today that are automated using AI.” ― 2022

“Roughly two-thirds of current jobs are exposed to some degree of AI automation… The good news is that worker displacement from automation has historically been offset by creation of new jobs, and the emergence of new occupations following technological innovations accounts for the vast majority of long-run employment growth.” ― 2023

The benefits of automating processes extends into several distinct areas of service support to improve the overall experience for your customers:

KEY: Personalise customer chatbot experiences

Using advanced AI chatbots to effortlessly personalise customer experiences is one of the biggest opportunities to innovate in customer service today. Statistics show there’s high demand for it, but companies don’t always deliver.

“Our research shows that 71 percent of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. And 76 percent get frustrated when this doesn’t happen.” ― 2021

“66% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, yet 66% say they’re generally treated like numbers.” ― 2020

KEY: Speed up your support service

Improve your average response time to customers and increase your customer satisfaction score while also making use of free live chat services to swiftly pass customers over to your team if human help is needed.

“63% of customers will leave a company after just one poor experience, and almost two-thirds will no longer wait more than 2 minutes for assistance.” ― 2021

“The advantages of using live chat “include improved website experience, increased average order value, increased sales, lead generation, and a better understanding of customer requirements.” ― 2021

Did you know? The average conversation length for chatbot-only chats is 1 minute 38 seconds.

Introduce a live chat handover and the average conversation extends to 15 minutes 21 seconds, but here’s the good news: As your live chat feed starts to highlight where customers struggle, or where your bottlenecks are, you can quickly improve your processes and information. As a result, instant chatbot resolutions go up, and the time your team members spend on longer live chats goes down. Your support teams soon become more efficient and service transforms.

A green chart shows the number of live chat conversations with the AI assistant going up and up.

A red chart shows the number of live chat conversations with the support team going down and down.

KEY: Provide a better multi-channel support service

Customers expect to be able to find support on any channel, so if you’re currently not providing this, statistics show it pays off to rapidly improve your omnichannel customer experience.

“74% of customers have used multiple channels to start and complete a transaction.” ― 2020

“76% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments, yet 54% say it generally feels like sales, service, and marketing teams don’t share information.” ― 2020

KEY: Offer customers a 24 hour service

We know from experience there’s high demand from customers for support round the clock, since 35% of the customer requests our AI assistants deal with come in when customer contact centres are closed. Introduce an AI assistant and you can answer every query, any time.

Graph to show 60% of customer queries are answered without an AI assistant, 100% are answered if you have an AI assistant

52% of all retail organisations say their processes are mostly automated.” ― 2023

“Calling your energy provider and waiting over one hour 25 minutes to speak to a human is equivalent to reading 255 emails, watering 85 plants, or listening to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody 14 times… The pandemic can no longer be used as a scapegoat for delivering poor service. There are many cost-effective digital solutions to ensure that customer calls and live chat are optimised and efficient. There is a real gap emerging between where businesses see themselves as agents of customer excellence, and the reality of their consumers’ experience.”

Rob Smithson

Business Applications Lead at Microsoft UK

Source: Microsoft UK

Predictions for chatbots usage and the future of work

As next-generation AI assistants start to disrupt every industry, from recruitment and pensions to dating and betting, analysts can now look way into the future to estimate the real world impact. Adoption rates, consumer spend, and live chat usage are all significantly on the up.

“While support requests over messaging spiked over the past year, more traditional service channels like email and phone plateaued.” ― 2021

“Chatbots are projected to see over a 100% increase in their adoption rates in the next two to five years and are the leading AI use cases in enterprises today.” ― 2021

“Stena Line ferries has seen a 55% increase year on year in the number of conversations handled by their AI assistant since 2015.” ― 2022

“The Live Chat Software Market is anticipated to grow at 7.29% CAGR by 2026 due to factors such as…advantages of live chat software over conventional client support.” ― 2021

“Half of today’s work activities could be automated between 2030 and 2060, with a midpoint in 2045, or roughly a decade earlier than in our previous estimates.” ― 2023

Timeline illustration from 2025 to 2065, with previous estimation marked at 2055 and 2023 prediction marked at 2045 with a target symbol

“71% of customers already believe that AI will help to make customer experience more empathetic. The trick is knowing when and where to use artificial empathy to elevate, not degrade, the experience you deliver.” ‒ 2023

Read our ultimate guide: How to achieve empathy in customer service (with AI)

Real world figures for customer service cost reduction

Statistics show one of the biggest benefits of using advanced AI chatbots in customer service is the cost saving. Real world examples have already emerged, from tech companies to local government, where costs are going down at the same time as customer satisfaction is going up.

“By 2026, conversational artificial intelligence (AI) deployments within contact centers will reduce agent labor costs by $80 billion.” ― 2022

“With 5 million members, 6 million phone calls per year and 3 million chats per year… TechStyle saved $1.1 million in the first year in operations costs and achieved a score of 92 percent in its member satisfaction survey.” ― 2022

“After launching an advanced multi-department AI assistant, Barking & Dagenham London Borough Council “saved around £48,000 in six months” and “customer satisfaction is up 67%.” ― 2022

AI “is helping customers more easily find what they’re looking for on its websites, with early evidence showing a doubling in the number of successful completed online customer journeys, and a 10% reduction in follow-up calls."

Scott Petty

Vodafone CTO

Source: BBC News

Start saving today

If you’re thinking of launching an AI assistant to reduce your customer service costs, use our savings calculator to estimate your return on investment (ROI). Barking & Dagenham council achieved 533% ROI in just nine months.

It only takes around 10 minutes to launch an AI assistant, so there’s nothing holding you back from reaping the benefits.

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