Facts:

1- Monthly active users (as of 2015):

1 billion: WhatsApp
800 million: Facebook Messenger
697 million: WeChat
400 million: Line
100 million: Telegram

2- Siri gets over 1 billion requests per week, and it’s increasing rapidly.

3- In the first quarter of 2015 the four biggest messaging Apps surpassed the four biggest social networks regarding monthly active users.

4- Text messaging is the single most popular smartphone feature, according to a Pew Research report.

Predictions:

1- Gartner: By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with the enterprise without interacting with a human

2- Deloitte: By 2020–90% of the top 100 enterprise software companies will have incorporated one or more cognitive technologies.

3- Goldman Sachs: By 2020 — Millenials will account for 40% of all consumers in the US. $700 billion in annual buying power by 2017.

Research:

1- 38% of millenials prefer to use instant messaging to communicate with brands, compared to 19% of generation X.

2- 69% of them say they feel good about the company when they solve a problem without talking to customer service.

3- Millenials want brands to be aware of them as individuals rather than a name of number on a list.

Tech giants and brands are betting on them:

1- Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Echo, Facebook’s M, Microsoft’s Cortana, and now Google’s intelligent messaging app.

2- In 2010, Facebook introduced facial recognition technology that could identify people in posted photos, and in 2013 Mark Zuckerberg dedicated a lab to AI research. Apple acquired UK-based AI company Vocal IQ. Elon Musk has committed to invest $10 million into safe AI research. in 2014 Google bought artificial intelligence startup DeepMind for a huge $400 million. Microsoft’s project Oxford aims to understand its users with face, emotion and speech application program interfaces. IBM has been investing in Watson for quite a long time. Salesforce has acquired Artificial-Intelligence startup MetaMind

3- Brands such as Delta, KLM, Uber, Barbie have already invested in bots. There are 1193 bots from 45 countries listed at chatbots.org, a bot directory.

Investors are betting on them:

1- AI startups raising more than $300 million last year, up from $45 million in 2010, according to data from CB Insights, a venture capital database.

2- According to Venture Scanner, there are 957 AI companies with a combined funding amount of $4.8 billion.

3- According to Angelist, there are 1990 investors who has invested in AI.

Now with all this data, you can decide for yourself.

About us:
Botego is a 9 year old company, with offices in New York, Dubai and Istanbul, developing bots for the Fortune 500 companies. Customers include Johnson&Johnson, Pwc, Unilever, Coca Cola. We believe that the Facebook Messenger Bots will be a game changer for brands in the way they communicate with consumers. Follow us on Twitter, or Facebook.

Visit http://BotsAreTheNewApps.com for details.