BOCA RATON, Fla. — A new study reveals an apparent appetite among consumers for chatbots, but it concluded that these digital boxes that allow customers to converse with a human or AI-enabled bot still have ways to go before impacting business.

Released today by mobile marketing firm 3Cinteractive Corp. (3C), the Chatbot Consumer Report provides an in-depth look at how consumers interact with chatbots and their preferences on using the technology when communicating with brands. Its findings are based on an online poll of 500 U.S. households.

According to results, a quarter of the consumers surveyed said they use chatbots on a daily basis (40% alone for Millennials).When consumers were asked why they thought chatbots were not valuable, 71% said the chatbot could not answer their question or help them. That means businesses will need to expand the capabilities of their chatbots as the technology advances to keep up with growing consumer expectation, 3C officials said.

When asked which tasks they’d prefer a chatbot to handle for a brand vs. a human, checking order status (46%) and product research (42%) rose to the top of the list. But for other tasks, consumers polled still preferred humans over chatbots — 50% for customer service inquiries, and 44% for making an appointment or reservation.

This data is critical for brands since 83% of respondents said they would be more loyal to a brand for offering a chatbot that enables these tasks. Additionally, Business Insider reported earlier this year that 80% of business plan to have chatbots by 2020.

“Choosing the right chatbot strategy for your brand is critical, it's not one size fits all,” said Margie Kupfer, vice president of marketing at 3C. “Understand your customer preferences and build your chatbot strategy around a specific function that benefits the customer. Starting small and executing your chatbot successfully ensures a positive brand experience and allows you to learn more about your customer in order to scale your chatbot into other business functions.”

Click here to download the complete report.