During the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses have increasingly relied on automation to proactively communicate with their customers at scale. Conversations between businesses and customers spiked by 6% in the first week of March and another 8% over the next two weeks, with a significant increase in conversations mentioning COVID-19. Businesses used bots to initiate 68% of all conversations mentioning COVID-19 or coronavirus since February, with bot-initiated conversations reaching a peak during the week of April 5th. Automation has been crucial for businesses to manage demand and provide support to their customers and communities, with many companies leveraging proactive automation through the use of bots to address questions and concerns related to the pandemic. Proactive communication and automated customer support have helped businesses navigate the crisis more efficiently, allowing them to focus on serious or urgent issues while providing timely responses to rising queries at scale.