Chatbot and live chat usage trends among utilities

Over the past couple of years, E Source has collected insights into utility chat offerings. This quick hit highlights key trends across chatbot and live chat adoption.

Chatbot growth is outpacing live chat

Our data shows that live-agent and chatbot offerings are about equally prevalent among utilities, but chatbot adoption has increased more quickly over time.

Findings from the E Source Contact Center Performance study show that live chat adoption increased steadily, from 40% of utilities in 2020 to 45% in 2024. Meanwhile, chatbot offerings grew from 8% in 2020 to 45% in 2024.

We saw similar trends in the E Source 2025 Website Benchmark. Overall chat offerings increased from 34% in 2023 to 46% in 2025. Increased chatbot availability mostly drove this growth: chat via live agent grew 8 percentage points while chat via chatbot grew 17 percentage points.

Chatbots see more overall sessions than live chat

In the E Source 2024 Digital Metrics Study, we captured the number of chat sessions utilities handled for each chat type during the 2023 calendar year. The study findings revealed that chatbots received nearly three times more sessions on average than live chat.

Several factors may contribute to this discrepancy:

• For utilities offering both chatbots and live chat, customers are initially interacting with the chatbot, with live agents handling only more complex or escalated interactions.
• Chatbots are available 24-7, while live chat operates during limited hours.
• Chatbots have a lower barrier to entry—they’re instant, allow customers to end a session without impacting a human agent, and don’t require waiting.
• Chatbots are often easier to find on utility websites, while live chat may only be offered on certain pages or the authenticated side of the website.

Chatbot growth is likely to continue

Utility plans favor chatbots over live chat

As with current growth trends, utilities’ plans for chat suggest more rapid growth in chatbot adoption versus live chat. In 2023, 48% of the utility respondents to our Digital Metrics study offered chatbot as a contact channel. But 70% of utilities planned to add a chatbot in the coming year, making it one of the fastest growing channels.

By comparison, live chat growth may be stabilizing: 59% of participating utilities reported offering live chat, while 55% planned to offer it in the next year.

Chatbots are a top priority AI use case

The E Source 2024 Customer Experience Management Survey examined how utilities were already using and planning to use AI for customer experience. While overall usage of AI in chatbots was low, 16 of 28 utilities reported that they were either actively planning to or investigating the use of AI-powered chatbots.

As of early 2026, customer-facing AI applications remain limited among utilities. But our data suggests that adoption of both natural language processing and generative AI within chatbots is likely to increase.