Hello and welcome back to another episode of the process and automation podcast with the automation guys. Today, we will look at five of the most valuable chatbot use cases. And we will look very specifically in a couple of industries. So, with me again is Arno is usual. And, um, Arno, do you like to go a little bit into the term of chatbots?

What is a chatbot in general for our listeners as an explanation.

Yeah, sure. Thanks Sascha. So the term chatbot really describes, any intelligence software, which is kind of agent based like a virtual agent that can communicate with user in a human like fashion. So they handle queries in English or any other language for that matter.

And you know, they, they also respond intelligently. There’s a lot of chatbot technologies out there, and obviously Microsoft, a virtual system on the, you know, they spend a lot of widespread attention for their ability to, be very realistic, in conversations with human users.

So, you know, thoughts on be more than just like a fun thing, you know, like if they’ve a bot, they can really radically improve your organization’s productivity and efficiency. According to IBM a chatbot can, answer up to 80% of routine queries by themselves, without needing a help, from a human agent.

And that’s one of the, the reasons why, and there’s a federal research and markets. They looked at the, the global market for chatbots. Um, and it’s more than tripled, you know, from 1.9 billion in, in, I think it was 2019 to, sort of short of 7 billion, 2024. Was that before it’s a major shift and there’s lots of investment going into it.

Chatbots are easily configured, so it’s easy to get started because it’s all, all low cost, low code based configuration. I think because of that, benefit, I just mentioned, there are 80% of a routine queries, could be covered by chatbots in organizations.

So this is why we, want to go over the benefits of using chatbots. As I mentioned earlier, that we have five of the big sectors, identified and then let’s get started with the actual benefits of chatbots. So although the other sort of size impact of chatbots might vary depending on the industry. You probably can imagine, so for a healthcare company or financial services company, these benefits are different. So, but, pretty much every, organization can really benefit from bringing in chat. A into the end-to-end processes. So, in some of these advantages, so these are the very attractive ones, for businesses and lowering the costs.

I think that’s a key one because especially now, we need to get more done with less. I think that’s sort of what we have seen over the last 12 months. So by offloading these return routine queries, to chatbots, instead of they are done by our human employees, by the agents.

So businesses can, can really lower their, their customer services expenses. So, and really, As much as 30% of the customer services tasks in individually. Um, and that, that can, um, if that’s automated, they can, I think when, when we look at the U S um, I think one research came up was this, uh, can bring up a saving of 23 billion us dollars.

So just, just alone on, on, uh, in this country. And, um, yeah, I think the benefits are clear. So then, um, um, yeah. Better customer service. I think this is probably where businesses should look first, because if you’re, if you serve your customers better than, um, they, they will be loyal and, um, um, yeah, they will stick with the business.

So it’s, it’s very often sort of the more, one more one, one of the most important reasons why you should look at it, surely you did a lowering cost benefit is, is, is good. But, um, the customer service ultimately is the reason why you should start with chatbots so they can. Take over the, the simple queries immediately.

Um, um, And, uh, we, I was out really passing that on to human and, um, and it’s available 24 seven. If you thinking about insurance claims and all that stuff, so you can immediately get stuff started. You don’t have to wait until the customer services back on the phone and, um, yeah. And you can as well. Yeah.

Um, have, have good conversations there too, to improve that, to that overall experience. It’s not just. Glorified form or so you have really proper meaningful conversations there, which leads to, um, uh, to an outcome. Um, and, uh, yeah, so that’s this one want to really focus on and where we see the big benefits.

And, um, yeah, when we, when we then look into these five use cases for is different industries are not the first one we have picked this local government. Yeah. So, you know, local government is a very important use case and that’s why. We, um, we highlight this, um, and you know, there’s a significant benefit, um, that local government entities will gain when, when they dock chat chatbots, um, into their workflow processes.

So obviously with governments, um, you know, they’ve got hundreds of services. That they offered to, to citizens and, um, you know, they, they need, they need a very sustainable and, you know, programmatic way, that’s repeatable, um, to, to meet these, um, these requirements for their constituencies. So I think, you know, the good news here is that, um, lots of local governments that we see or, you know, already.

Um, plan to get onboarded with chatbots and joining this chapel revolution. In fact, um, I think there was a, another survey in 2020, um, where they looked at 33 councils within the UK and, you know, 90% of those councils said they expect to have a chat bot strategy within the next 12 to 18 months. And w which is great.

And, you know, when you look into the details, um, these councils estimate that they’ll save around, uh, 180,000 pounds or more. Uh, you know, over the next 12 months with, with this chatbot strategy. So two very important, and this kind of touches on your point of have lowered costs. If we look at the softer benefits again, you know, by looking at customer service, um, you know, there’s another case study that, um, hindsight that, um, and this local council will use chatbots and RPI, which is reporting versus.

Um, automation to improve the residents access know if that news and benefits services, um, you know, often I’ve implemented this program, um, the council sort of significant time reduction, um, when they process these new benefit plans and you know, this reduced from 36 days to just North of 20 days. Um, and you know, in the meantime, the customer satisfaction rates jumped up to around 85%, a cost reduction in a way, but it’s also a massive increase in end user satisfaction. And I think that, that, that that’s a very key benefit of this, right?

Yeah. And I think we, you know, we discussed this recently, uh, again with Loughborough University. They really come up with this was just shared concept as well for local government.

Um, and um, so young people when they want to interact with local governments. So they, they, they really struggled with all this very rigid, formal kind of structure, these local government websites. Some of you, you probably have visited as well yourself and, um, they are not very intuitive in general, so they are not.

All these websites are not really, really usable. So if you then plug it in the chat pod there, uh, young people, um, and everyone, not just young people, but they obviously, uh, they, they would like those kinds of things and jump on that kind of stuff. Very early. They can start engaging with the local council was a local government and, and, um, and get the, get the information they need currently.

They’re struggling to get this information and that, that. It is an issue. Um, and then unemployment rises and all that stuff because they, they haven’t been able to, to interact with their local government for an asking for help in a, in a, in a meaningful way. Some shepherds can actually do to do that. Um, that’s fantastic.

And yeah, I’m very happy that they all, all sort of acknowledge the requirement for it. Or 90% is huge. And I think, you know, when we talk about level local government, I think it’s not necessarily just restricted to. Actual, uh, government entities, selves. I think, you know, you look at universities, um, student wellbeing, you know, the ways waste, communicate with each other, or want to communicate with university.

You know, that that’s, that’s another good example of this as well. So I think that once governments, um, sees the potential here, Um, not just cost savings, but also customer satisfaction. Um, then, you know, I think this we’ll see widespread adoption, um, you know, not, not just in the sort of the next year or so, but I think, you know, uh, if you look into the future to, you know, 20, 23, 24, you know, I’ll, I’ll be surprised that, um, if, if, if councils don’t have this.

Um, this type of service to cater for that specific demographic of citizens that is used to, you know, using chatbots style or chat style communication to do their business. Fine.

Next one, we can obviously is a nice little segue into the government fees, healthcare, um, you know, and obviously with the pandemic out there. Um, and I adopters on this as are already kind of gone beyond the call of duty. Um, you know, are quite overworked and it is taking a toll on, on, on the quality of patient care.

So, you know, again, if we bring chatbots into this equation, it can really help to, to show that this. Whatever, I’m not getting, you know, chatbots gone replace the expertise of a, of a, of a doctor for example, but they can actually help with many common tasks that, um, you don’t necessarily want to give, you know, to, uh, for a doctor to do.

So, for example, um, you know, providing more detailed information about, uh, Uh, medical topic. When a person is browsing a website, you know, kind of FAQ style or offer common diagnosis based on the description of a patient’s symptoms, for example, or, you know, helping a user improve their eating habits by offering recommendations about bio nutrition, calorie intake, you know, uh, exercise.

Um, and also, you know, sending reminders out to, to patients to take their medication or to attend coming appointments. So this is all the art of the possible, which is, um, not necessarily something that a human has to do. Chapel, it’s obviously very efficient. Um, and, um, you know, it’s, it, is that perfect use case for it.

I mean, if I can bring, um, another study, um, you know, In into this, um, I don’t know who this study was conducted by. Um, uh, but it was done last year and, you know, they, they, they found that the user’s view of, of these healthcare chatbots is as positive or even more positive than giving with human agents, um, you know, providing, they can actually provide that, that same.

Uh, quality of care. And you know, it also suggested that the total sort of global cost savings from using chatbots in the healthcare industry will reach about $3.6 billion in 2022. And you know, that that that’s a 10,000 fold increase. Um, from, from, from, from the figures in, um, you know, in, in 2017, which is about $2.8 million.

Um, so, you know, in, in the space of five years, it is just absolutely exploded with inside healthcare. You know, um, these, those point example such years, uh, you know, uh, appointment notifications or appointment booking. Um, kind of common health to FAQ’s, um, you know, providing more detailed information, common diagnosis.

Those are all things that you can train a chat bot to do on your behalf. 24 seven. Yeah.

Um, appointments is actually a, it’s actually a big one for NHS. Um, when you, when you look at it, um, so there are lots of appointments scheduled and it goes back and forth. And usually once you have an appointment, um, and very often there’s no show and that kind of stuff because of the information is missing or, um, the mechanism to actually interact with them early enough to say, Oh, I can’t make it.

That kind of stuff. Stuff. And that, that obviously leaves too much. Um, our basic capacity is gone, isn’t it? So, because tomorrow’s another day was another set of capacity and, um, and patients are waiting. Um, so we’ll be really good to make them much easier. So the appointment. Um, you know, setting us here, um, to, to make that much, much more streamlined.

Yeah. Um, yeah, I think, uh, yeah, the next one, a really big one is financial services. Um, so yeah, one of the, um, sort of mission critical industries, uh, globally, so, um, chatbots can help there to retrieve, uh, again, reduce the, um, so the, the, the human. Your involvement and the strain on the human agents. So very typical probably y’all appear seeing these chatbots appearing on banking websites.

Um, so yeah, provides customer support was really simple tasks. Um, some of that stuff you can do already very comfortably through your app, but, um, um, yeah, now you can do that stuff. Why the chat bot as well, you can say, okay, I lost my credit card. I, I need my account. Balance, um, and even was, was banks. You can do lots of insurance products as well.

So you can use that customer service bot to purchase an insurance policy or to get your travel insurance in place for your summer holiday, that kind of stuff. Um, yeah. Uh, chatbots will also help with your, um, financial, basic financial advice. Um, so will they will. Sort of direct you in the right places on, on the, on the website to maybe read up on further information or asking you questions about, uh, investments, um, and, uh, advising very basic.

Um, because yeah, the, the, the proper advice has to come from a human, um, but they can do a lot of the leg work, um, already, um, Bots, we notice they’re affordable and transactions, that kind of stuff. We get texts messages, and then we reply back. So chatbots can, can be used there as well. Very nicely too, to send questions back to the, um, uh, to the customer and to confirm a suspicious transaction, that kind of stuff.

Um, yeah. And also reminders. Um, Uh, in general, um, notifications, which makes your life easier as a customer of this, uh, financial services organization. Um, yeah, so, so was the. Um, so you’ve seen, so it was, uh, studies, um, relaxed studies. Um, yeah, the studies have shown, um, 7.3 billion us dollar can be saved, uh, globally, if, if that can be replaced or supported by chat bots, these, these kind of areas.

So if you, if you bring it down into man hours, I think it’s a bit more tangible. 862 million man hours can be, can be passed on sort of, um, to, to chatbots. To support the organization. So, yeah, and that’s a massive, uh, increase, um, a growth of 3400% from 2019. So we see really, really big numbers and very appealing.

Yeah, I think that’s why it’s, good for you to bring these, these studies into today’s chat really? Um, because the, the numbers are just mind blowing and I think the adoption, you know, it’s not tenfold one hundredfold, thousands fold, you know, over a sort of a half, half a decade. Um, yeah, and I think it will, um, you know, just, just increase over the next couple of years.

Um, well, you know, it’s, if you look at financial services, it’s the way I would like to transact with my financial service providers. Um, you know, I don’t want to speak on the phone to somebody, um, because I’m quite busy. I know these chatbots are sophisticated so they can do with my queries and very quickly, I don’t want to fill out a form and wait for an email to come back because it’s, it’s all disjointed disconnected because I have to wait, um, to come back to the response, you know, all of this is it’s all instant and I think that’s, that’s, that’s where the benefits comes into play.

Right. Because it’s instant and. Providing your chat bot can resolve your query. You also get an outcome in that session. And I think, you know, when, when looking at these chat bots, that’s what you’d want to achieve because that is what brings that customer satisfaction into the picture. It’s one thread it’s like chatting to a friend.

You know, you hash it out, whether or not you’re booking, not at the social calendars are filling up again. You’re firming up, uh, uh, sort of a meetup date. You know, how frustrating it is. If, if, uh, if somebody tells why I have to consult my diary and I’ll get back to you in two days, you kind of just want to just drive it now and get it booked.

I think that’s just how, um, and this is a great vehicle. Um, for us to, to exploit, you know, in, in, in, in, uh, you know, now, and also in the future to get to that point and, you know, talking about the social calendar, filling out, you know, the, the fourth one on our list, this is hospitality. Of course, you know, the hospitality industry revolves around providing excellent customer service because if you have excellent customer service, there’s many advantages for.

Hotels and restaurants would take it, you know, to, um, uh, to explore that really. And again, there’s loads of potential use cases for chat bots in hospitality. And some of these include, you know, answering basic queries about opening hours, uh, amenities menus, helping address simple, uh, guests, queries and issues.

Making reservation, reservation, reservations, um, or appointments, um, offering personalized recommendations, obviously promotions based on a guests behavior and also their preferences. Um, obviously streamlining the checking and checking out process by sending reminders and, you know, presenting best before the final bill.

So, you know, After your trip, um, requesting a feedback, um, you know, how, how was your trip? So again, all of these automations are what I would say to the right kind of use cases. We’ll pull that industry. Um, You know, uh, again, I’m going to bring another study in here and this was done by hospitality net, and they said that by improving the efficiency of customer services, um, hotels have seen up to a 30% increase.

In direct bookings and from the usage of chatbots, which is incredible. Yeah. It’s very important than right now is not where the hospitality industry is quite, uh, quite restricted. So they need to all the help they can get to actually, um, to, to, to do more business or make sure they get, they get the right, the right business going forward.

Yeah, indeed. So sort of fintech sector, in these three industry is manufacturing and logistics. So, um, yeah, while their most obvious uses for. Um, for improving the customer service, like, like we had was all the other use cases. Um, chatbots can also be implemented internally. Um, I think, um, yeah, um, for these companies, uh, for the benefit of managers and employees, So, so we, we discussed this in another podcast episode about internal, um, um, use cases in, in depth.

But one important chat bot use case is the, is the manufacturing industry which are puts, can be used. Um, um, Yeah, in, in different ways. Um, one could be, um, letting managers easily check the status of, um, different parts and supplies. So very, very important, uh, in manufacturing, uh, in order new ones, if necessary, um, was out, it was all going through complicated web applications and all that stuff.

This is what. They usually have some very old version of, of an ERP or, um, uh, excellent spreadsheets. They have to fill out an upload somewhere. So this could make it much easier getting information about the current, um, inventory and pending deliveries. So very, very good for him, for managers to get that overview, um, checking, um, and environmental conditions, um, on the manufacturing line to ensure that the equipment is, um, yeah, it’s, it’s an operating normally and at maximum efficiency and, uh, I think, yeah, I think really, um, Offering real-time updates on the manufacturing process.

So, um, sort of sales departments and sales professionals and customers can better predict when new products will become available. I think these are very, very specific use cases. Not everyone is familiar with, but, um, in manufacturing and logistics, uh, internally that’s, that’s very important. Um, and obviously in manufacturing, logistics, we have the.

Yeah. The typical customer experience, customer services elements, like where’s my parcel, my parcel didn’t arrive. So all that kind of stuff. What do you have to type in very often these days into forms when you contact the HL or others and, um, uh, it’s much easier for customers to use chatbots to get, to get to that information.

Yeah. And I think in manufacturing as well, you know, um, is to have that early warning system where chatbot can also practically ping you. Um, if there is a problem, um, or you can just do before you, uh, your shift start do a quick health check and it just kind of sends you a bit of a summary of, of what’s going on.

Um, so, so these are small, small little use cases, but it’s just having that extra systems ever present. Um, that you just have that, that, that, that extra insight into your operations, whether or not it is manufacturing logistics, because you might wait for a very critical shipment of parts in the manufacturing process that you want to add, that you require, you know, and you don’t necessarily want to log on to.

A website to get to that, even though it is convenient and there’s a lot of mobile interfaces, you just want to, you just want to ask this, this virtual assistant, where is this particular shipment? And it gets to the point and it tells you where it is and what the estimated delivery time is, bang outcome achieved.

Right? Absolutely. Yeah. So that’s, um, Yeah, I think, um, yeah, that’s it for us. The first five, uh, industries, uh, industry use cases. We, we collected them as always, this is just a really short snapshot, um, of, um, of what is possible. Um, and we will do a couple of more episodes on, on, uh, on chatbots because it’s such a hot topic and we get asked a lot of questions.

So yeah. Thank you for submitting these questions in general. Um, so, um, much appreciated. So in, in sort of in, in summary of, uh, of this session, you know, from, from local governments and healthcare to financial services, hospitality and manufacturing, we just mentioned that your chatbots are really transforming how.

Oh, we do things these days. So, um, Yeah, I’m looking to bring the benefits of chatbots into your organization. That’s the question you can ask us, uh, Arno, myself, uh, online and, um, uh, yeah, all the other things, um, we can, we can help you with and, um, Yeah, we’re looking forward to next time and, unfortunately, that’s it again, with this episode of the process and automation podcast. If you liked this episode, please give us a five-star rating and don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast. So you don’t miss any upcoming episode. We hope you want you in, in next time. And until then, Let’s automate it.