Her Majesty ’ s Revenue & Customs ( HMRC ) – the UK government department responsible for tax collection – has seen the number of interactions with its chatbot service surge from just under 200,000 in the financial year just before the pandemic hit ( FY 19 / 20 ), to nearly 2.5 million in the year that followed , which represents a total of 3,275,046 separate chatbot interactions since the start of COVID-19 .
Niall Crosby , CEO , CTO and founder of AG Grid , commented : “ When used correctly , chatbots can play a vital role in alleviating organisations of thousands of basic customer services requests .
However , the ‘ one-size-fits-all ’ policy typically associated with chatbots , where it ’ s impossible to get a human response to a bespoke issue , can lead to frustration and a poor customer experience .
“ In this case , it ’ s positive to see that HMRC has understood the value of investing in its chatbot programme so that it doesn ’ t fall into this category . Other organisations that are inundated with customer services requests should follow suit , particularly as the demand for digital and on-demand support continues to rise .”
A divisive issue for many , chatbots are seemingly here to stay . How wide are the applications of these artificially intelligent tools , and what are the pitfalls of using them ?
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