Chatbots are one of the top trending buzzwords among enterprises.
Across the globe, technological advancements are reshaping diverse industries in several different ways. Nowadays, the world knows about chatbots, which showcase the latest customer support technology.
Popular brands across the globe are now using chatbots to improve customer experience. At the other end, the consumers are using the chatbots in smart apps to search for things online.
As per market statistics, the global chatbot market size is growing towards the mark of USD 1.25 billion in the next few years.
With AI-based chatbots, it has become easier for consumers to communicate with the brands in real-time.
Chatbot statistics for 2019 and beyond:
- More than 5 billion users are active monthly on Messaging chatbots ( HubSpot )
- Facebook consists of more than 3 million chatbots ( Venture Beat )
- 85% of customer interaction will take place without a human by 2020 ( Chatbots Life )
- By 2020, 80% of businesses are expected to have some part of chatbot automation ( Outgrow )
Chatbots for supply chain and logistics
One industry that is getting transformed with the use of chatbots is supply chain and logistics. Companies in this industry are investing in chatbot development to improve their business processes. Manual management of inventory and transportation is now replaced with automatic chatbots commands, thus saving both money and time.
Benefits of chatbot development in the logistics and supply chain industry
To streamline the operation in the supply chain, there are several implications of chatbot development, one of which is smooth engagement between the customers and the companies.
These advanced bots do have the power to minimize the time it takes to maintain front-end and back-end communication. It improves coordination between the teams to do the task and improves overall operations.
From tracking cargos to managing product inventories, chatbots play a vital role in evolving the logistics and supply chain industry. Let’s look at some of the advantages of using chatbots in various operations in this industry:
1. Higher productivity at work
Timely delivery of products to the end customers is one of the prime concerns related to this industry. Brands often have to face negative reviews and feedbacks from their customers for not being able to deliver the products on time.
Back in time, it was not easy to understand customer preferences as precisely as we can do now. Some of its credit goes to the chatbot technology paired with artificial intelligence (AI) and voice recognition.
Logistics businesses can now look at and analyze customer-related data to improve their functioning and make changes to the delivery processes. Repetitive manual tasks such as CRM updating, meetings schedule, document creation, and more are automated with the help of chatbots, which ultimately reduces the operational costs.
As a result, it enables the hired workforce to focus more on the other essential tasks and perform better.
2. Reduced risk of operational errors
Think of the time when every work to be done in maintaining the logistics and supply chain was depended on humans. Whether it was picking and aligning products in the warehouses, scheduling deliveries or making the records of it all, humans did the work as needed. At that time, it was not easy to minimize errors when most of the operations were manually driven.
But time has changed now and there are chatbots to do most of these tasks. These powerful bots can do the same tasks with minimum risk of errors, which is good for the businesses. All thanks to intelligent bots with machine learning (ML) skills.
3. Improved customer experience
Way back in time, it was very hard for people to get customer support related to the product or services they have bought. The process took longer than expected, thus leading to bad customer experiences. In the end, it also has an impact on the sales graph of the logistics and supply chain companies.
Nowadays, chatbots have revolutionized the industry. Using them, people can initiate customer support conversations almost instantly without delay. They can get to know about insights related to the concerns and ask for further assistance from humans if required. Simply put, chatbots are easy to coordinate with as compared to humans and are available round the clock.
4. Money savings
For sustainable growth of the business, the logistics and supply chain companies must work on keeping the overall finances under control. To help them out, operational cost control is one of the most significant benefits of chatbots development.
By getting efficient, advanced chatbots developed as per business needs; it is possible to automate specific tasks without the need for human intervention.
When chatbots are helping the logistics managers at work, they can assign more important tasks to their team members and save costs.
Another benefit of deploying a chatbot is that it can be designed to notify logistics problems, like vehicle malfunction and others long before they occur. This further helps in saving money for businesses.
Real implications of chatbots in the logistics and supply chain industry
As a part of the Chatbot revolution, there are several ways in which artificially intelligent chatbots can help in the betterment of this industry. Some of its implications are as follows:
- Warehouse automation in a form that intelligent bots streamline the process of picking or finding goods rather than having no idea where specific goods have been kept.
- GPS integration in the vehicle used by the logistics companies to keep a check on the delivery schedule to be followed by the team. It will also present a good idea of the fuel efficiency to be maintained in the business. Similarly, one can get to know about the vehiculer breakdown whenever it happens.
- Supply chain chatbots can bring the use of driverless vehicles to save on cost and enhance delivery schedules.
- AI chatbots can also consider the use of IoT devices and sensors to schedule deliveries of goods as per external conditions. An example of it is that the device can tell if it would rain on any day and notify the team to reschedule the delivery of sensitive goods.
- Bots can simplify order management, starting from receiving orders from the end consumers to tracking its status and maintaining the supply-demand chain.
Get a chatbot for your supply chain management business
Around 63% of supply chain companies do not use any technology to monitor performance, as per ZurichInsider. It’s time you do.
In terms of operations, savings, productivity, and much else, chatbot development is essential for a logistics and supply chain business, whether for the consumer or the supply chain management end. It is not just advanced technology, but way more than that.
If you are also a part of this industry, now is the right time for you to think of building a chatbot for your business and grow it further.
Do you have a supply chain chatbot development idea? Let’s discuss and bring it to reality even before your competitors do.
