New Verint Research: How Consumers Will Use Conversational AI in 2022

We’ve realized one thing is certain over the past two years: more people are engaging through digital self-service channels than ever before. This has been happening for years now, but the pandemic accelerated that trend.

While this increase is well-known, what’s remained more elusive has been how people are using these conversational AI-powered solutions.

At Verint, we wanted to know what channels users are adopting. We wanted to discover what use cases are best received by which audience segments.

And, well, we wanted to know a whole lot of other things about conversational AI use in this uniquely changing time for the technology. That’s why we ventured out to truly get to know today’s conversational AI user—and the result is our new report, entitled “Conversational AI Barometer: Chatbots and Next-Gen AI.”

What We Wanted to Know

In the fall of 2021, Verint created a survey that was then deployed by a third-party research firm. The survey was completed by 1,000 people in the U.S. ranging from age 18 to 65. The questions included various formats, including multiple choice and ranked choice.

We wanted to know how and where people are using conversational AI technologies, especially chatbots and IVAs—and what industries and use cases they were using them for. But we also wanted to dig deeper and gauge our respondents’ attitudes toward chatbots.

That’s why we included queries such as “How useful are chatbots?” “What information do you feel comfortable providing to a chatbot?” and “Through which interface do you prefer to interact with chatbots?”

What We Learned

As we note in the report, the survey uncovered a number of key findings that come together to provide a solid snapshot of how digital consumers are using chatbots, how much they trust them, and what they want from the technology.

First off, we quickly learned that chatbots are seen as a widely accepted tool, given that 56.5 percent of respondents reported finding chatbots as “very” or “somewhat” useful. And only about 9 percent of respondents said they would never use a chatbot.

In the report, you’ll find several key takeaways from the survey. Here’s a few:

Adoption comes with use: The survey showed that the people who said they used chatbots the most were the ones who’d been using them the longest and with the most frequency. But we also realized that companies need to provide a high-quality experience with their conversational AI, because negative experiences with outdated, poorly deployed chatbots will hurt adoption rates.

Embrace AI Natives:  More than 50% of respondents aged 18-34 reported interacting with chatbots on at least a monthly basis. This age group, which we’ve dubbed AI Natives, has been using conversational AI solutions for most, if not all, of their adult lives and are trusting of the technology. This is a quickly growing segment of the consumer base, and companies should be ready to meet these younger audiences and be prepared with the solutions that can meet their increased expectations.

There’s opportunity out there: We saw some industry segments that respondents said they didn’t frequently engage with through chatbots. However, we see these industries as places where today’s advanced conversational AI can meet customers’ expectations and build trust for increased adoption.

You can read the full report right here.