AI Chatbot

What is an AI chatbot?

An AI chatbot is a software system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to simulate human conversation. AI chatbots, or virtual agents, are most often used for customer support on websites, as virtual assistants for basic scheduling, or as productivity tools for writing or generating ideas. Organizations train AI chatbots using natural language processing to interpret human language, improving their ability to respond to human input with coherent, human-like responses. 

Example: I used the website’s AI chatbot to help me return an item to the store. 

Modern, advanced AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini use generative AI models. This means they can generate replies dynamically based on learned patterns, rather than relying on prewritten responses. 

What are the benefits of an AI chatbot?

AI chatbots are built to mimic real human conversation. Organizations use virtual chatbots to take on repetitive, time-consuming tasks—most notably answering common customer queries. An AI chatbot tries to solve the problem first, and a person takes over if the chatbot can’t. This allows human agents to focus on more complex tasks that require creativity and situational analysis. 

Using AI chatbots enables organizations to provide 24/7 customer support, reduce customer wait times, and cut operational costs. AI chatbots can also engage customers proactively to guide their experience, qualify sales leads to boost conversion rates, and collect data to track customer trends.