It is becoming increasingly popular to say that chatbots have failed and are overhyped.
While it is true that in many cases expectations from chatbots significantly exceed the results on the ground, the anticipation of chatbots’ demise are somewhat premature.
One of the main problems for chatbots is that the market is inundated with low quality solution providers who deliver low quality results. This happened because conversational AI seems to have low entry barriers. Unlike other recent technological darlings such as space technology or renewable energy, conversational AI is purely software and therefore does not require vast sums of initial investment.
What this approach is missing however, is that conversational AI, in addition to being a software, also requires an accurate understanding of how language works. And there is a limited number of people in the world that do have such understanding.
When conversational AI is delivered by AI experts who understand the way human language works, the results are good and convincing, just as how you would expect them to be.
Suffering from unsatisfactory product quality is a common problem for many new and emerging industries. The rules of the market dictate that most of the low quality players will eventually disappear. Poorly created chatbots will therefore not be around for too long.