Chatbots – will they mean the end of websites and mobile apps?

Chatbots are functioning well nowadays and are therefore increasingly used by companies. There are even people who believe that Chatbots will put an end to the use of websites and mobile Apps. And although this may sound a bit exaggerated, there are actually very logical reasons why it might eventually come this far. Are you curious why? Read this blog post and let yourself be convinced why Chatbots will mean the end of websites and mobile Apps.

What is a Chatbot?

Okay, let’s start at the beginning, because what is a Chatbot? Chatbots, or Chat Robots or Chatterbots, are computer programs that imitate conversations with people on the basis of rules and artificial intelligence. In short, it is a service that allows you to communicate with a chat interface. Chatbots therefore also transform interaction with the internet: on the internet, more and more semi-conversations will be conducted instead of a series of tasks that the user has started. You can’t really imagine it yet? A funny example of a Chatbot is Ux Bear, a polar bear who likes to share his insights and the latest news with you.

Okay, Chatbots will thus change our communication with the internet. But will this really be an improvement?

1. Every company will need a Chatbot.

Messaging apps are booming, since we all like to communicate via Apps such as Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp. Messaging Apps are growing tremendously and are gradually becoming the most popular way in which people communicate with each other. And of course, companies want to respond to this. People like to communicate with companies via the Messaging apps they already have on their phones as they know how to use them. In short, it is an even easier and more user-friendly way of communicating for (potential) customers.

But how can companies best communicate with their customers through these Messaging apps? You guessed it: with a Chatbot. It is also possible for a company to set up a kind of call center for contact with customers through these Messaging Apps, where real people chat online all day. But this is very labor-intensive and requires high costs. A Chatbot is a much more cost-effective alternative. Chatbots respond immediately and can chat with several people at the same time.

Messaging Apps are fastly becoming the most common method with which people communicate. As a result, companies must also design a strategy for interacting with people through these Apps. Chatbots are simply the most scalable and effective way to do so. In sum, in the future every company will need a Chatbot. But, if Messaging Apps are going to be so popular, why would the Chatbots also replace websites or mobile Apps?

2. Chatbots work faster than websites and mobile Apps.

In recent years, Chatbots have improved a lot and this can be noticed very well. The Chatbots work efficiently and understand more and more. In short, many advances have been made and the Chatbots will only improve further in the coming years. So talking to a company via a Chatbot now works almost as well as using the website or the mobile App of a company.

A big advantage of Chatbots is that they start directly, while websites often need a few seconds or even a minute to load. And people just prefer whatever channels that is the fastest. And in this case this is really the Chatbot.

As far as mobile apps are concerned, they have to be downloaded and take up space on the smartphone. Chatbots do not have to be downloaded, you can simply send them a message.

This all sounds very nice, but will this really make people use Chatbots? It still feels unnatural and the Chatbot often does not understand you completely. Nowadays it is sometimes still the case that people do not feel like chatting with a Chatbot. But will this also be the case when the Chatbot is the most user-friendly medium?

3. Chatbots will be easier to use than any other technology.

Every website or mobile app is designed with a certain visual interface: buttons, text, image, etc. But not every website is of course designed in the same way. Because of this, as users, we constantly have to master new visual interfaces if we want to be able to use our favorite products and services. And although these are becoming more user-friendly, this is obviously not an ideal situation.

Chatbots, on the other hand, are much more uniform, because they use language. And language is the most natural possible interface that exists for humans. From the moment we are born, we are already in contact with it. Parents are constantly learning language to their little ones. Language is of course the way we communicate with the rest of the world. The nice thing about the Chatbots is that you do not have to learn anything, you can just use your natural language skills. To use the Chatbot, you simply have to ask the questions that you have in mind.

So imagine, instead of browsing on a website and having multiple tabs open, you can simply have a conversation with a Chatbot who quickly has a clear answer to all your questions. In the future, talking to a Chatbot will be just like chatting with a real person who has direct access to all information databases and can immediately help you with all your questions and wishes.

In short, when you combine the increasingly user-friendly and more efficient Chatbots with the growth in popularity of Messaging Apps, you can actually get a deadly mix for websites and mobile Apps. After all, what is their use when you can receive all information quickly and effortlessly via a Chatbot?

So, did we convince you or does it still seem unlikely to you? Let us know, we would like to know your opinion!