The global intelligent virtual assistant market is expected to reach USD 3.07 billion by 2020. High emphasis on efficient customer interaction assisted by virtual assistants is estimated to fuel demand. Growing need to manage huge data particularly in large enterprises is anticipated to escalate growth over the forecast period.
The industry is poised for growth owing to increasing demand across several application areas including travel, utilities and telecommunication sector. Intelligent virtual assistant offer benefits such as the ability to organize and maintain information. Rising popularity of interactive online channels coupled with the growing need for cost effective ways to effectively and efficiently respond to customer needs is expected to offer avenues for industry growth. Increasing adoption across several end-use sectors including healthcare, e-commerce and BFSI may also offer potential opportunities for industry participants. Lack of standardization and awareness among end users may hinder product demand over the coming years.
Large enterprises contributed for over 80% of the overall revenue in 2013, and are expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period. This may be primarily attributed to the growing focus on increasing customer satisfaction. Increasing replacement of traditional methods of customer engagement in order to ensure enhanced user engagement and offering real-time, personalized support may elevate demand.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are expected to exhibit high growth over the forecast period attributing to increasing adoption for better mobility solutions and business communication.
North America accounted for over 40% of the global revenue in 2013 owing to early technology adopters resulting in increasing mobility and wireless subscribers in the region. Asia Pacific intelligent virtual assistant market is estimated to exhibit rapid growth over the coming years attributing to smartphone proliferation leading to uptake of mobile-based assistants in the region.
Key players in the industry include Creative Virtual Ltd., Next IT Corporation, IntelliResponse, Artificial Solutions, eGain Communications, CodeBaby Corp., Anboto Group and Nuance Communications. Industry participants compete on the basis of efficient natural language processing and robust back-end knowledge base capabilities. Companies also make continuous efforts for ensuring cost savings, enhanced user engagement and customer satisfaction. Notable companies also offer features including continued availability, natural language understanding and automatic language detection in order to maintain their leading position in the market.
