Virtual Customer Assistants Market

Market Definition

The Global Virtual Customer Assistants (VCA) Market size is estimated to be USD 3.69 billion in 2019 and is predicted to reach USD 73.51 billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 32.3% from 2020-2030.

Virtual customer assistants are also known as automated customer service assistants deployed by businesses in order engagethe customers, answer their queries, and also act as a concierge and handle various requests. These assistants are empowered by artificial intelligence and thus able to simulate responses similar to humans and perform tasks similar to customer service executives. Growing penetration of smart devices such as smart speakers, smartphones and tablets among others is one of the major factors pushing market growth of the virtual customer assistants market.

Market Dynamics and Trends

Growing demand for automation in the services sector is one of the major factors augmenting market growth of the virtual customer assistants market at present. Organizations are striving for a better customer experience, due to which they are focusing more on automation. The main benefit of virtual customer assistants is that is it highly effective in solving customer queries. It offers newer ways of solving their problems and interact with services in brands.

The growing trend of instant messaging as the primary mode of communication between customers and customer contact centres, instead of using a traditional voice channel.Organizations, often the challenge of answering repeated questions from customers. This task becomes monotonous for a human executive, bringing down his morale, which in turn leads to degradation in customer experience. Organizations have come up with the idea of deploying virtual customer assistants that would take the place of human executives for answering customer queries.

Demand for smart devices have increased tenfold over the past few years. Devices such as smartphones, tablets, and smart speakers have witnessed increased penetration among consumers across the globe. Similarly, advanced technology has also forayed into these devices and have made them more advanced than before. At present, advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and natural language processing have forayed into such devices, due to which these devices can also be used as virtual assistants. Mobile apps have become smarter and have implemented virtual assistants in them in order to serve the customers betters.

For instance, banking apps have begun implementing intelligent virtual assistants in order to deal with the huge volume of customer queries and data generated in a day. Smartphones have made life easier for the population, and the implementation of virtual assistant enabled apps have further augmented human life, and would continue to do so in the coming years as well. Further, the impact of COVID-19 pandemic will further augmented the information technology sector and will aid in the proliferation of technologies such as machine learning and natural language processing among others, resulting in the growth of the virtual customer assistants market.

The post COVID era would witness a lot of organizations shifting towards automation, and adoption of virtual customer assistants, as it is a cost effective solution and requires less workforce, saving a lot of cost. This in turn would fuel market growth of technologies such as natural language processing and machine learning.

However, there are certain pain points of virtual customer assistants, which are holding back the growth of the market. Customers often have to repeat their questions to a human executive in case their queries get escalated, and goes beyond the capacity of a virtual customer assistant. Chatbots are often disconnected from agent assisted touch points resulting in poor performance. Further, virtual customer assistants are yet to be evolved properly in order to respond to all customer queries, due to which they end up getting stuck while addressing unusual queries and redirects to a human executive.

Market Segmentations and Scope of the Study:

The global market for virtual customer assistants is segmented on the basis of offering into solutions and services. Based on deployment, the global virtual customer assistants market is segmented into cloud and on-premise. Based on technology, the market for virtual customer assistants is segmented into machine learning, natural language processing and contextual awareness among others. Based on device type, the market for virtual customer assistants is segmented into smart speakers, smartphones, tablets, and wearables among others. Based on input type, the market for virtual customer assistants is segmented into text to speech and voice recognition. Based on end-use industry, the market for virtual customer assistants is segmented into telecom, healthcare, public sector, retail, BFSI, logistics and aerospace & defense among others. Moreover, based on regions, the global market for virtual customer assistants is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World.

Geographical Analysis

North America led the market for virtual customer assistants in 2019 and is expected to display similar trends in the coming years, with the U.S. spearheading the growth of the virtual customer assistants market within the North American region. Strong IT infrastructure in the country has led the country being the largest market for allied sectors such as machine learning, natural language processing, smartphones, smart speakers and tablets among others. Europe followed North America in terms of market share, with Germany, France and U.K. leading the growth of the virtual customer assistants market in the European region.

Asia Pacific is expected to display the fastest growth in the virtual customer assistants market during the forecast period with Japan, China and India spearheading the growth of the virtual customer assistants market in Asia Pacific.

Competitive Landscape

Major players operating in the space of virtual customer assistants include Google LLC, Amazon.com, Inc., Apple Inc., IBM Corporation, and Nuance Communications among others. Tactical mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures & partnerships, expansions are some of the key strategies adopted by these companies to ensure long term sustenance in this industry.

For instance, in April 2020 24*7.ai added voice AI to its free automated FAQ solutions in order to deflect calls from contact centers. This move was made due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This would help the organization in responding to customer queries with efficiency, even during such unusual times.

KEY BENEFITS

• The virtual customer assistants market report provides the quantitative analysis of the current market and estimations through 2020-2030 that assists in identifying the prevailing market opportunities to capitalize on.

• The study comprises a deep dive analysis of the virtual customer assistants market trend including the current and future trendsfordepicting the prevalent investment pockets in the market.

• The information related to key drivers, restraints and opportunities and their impact on the virtual customer assistants market is provided in the report.

• The competitive analysis of the market players along with their market share in the global virtual customer assistants market.

• The SWOT analysis and Porters Five Forces model is elaborated in the study.

• Value chain analysis in the market study provides a clear picture of the stakeholders’ roles.

KEY MARKET SEGMENTS:

By Offering

• Solutions

• Services

• By Deployment

• Cloud

• On-premise

By Technology

• Machine Learning

• Natural Language Processing

• Contextual Awareness

• Others

By Device Type

• Smart Speakers

• Smartphones

• Tablets

• Wearables

• Others

By Input Type

• Text-to-speech

• Voice Recognition

By End-use Industry

• Telecom

• Healthcare

• Public Sector

• Retail

• BFSI

• Logistics

• Aerospace & Defense

• Others

By Geography

• North America

  • U.S.

  • Canada

  • Mexico

• Europe

  • UK

  • Germany

  • France

  • Italy

  • Rest of Europe

• Asia-Pacific

  • China

  • India

  • Japan

  • Australia

  • Rest of Asia-Pacific

• RoW

  • UAE

  • Saudi Arabia

  • South Africa

  • Brazil

  • Remaining Countries

KEY PLAYERS:

• 24.7 AI
• IBM Corporation
• Apple Inc.
• Amazon.com, Inc.
• Google LLC
• Nuance Communications
• Samsung Electronics
• Verint Systems
• Baidu, Inc.
• Microsoft Corporation

REPORT SCOPE AND SEGMENTATION:

Parameters	Details
Analysis Period	2019–2030
Base Year Considered	2020
Forecast Period	2020–2030
Market Size Estimation	Billion (USD)
Market Segmentation	By Offering (Solutions, Services) By Deployment (Cloud, On-premise) By Technology (Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Contextual Awareness, Others) By Device Type (Smart Speakers, Smartphones, Tablets, Wearables, Others) By Input Type (Text-to-speech, Voice Recognition) By End-use Industry (Telecom, Healthcare, Public Sector, Retail, BFSI, Logistics, Aerospace & Defense, Others)
Geographical Segmentation	North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico) Europe (UK, Germany, Italy, France, Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, India, Australia, Rest of APAC), Rest of the World (UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Brazil, Remaining Countries)
Companies Profiled	Google LLC, Amazon.com, Inc., Apple Inc., IBM Corporation, and Nuance Communications among others. Tactical mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures & partnerships, expansions.