I'm not sure why it took so long for people to recognize this. An overwhelming majority of chatbots I've used are utter rubbish and are better served through a regular interface (search, directory listing, etc).
Everyone dreads call menus / phone trees - chatbots are largely the same except there are easier & better UX alternatives in an online medium.
Because customers want to talk to a person, and executives don't want to pay for that person. Enter a slick salesman with a bogus "AI-based machine-learning customer service automation" spiel, and bob's your uncle
I had to call UPS because of a wrong delivery state a few weeks ago. I ended about in their automated phone system where you don‘t anymore press numbers but rather say what you would like. There‘s never an option to talk to a human.
I ended up googling and found out a secret keyword to talk to an agent who one can directly say after choosing a language. I never have been connected faster to a human when calling a large companys hotline.
Got rear-ended in France once, called the rental car company to report the problem (damaged car), turned out you had to speak to the automated system in French to get directed to someone to actually talk to. I don't speak French. There were no other options. So the guy that rear-ended my rental car actually had to help out with the call.. even that was problematic, he lived in France but wasn't a native, apparently his French wasn't quite good enough for the system. Hertz, that's not something you should have as your user interface at your Hertz office at an international airport.
Many of those systems are configured in a way that they connect you to a human if they can't figure out what you're saying.
The audio from those calls is fed to a team of people who are responsible for teaching the system, so that the next model can be more accurate in directing calls.
I once met someone who had been working that gig while in university. Apparently the vast majority of the recordings are boring and easy enough for a human to classify, but some are just people rattling off swear words, screaming, etc.
I feel like most of us were wise to the fact that this was a terrible idea on day one. It was funny to watch MBAs try to cash in on the "next big thing" in tech, though.
Everyone dreads call menus / phone trees - chatbots are largely the same except there are easier & better UX alternatives in an online medium.