MIT Sloan Management Review Article on The Public Sector Can Teach Us a Lot About Digitizing Customer Service

Governments aren’t typically early adopters, but public agencies in Australia are taking the lead in using bots to improve services.

Digital customer service agents — also known as virtual assistants, chatbots, or softbots — are poised to transform customer service over the next decade. Essentially software algorithms capable of interacting with humans, these agents use big data analytics and technologies like natural language processing and machine learning to develop accurate profiles of users and interact with them.1 According to a report by Grand View Research, about 45% of consumers worldwide, across all industries, now prefer digital agents as the primary point of communication with organizations. This translates into an estimated global market worth $1.25 billion by 2025.