  Conversational chatbots are Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered applications
that assist users with various tasks by responding in natural language and are
prevalent across different industries. Most of the chatbots that we encounter
on websites and digital assistants such as Alexa, Siri does not express empathy
towards the user, and their ability to empathise remains immature. Lack of
empathy towards the user is not critical for a transactional or interactive
chatbot, but the bots designed to support mental healthcare patients need to
understand the emotional state of the user and tailor the conversations. This
research explains the different types of emotional intelligence methodologies
adopted in the development of an empathic chatbot and how far they have been
adopted and succeeded.
