virtual agents

In an increasingly automated business environment, CX leaders are using virtual agents and chatbots to deliver efficient digital experiences. Learn more about the solutions available and how leading firms are leveraging them.

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Blog

The Forrester Wave™: Conversation Automation Solutions For B2B, Q1 2024 — Five Key Takeaways

Jessie Johnson March 27, 2024
We've evaluated the nine most important conversation automation solution vendors. Learn what’s changed since we evaluated the market three years ago
Blog

People Avoid Chatbots — Here’s How Your Company Can Make Its Bot Better

David Truog November 14, 2023
Creating an effective chatbot is hard. To get it right, you need to master conversation design, a new discipline for creating experiences that are based on conversational AI, and you need to know where and when to use new technologies like generative AI.

Global

Don’t Miss Our 2024 Predictions Deep Dive

Hear directly from the tech, CX, and B2B analysts behind our 2024 global predictions and get an important generative AI update from Forrester’s CEO, George Colony.

Blog

Announcing Forrester’s Embedded Conversation Automation Landscape For B2B Marketing

Jessie Johnson August 11, 2023
Conversational AI, chatbots, and automated marketing are not new to B2B marketing technology stacks. B2B marketing organizations leverage conversation automation solutions to better understand and enable buyers, customers, and internal teams by integrating signal-responsive conversations into existing workflows, tactics, and content experiences that span the full customer lifecycle. Conversation automation is quickly becoming integral to […]
Podcast

Is Asynchronous Chat The Future Of Customer Service?

What It Means May 4, 2023
Asynchronous chat is poised to proliferate throughout the B2C ecosystem, redefining expectations around customer service. Senior Analyst Christina McAllister joins to discuss the benefits and pitfalls of this technology.
Blog

Meet The New Analyst Covering AI And Insurance: Indranil Bandyopadhyay

Indranil Bandyopadhyay October 5, 2022
New Principal Analyst joins Forrester in the areas of financial service, focusing on insurance and data, AI, and ML.
Blog

Conversation Automation, Personalization, And AI: Five Key Findings For B2B Marketers

Jessie Johnson May 24, 2022
Across industries and audience demographics, conversational interfaces and the interactions they support are becoming embedded in the B2B digital experience as buyers and customers continue to show preference for self-guided interactions at each stage of their journeys. The ability to reach, engage, and enable empowered B2B audiences — whether buyer, customer, or employee — means […]
Blog

Most Chatbots Disappoint — Here’s How To Make Them Better

David Truog November 9, 2021
To create an effective chatbot you need to master conversation design, a new discipline for experiences based on conversational AI.

60% Of Skeptics Will Use (And Love!) GenAI

Surprised? Download Forrester’s 2024 Predictions guide to see why progress will be driven by exploration — and 14 other global predictions on AI, privacy, B2B buyers, hybrid work, and more.

Blog

Announcing The Forrester Wave™: Insights-Driven Business Process Outsourcing, Q4 2020

Leslie Joseph December 2, 2020
Buyer demand for greater value from insights and technology such as RPA, data science, machine learning, and advanced analytics are forcing both classical BPO and omnichannel BPO vendors to retool themselves into insights-driven BPO's.
Blog

COVID-19 Stokes The Chatbot Hype In Financial Services

Aurelie L'Hostis September 18, 2020
COVID-19 and its associated containment measures are accelerating digital transformation and automation in financial services. Customer service has been under enormous pressure, and financial services firms such as Nationwide Building Society in the UK and the Royal Bank of Canada have launched chatbots to deal with the unusually high volume of requests. However, digital teams […]
Video

The Future Of Banking: Invisible, Connected, Insights-Driven, And Purposeful

Alyson Clarke July 30, 2020

Blog

The Future Of Banking Has Arrived

Jacob Morgan July 29, 2020
Forrester's latest research finds future of banking will be invisible, connected, insights-driven, and purposeful. Analysts Jacob Morgan and Alyson Clarke break it all down.
Blog

Getting Chatty With Bixby (Samsung’s Intelligent Agent)

Jeffrey Hammond November 8, 2019
(With Julie Ask) Last week, Samsung hosted its annual Developer Conference in San Jose, California. Developers sampled the company’s latest offerings for mobile app and web development, the internet of things, and artificial intelligence. Forrester clients may not be familiar with Samsung’s intelligent agent Bixby, but it’s primed to put other better-known agents such as […]

Forrester Decisions For Digital Business & Strategy

Let us guide you to the next level of digital excellence. Drive growth, build powerhouse teams, quash disruptors.

Blog

Why Chatbots Can’t Read Your Mind

Charles Betz August 21, 2019
Chatbots rely on natural language processing (NLP) to understand you. Before they can process a language, they must learn it. Read more.
Blog

Interruptions To The Advertising Market

Victor Milligan July 25, 2017
The advertising headwinds have been gathering. The $7.4B lost to bad ads. The chronic underperformance. Major firms pulling millions from media budgets. Consumers actively avoiding ads. And yet the interruptions continue. There are bright spots: great storytelling from some brands, better channel orchestration, and the pragmatic application of programmatic. Advertising fueled the remarkable rise of […]
Blog

Your B2B Prospects Don’t Want You To Call Them

Steven Casey May 13, 2016
So this makes it official: the rite of passage for every new analyst. My first research report, How Self-Service Research Changes B2B Marketing, has just been published. I covered the premise of this report in my first blog post — but I’ll summarize it here again: multiple Forrester surveys have shown that B2B buyers strongly […]
Blog

Selecting The Right Virtual Agent Vendor For Your eBusiness

Forrester November 18, 2011
What do Aetna, the US Army, L’Oreal, and the London 2012 Olympic Games have in common? Each of these diverse organizations has deployed a virtual agent. Virtual agents are software services that provide automated assistance by simulating a two-way conversation with customers. And they have come a long way from Clippy the dancing paper clip. […]
Blog

What Should A Virtual Agent Look Like?

Forrester March 9, 2011
Not all companies that offer a virtual agent elect to have an avatar. However, many companies choose to make cartoon, 2D or 3D renderings of a human to personalize the experience, support the brand, and reinforce the conversational nature of the interaction.  But what should an avatar look like? Here are some considerations for eBusiness professionals […]
Blog

Is A Virtual Agent Right For Your Web Site?

Forrester August 30, 2010
One of the questions I'm frequently asked by clients is if virtual agents are a good idea. Many of us have had frustrating interactive agent experiences over the years (recall Clippy, Microsoft’s animated paperclip that launched a thousand parodies). Times have changed, and I think virtual agents are worth taking a look at. Today’s virtual agents can […]
Blog

Do Your Customers Want To Telephone You For Service?

Forrester April 6, 2010
I was speaking with clients today about their views on telephone customer service. One believed that his customers liked calling the call center to solve problems with a “human touch.” His colleague countered that telephone customer service is simply too expensive to be giving away that “human touch.” I think they are both correct. And […]