4 industries where chatbots will have the biggest impact

Enterprise spending on consumer-facing generative AI tools will grow from $40 billion in 2023 to $1.3 trillion by 2032, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis.

Where will companies pour those hundreds of billions? More than 80% of business leaders believe that the best bang for their gen AI buck is in chatbots for automating customer service and improving knowledge management, according to a Capgemini survey of 1,000 companies in 13 countries. 

For industries across the board, a chatbot that is actually good at chatting will be a customer- and employee-experience game-changer. Here are four verticals where companies are betting the payoff will be sky-high.

Healthcare: digital assistants for Dx and Rx

The market for healthcare chatbots globally is projected to more than triple to $647 million by 2030, according to Vantage Market Research.

In direct patient interactions, expect the next generation of AI-powered chatbots to improve care for both caregivers and patients. For doctors and nurses, chatbots are already providing real-time answers to patient queries; advising on diagnoses, treatment, and medications based on the latest medical research; and speeding the logging of health records, freeing up time to devote to patient care.

The key to adoption is buy-in among healthcare professionals, and data suggests that the medical establishment is warming to the tech. Nearly half of doctors believe that ChatGPT is a valuable tool now, and 77% believe that chatbots will be able to treat patients safely within five to 10 years, according to a March 2023 survey by Software Advice.

Banking: bots to help both consumers and analysts

Like healthcare, the banking sector is poised to nearly triple its chatbot investment by 2030, from $2.45 billion in 2022 to $6.9 billion, according to Verified Market Research.

Banking customers are increasingly using chatbots in their everyday transactions. From 2021 to 2022 alone, the number of U.S. banking customers using chatbots for checking and savings account interactions doubled, Bain & Company research found.

Other promising use cases for generative AI banking chatbots include guiding customers through loan applications, suggesting new financial products, advising on mortgage and debt repayment, and helping credit analysts by offering suggestions on loan underwriting. 

Deloitte predicts that by 2026, generative AI bots will allow the top 14 global investment banks to boost their frontline customer support workers’ productivity 27%-35% by escalating issues requiring human intervention to agents and arming those workers with easy-to-understand summaries of ticket histories and actionable data. 

Retail: a more human-like shopping experience

Juniper Research projects that customers will be spending $72 billion using retail chatbots by 2028.

The downside: When a problem arises with a purchase, only 25% of shoppers feel understood by traditional retail chatbots, according to a recent Capterra survey. But when it comes to interacting with ChatGPT, 67% of consumers feel understood, the same survey found.

Connect the dots, and the potential for generative AI to improve the retail chatbot experience is enormous. McKinsey analysis pegs the value of curated shopping interactions and personalized marketing outreach at $400 billion to $660 billion annually. 

For retailers, generative AI chatbots can leverage greater customer engagement through human-like conversations. Informed with customer and market insights, retail bots can make personalized recommendations to cross-sell and upsell.

Insurance: adding a personal touch to customer service

In 2022, the global insurance sector spent $467 million on chatbot technology. That is projected to reach $4.5 billion by 2032, according to Allied Market Research.

No wonder, considering the annual value that generative AI is predicted to add to the industry: $1.1 trillion, according to McKinsey. Of that sum, the research firm sees insurers gaining $300 billion from customer service chatbots and personalized product offerings.

Insurers are looking to generative AI to provide the human touch in customer service, with 23% piloting new chatbot technologies and 20% already deploying them since ChatGPT came on the scene, an Aite Novarica survey found.

Beyond direct customer interactions—from guiding new policyholders through applications and basic policy claims and providing them with 24/7 answers to basic queries—generative AI chatbots can assist human agents with personalized recommendations on insurance products and fielding complex claims issues.

A version of this story originally published on The Works.