A paradigm shift in customer experience 

2023 was a pivotal year in the world of business messaging and customer experience. Continued developments in the 
field of conversational customer experience coupled with the rapid evolution of generative AI has led to advances that will 
have long-lasting implications for the way that people and 
brands interact. 

While in 2022 we noted the spike in omnichannel adoption rates as brands recognized the value of connecting with people on their favorite channel, what we are now seeing is a focus on perfecting the end-to-end conversational journey. 

Customers can now seamlessly progress through the various stages of a purchase within a single conversational thread on

a chat app or rich communications services (RCS).

And it isn’t just commercial use cases, our customers have been at the forefront of leveraging this technology to provide personalized support by combining the convenience and native features of chat apps with the power of artificial intelligence – more on that later.

With the emergence of Interactive AI, we expect to see brands incorporating a federation of different chatbots and AI algorithms working together to trigger actions at the ideal points during the customer journey. In the next year we foresee the widespread adoption of this approach in customer service, in supporting marketing and sales automation, and for operational use cases like scheduling deliveries or managing payments.

For this report we analyzed over 473 billion interactions that took place between businesses and their customers on our platform in 2023 to identify the latest global business messaging trends.



We hope that our findings will help you to formulate your own messaging strategy that enables you to connect with your customers through compelling conversational experiences. 

Ivan Ostojić

Chief Business Officer at Infobip

North American messaging trends

Overview 

As consumers look for a deeper connection with the brands they buy from, it is the conversational messaging channels that are seeing the fastest growth.

Brands all over the world have been adopting an omnichannel approach to their customer messaging. However, there is no single blueprint that can be applied in all regions and to all use cases. With different messaging apps popular across the regions there is a requirement for flexibility in the primary and secondary channels that are utilized for transactional and promotional use cases.

To get a better idea on the trends specific to you, try to focus on:
 

Total channel interactions on the Infobip platform in 2023

Messaging trends overview

Conversations throughout the customer journey

As business messaging continues to evolve, it has become clear that customers are happy for brands to incorporate AI into their messaging strategies if it means that they can benefit from:

  • improved targeting
  • 24/7 availability
  • efficient access to information

However, although people know that they are interacting with AI they want to retain the sense of speaking with a human. Interactions that are robotic and inflexible are not appreciated. 

This means the development of conversational AI that is flexible, that has a personality, and that knows when it is time to hand over to a human agent.

conversational customer journey

CUSTOMER JOURNEY

What is Conversational Experience?

Conversations between humans help to break down barriers through two-way exchanges of information and ideas that give us a deeper understanding of each other’s lives and motivations, and potentially change our points of view.  

Conversational experience is the practice of applying this concept to the interactions between businesses and their customers. By combining human creativity with conversational tools, machine learning and artificial intelligence, innovative brands can provide a more personalized, friction-free, and intelligent customer journey that retains its ‘humanness’.

The three pillars of conversational experience >>

Pillars of conversational experiencce

CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Conversational Marketing

Effective marketing is all about reaching out to people that may be interested in your products and services and engaging with them to form a mutually beneficial relationship.

This is the basis of conversational marketing and why we are seeing brands ramping up their efforts to be available to customers on the digital channels that they already use to communicate with family and friends.

Overall, we saw a 29.3% increase
in mobile app messaging for marketing use cases in 2023.

Conversational marketing messaging trends

Key to this growth has been the release WhatsApp of features that enable customers to seamlessly progress through all stages of a purchase within a single chat window. No need to jump between apps and websites, making for a more convenient experience. New features include:

Other messaging channels are also enabling brands to explore conversational marketing use cases:

CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Conversational commerce

Conversational commerce is all about guiding customers through the entire marketing and sales funnel using their favorite digital channels: 

With the release of WhatsApp Flows and Payments, WhatsApp offers the most complete experience. Businesses can build pathways for customers to easily complete tasks and even make purchases, all without leaving the app. For countries where the final payment step is not yet supported, Infobip can help businesses to use WhatsApp Flows with their preferred payment gateway. 

WhatsApp is not the only channel enabling brands to explore conversational marketing use cases. As they expand their channel usage and adopt messaging apps that are popular in all the regions where they do business, we are seeing significant increases in the use of other messaging channels including Telegram, Line, Viber, and Messenger. 

Prior to the Payment on WhatsApp service, consumers would need to go through several steps including, log in to a mobile app, authentication process, and payment gateway processing, while with payments on WhatsApp, these steps are eliminated. In the first three months of the launch of this service, approximately 3000 customers successfully paid around Rs. 40 million for renewal.

Sanjay Arora

Executive Vice President & Head of Operations, 
Tata AIA Life Insurance

CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Conversational support

Customer service and support is one of the first areas where brands start experimenting with a conversational approach. Whether a person is dealing with a human agent or a chatbot, or a combination of the two, conversational support provides an effective, efficient, and positive experience. 

WhatsApp is still the primary channel that brands use to provide conversational support, but there has been a marked increase
in the use of other channels.

In 2022 99% of support messages were sent on WhatsApp. However, for 2023 the figure is 90% with several additional chat apps being used more widely.

This trend shows how brands are diversifying their channel mix for support use cases and leveraging the regional popularity and conversational qualities of other chat apps in order to provide a service on their customers’ preferred channels.

As expected, 2023 saw increased use of AI for customer support by Infobip’s customers. With our help, many brands were able to safely introduce AI to provide a more efficient and cost-effective service. 

Some of the trends that we are seeing include:

  • Generative AI

  • Intelligent routing

  • Proactive support

  • Social media chatbots

conversational support messaging trends

CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Conversational AI

Getting the benefits of GenAI without the risk


The spotlight has been on artificial intelligence in the past year as technologies have impacted the CX strategies of many brands.

For our customers and partners, the experiences implementing GenAI have been resoundingly positive. We have been proud of many success stories where our conversational AI tools have been used to create groundbreaking chatbot solutions.

We firmly believe that AI should not be seen as an autonomous black box solution but rather as a tool that can be called upon to perform the specific tasks that it excels at. It must exist symbiotically alongside the human workforce and other software tools to add value throughout the customer journey.

Today’s customer is happy to share private information with virtual assistants if they get accurate, personalized, and immediate responses in return.

messaging trends conversational ai

CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Chat apps are the most commonly used channel for conversational use cases. They are ideally suited as their native features compliment and enrich person-to-person communication.

With customer support being the main reason for people to get in touch, it is crucial for businesses to make the process of starting a conversation as easy as possible.

This can be done by adding ‘Click to chat’ links on various entry points. Brands that have been able to do this successfully increase the number of queries that can be resolved on more cost -effective digital channels.

This trend is clearly shown in the 2023 data where customer support has seen the sharpest increase in the use of conversational channels

conversational channel trends

The changing role of SMS

SMS is still an important channel for business communication, but the usage patterns are changing. With comparatively higher costs than chat apps, and not being suited to conversational messaging due to the 160-character limit and lack of rich media support, we are seeing it being used more in conjunction with chat apps.  

  • SMS and WhatsApp is the most commonly used channel combination, 24.8% of customers with omnichannel usage going for this combination
  • All customers with omnichannel usage use SMS as one of the channels

Percentage of high volume senders with omnichannel usage

omnichannel trends

RCS BUSINESS MESSAGING

A story of growth

Apple announced in November 2023 that it would start supporting RCS on its devices in 2024. However, we were already seeing a significant uptick in RCS traffic in many regions as brands extended their use of the channel, primarily to take advantage of its media sharing capability and suitability for conversational interactions.

This will significantly impact the volume of RCS traffic that we see in 2024. As customer opt-ins for SMS also cover RCS messaging, the process of moving traffic from SMS to RCS is simplified.   

According to Juniper Research, the number of active RCS users will reach 2.1 billion globally by 2025. 

Total global growth in RCS messages on the Infobip platform in 2023 was a massive 358%.

Countries that already had high RCS adoption rates that grew strongly in 2023 include: 

RCS usage worldwide
RCS example

Learn how major UK supermarket chain ASDA has partnered with Infobip to incorporate RCS to support messaging across the full online customer journey, including order confirmation, delivery times and substitutions, becoming the largest sender of RCS traffic in the country.

INDUSTRY FOCUS

Retail and eCommerce 

Retailers and eCommerce businesses are often the trailblazers when it comes to adopting new technologies and rolling out innovative new use cases. Agile and creative young brands can challenge established players by engaging with customers in fresh and dynamic ways.

This is especially true of brands that target the teen and young adult market who have led the way in adopting chat apps and social media as sales channels and working with influencers to exponentially extend the reach of their campaigns.  

Some of the latest trends include:

retail and eCommerce messaging trends

Click-to-chat ads

End-to-end chat journey

Virtual assistant

In-app delivery tracking

INDUSTRY FOCUS

Finance

In what has traditionally been seen as a more conservative industry when it comes to the adoption of new technology, we are seeing definite signs that things are changing. 

With more choice of financial service providers available to customers, smaller and more agile businesses that can incorporate the latest technology to provide a faster and more engaging customer experience become more attractive. Customers who have become used to the conversational experience provided in other sectors are more likely to abandon larger organizations whose velocity is hampered by legacy systems and processes.    

Omnichannel adoption in the financial sector 

Due to the high priority of many of the messages and the need to have a reliable backup channel, the finance sector has comparatively high rates of omnichannel adoption. 

Combinations of SMS, Email and Voice have been the most popular channels, but it is now SMS and WhatsApp that have pulled ahead with 24.3% of institutions going for this combination.

Finance messaging trends

INDUSTRY FOCUS

Telco

For an industry that is based on connecting people, it is always interesting to track how telcos communicate with their own customers for transactional and promotional messages.

As you would expect, Telcos make significant use of SMS, but the trend that we have been tracking is a significant increase in the use of digital channels and RCS.

How do telcos communicate with customers?

telco messaging trends

Telco communication trends

Telcos are often early adopters of new communication technology.

For example, automating customer verification with chatbots for SIM cards and exploring generative AI use cases to benefit both customers and staff.

This is illustrated by the recent news that global telco brand Vodafone is partnering with Microsoft to make use of Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service.

INDUSTRY FOCUS

Healthcare

WhatsApp is by far the most popular communication channel 
in the healthcare sector with 99% of traffic. 

However, there has been a significant increase in the use of RCS, from almost zero traffic in 2022 to over 771K messages sent in 2023. 

We predict significant further growth in 2024 as Apple starts supporting RCS on iOS devices. 

Healthcare messaging trends

A growing role for AI in healthcare 

The development of generative AI solutions that can safely contribute to improving patient care, coupled with the increased trust that patients have in chatbots have been the main drivers for an increase in the use of AI in the health sector.   

“AI algorithms for virtual assistants and chatbots need to be developed 
and trained with ethical considerations in mind. They should be unbiased, inclusive, and avoid perpetuating stereotypes or discrimination, and it’s critical they are tested to operate in this manner before being used for patient engagement.

As we continue to see an increase in generative AI adoption, it’s crucial that these tools are constantly monitored for these types of sensitivity flaws, and when providing medical advice are tested to provide appropriate responses.”

Ivan Ostojić

Chief Business Officer, Infobip

Healthcare use case example

Use cases for AI in healthcare:

  • FAQs
  • Appointment and medication reminders
  • Virtual appointments

REGIONAL MESSAGING TRENDS

Regional spotlight

With the dominant global trend being a move to a more conversational style of business messaging, these are the regions that are leading the way.  

North America messaging trends
APAC messaging trends
Europe messaging trends
Africa messaging trends
Latam messaging trends
MENA messaging trends

Co-creating the future of customer experience 

It is an exciting time in the world of customer experience as new technologies are maturing to a point where they can offer real value both to consumers and businesses – without the risk of reputational damage. 

AI will play an ever-greater role in the interactions between brands and their customers, but as we have discussed, it is not a silver bullet for every use case. It needs to be used for the tasks that it excels at as part of a wider eco-system of people, data, and other tools, where the end consumer is always the focus. Technology by itself is no longer a differentiator; it is the experience that technology can help to provide that really matters. 

Take mobile phone security as an example – it was a major step forward when we could lock our phones with a passcode. But that required us to remember the code and enter it every time we wanted to use our phones – which was increasingly often as more and more services went mobile. Fingerprint recognition was a big step forward – it was even more secure than a code and quicker, but it had its drawbacks. Anyone from a cold climate will know the frustration of having to remove a glove every time you wanted to check your messages. Facial recognition got around this problem and now we just have to glance at our phone screens to unlock it.

Each step forward ensured both better security and a simpler experience for the user. With this in mind, the next stage in the evolution of conversational experiences will be a consolidation of technology and services designed to make life easier for people.
Rather than having a multitude of different apps on our phones to meet our requirements for communication, recreation, and retail experiences, we will see the continued emergence of super apps that do it all. We are already seeing this trend with WhatsApp adding to their messaging, voice and video call services to supporting end to end retail journeys in their app – from discovery to purchase and support, but that is just the start.

The role that AI will play in this process will be twofold – more engaging and human-like interfaces, and in the background, increasingly sophisticated and joined-up large language models working to provide a personalized experience for every user. 
 The ultimate fusion of form, function, and creativity.

Co-creating the future

At Infobip we don’t pretend to have an intimate knowledge of all the individual markets that our global partners and customers operate in. However, we are experts in conversational experiences, and how

to use AI effectively and responsibly – and we are fast learners. That is the power of co-creation. As we learn about the needs and challenges of our customers, they learn the art of the possible with a technology partner that can support their ambitions and is not afraid to push the possibilities. 

We are a technology provider, but we thrive on collaboration. We love nothing more than helping businesses to make breakthroughs in their understanding of their own customers and markets, and to build loyalty through empathy and understanding.

We can’t wait to help you start your own messaging trend in 2024.

Krešo Žmak

VP of Products, Infobip

Partner with an expert in scalable conversational experiences

Benefit from a complete conversational experience solution

  • Cover all the channels that your customers use
  • Deploy easy-build chatbots for any use case
  • Easily adapt and scale your messaging for any global market

Talk to your customers the way you need to

  • Secure and compliant messaging that respects
customer preferences 
  • Relevant personalization driven by a customer data platform
  • Provide the convenience of a complete in-app 
customer journey

Get the benefit of AI without the risk

  • Incorporate AI that adds real value for your customers and business 
  • Use generative AI safely with the help of our experts and partner network
  • Stand out in your market with a tech partner not afraid to explore possibilities 

Work with us to start your own messaging trend