Introduction
Chatbots, also known as conversational agents, enable the interaction of humans with computers through natural language, by applying the technology of Natural Language Processing (NLP). They can mimic human conversation and entertain users, and can also be useful in various applications including healthcare, education, business, and customer services. They represent a quintessential example of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system and one of the most popular examples of efficient Human-Computer Interaction artifacts. In fact, the size of the chatbot market worldwide is expected to be 1.23 billion dollars in 2025. In the US alone, the chatbot industry was valued at 113 million US dollars and is expected to reach 994.5 million US dollars in 2024.

Chatbots evolved significantly after the introduction of the Turing Test by Alan Turing in 1950, which was followed by the development of the Eliza chatbot in 1966 till now. Nowadays, chatbots offer exceptional services to end-users due to various factors including the ability to respond to customers’ requests quickly according to their convenience. In addition, the huge adoption of chatbots over the last couple of decades is underpinned by other non-technical factors such as psychological ones. For instance, it has been found that chatbots can be used to disclose information with less stress due to machine-human interaction. Despite such development, chatbots still have a long list of challenges to overcome. For example, they still lack empathy and understanding. Moreover, the widespread nature of chatbot application in many domains imposes multidisciplinary adoption barriers including technology-oriented, ethical, usability, and cultural challenges which need further research and investigations.

Given the magnitude of research and interest in chatbots, there is a need for a publication that will shed light on several vital and evolving concerns including human-bot interaction, chatbot adoption, machine consciousness in the context of Natural Langauge Processing (NLP), and Natural Language Understanding (NLU), chatbot architecture and design considerations, chatbot evaluation, comparative analysis of the impact of the domain (e.g., healthcare) on the effectiveness of chatbots, customers’ trust, algorithms, chatbot evolution, privacy, and security, to name a few. Such a publication will be of interest to various stakeholders including researchers, educators, technology enthusiasts, and other key players in the chatbot industry.



Objective
This book will provide novel research content as well as reviews of the state of the art in chatbot technology. The book will cover a variety of theoretical and practical topics in various domains such as human-computer interaction, natural language processing, education, cybersecurity, and more. Such content could be highly beneficial to researchers aiming at developing chatbots that are usable, accurate, effective, and secure. Further, the book sheds light on challenges and open questions in chatbots, and possible research directions.

Target Audience
This book targets a variety of audiences. For instance, technology enthusiasts will be interested in introductory topics about chatbot technology as well as guides to implementation and deployment, while AI experts will be interested in algorithms behind chatbots. Educators will be interested in finding out how to use the technology in educational applications, and researchers from various domains (e.g. human-computer interaction, cybersecurity, marketing) will be interested in the latest research and applications of chatbot technology from their own perspective fields.

Important Dates
September 4, 2022: Full Chapter Submission
November 2, 2022: Review Results Returned
December 14, 2022: Final Acceptance Notification
December 28, 2022: Final Chapter Submission

You are welcome to submit your chapter here:

https://www.igi-global.com/submission/submit-chapter/?projectid=e72d675e-3160-4311-8dd0-c416fade3aa9

Recommended Topics
Chatbot Foundations and Evolution.
Chatbot Algorithms, Techniques, and Technologies.
Human-Computer Interaction Aspects of Chatbot Design and Evaluation.
Privacy and Security of Chatbots.
Applications of Chatbots in Healthcare.
Applications of Chatbots in Education.
Application of Chatbots in IoT
Chatbots for Business and Customer Support.
Chatbot Challenges and Future.