The end of the chatbot era: Why we looked for something different

Your customers hate chatbots. We’ve found the antidote.

Here’s an uncomfortable truth that every marketing director needs to confront: whilst 80% of companies claim to deliver excellent customer experiences, only 8% of customers agree. That’s not a gap – it’s a chasm. And nowhere is this disconnect more painfully visible than in the technology we’ve deployed to ‘help’ our customers.

The humble chatbot promised transformation. What it delivered was frustration.

The numbers don’t lie

Research consistently reveals what we’ve all experienced as consumers ourselves:

• 91% of dissatisfied customers won’t return – they simply disappear
• 96% won’t tell you they’re unhappy – they tell their friends instead
• It takes 12 positive experiences to recover from just one negative interaction
• Over 50% of customer experience is emotional and subconscious – yet most chatbots optimise purely for rational metrics

When Colin Shaw pioneered customer experience consulting, he revealed something that should have fundamentally changed how we approach automated interactions: emotions account for more than half of the customer experience. Yet the industry responded by deploying increasingly sophisticated systems designed to deflect, contain, and minimise human contact.

For 53% of people tested, receiving great service triggered the same cerebral reactions as feeling loved. That’s not a metric – it’s a mandate. And chatbots simply cannot deliver it.

The result? Brand experience destruction at scale.

The empathy gap

Tony Bates and Dr Natalie Petouhoff’s research in Empathy in Action crystallises the problem: we’ve created an empathy gap so vast that customers are actively switching providers. Globally, 66% of consumers have switched brands due to poor customer service – a number that continues to climb year on year.

Mintel’s 2024 research unveils what they call the ‘Being Human’ trend – showing that all audiences, even younger demographics who have only known a tech-enabled world, are now seeking more real, traditional human emotional connections and experiences.

The irony is striking. In our rush to automate, we’ve created customer experiences that feel distinctly inhuman. And customers are voting with their feet.

What if there was another way?

At Bonfire®, we’ve spent 30 years developing Creative Intelligence™ – our methodology for helping brands uncover, unlock, and unleash their extraordinary potential. Throughout that journey, one truth has remained constant: extraordinary brands don’t just serve customers – they transform routine interactions into memorable experiences.

So when we looked despairingly at the chatbot landscape, we asked a different question. Not ‘how can we automate more efficiently?’ but rather ‘how can we create the smoothest possible transition between technology and genuine human connection?’

The answer required us to rethink everything. We mapped out an idea, looked at the tech stack required, then bumped into a team of kindred spirits during our research.

Introducing JustAiSK®

In the new year, we’ll be unveiling JustAiSK® – a human-centred AI conversational tool that we believe fundamentally changes the equation. It’s not a chatbot – it’s something entirely different.

Where traditional chatbots create barriers, JustAiSK® creates bridges. Where chatbots frustrate, JustAiSK® facilitates. Where chatbots feel robotic and soulless, JustAiSK® delivers truly empathetic, human-centric experiences that make customers feel seen, understood, and valued.

It’s designed around one core principle: technology should enhance human connection, not replace it.

The technology behind the transformation

We’ve partnered with the creators of the world’s most sophisticated conversational AI technology – a system four years in development and already deployed and tested across key industries where customer experience cannot fail. This isn’t a chatbot with a friendly skin. It’s a fundamentally different approach to how your website engages with customers that understands context, responds with genuine intelligence, and knows precisely when to seamlessly connect customers with real people.

The result removes the need entirely for what we call ‘anti-human, brand experience-destroying chatbots.’

Coming January 2026

We’re preparing to reveal JustAiSK® in the new year as part of our wider strategic toolkit – alongside the Extraordinary Brand Framework™ and AskPinpoint™ – designed to help brands achieve measurable, extraordinary results.

If you’re tired of watching your brand experience erode every time a customer encounters your automated support, if you’re ready to close the empathy gap rather than widen it, and if you believe that customer experience should feel human even when technology is involved – then watch this space.

Because the era of the chatbot has ended. And something better has begun.

Want to be among the first to demo this new brand building tool?

Email [email protected] or call us on +44 (0)1525 841079 with your domain name to get your demo set-up ready for the new year.