If you’re reading this, it’s a good probability that you’re at least somewhat familiar with the term ‘chatbot’. In short, a chatbot is an AI-powered computer program that conducts conversations with users over websites or messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp. These programs help businesses answer customers’ questions more efficiently by having chatbots handle mundane tasks such as scheduling appointments or ordering food from their own websites.

After a brief practice making chatbots at Druid AI, one of the leading companies in the industry, I’ve learned a lot of valuable things about chatbots, AI and their effects of businesses. But before that,

What is AI?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the future of business. AI is the ability of a machine to learn, process and respond to input in a human-like fashion. If a computer can learn, then it is AI. AI can be used in many different areas, including voice search, language processing, computer vision and transcription, to name a few. It is through AI that computers are able to understand human language and respond to questions in a similar way that humans do. AI is also becoming a more and more important part of the Customer experience. With the right tools, you can use AI to help your business interact with its customers in a more efficient and effective manner.

Why Chatbots are needed in Business

Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular in business because they allow companies to get rid of several administrative tasks. These tasks are either time-consuming or do not fit the brand. Customers often have requests for information regarding their orders or enquiries about products. By removing the need for employees to handle these tasks, companies can save a lot of time and resources. They are also useful in handling complaints. For example, a business may offer a variety of different products for which the customers may have complaints they can’t easily express with a rigid complaint system. In this situation, chatbots can help the customer by asking guidance questions and then formatting the answer in the form of a ticket which can then be more easily processed. Furthermore, chatbots can be used to handle tasks that require customized answers. As bots have the ability to learn over time, they can become more specific in their responses. This is especially helpful when handling complex orders.

Top 7 Chatbot software for Businesses

1. Amazon Lex – This is a service that lets you create conversational interfaces for use in voice-assisted or text-based applications. It gives you the ability to use highly trained natural language models to create engaging user experiences that integrate with your business systems using text or speech. 

2. Chatfuel – A unique chatbot platform that enables you to create a variety of different chatbots for different platforms including Facebook Messenger, Kik and Telegram. 

3. Chatscript – Is a bot building platform that makes it easy for small businesses to create, deploy and manage their own chatbot. It also offers a visual builder and a rich library of pre-made content to simplify the process of building a bot.

4. ManyChat – Is a tool that’s especially useful if you would like to create multi-platform chatbots for companies that are primarily based on Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp. It’s designed to help you connect with your clients and subscribers and it also provides email and SMS integration for your convenience.

5. Outgrow – Is a great marketing tool for those who want to ask their audience questions and get to know them. It has different templates for creating quizzes, assessments, surveys or for getting user input and it’s also fully responsive on mobile, desktop and tablet devices.

6. Conversica – Is one of the most well-known automated marketing tools on the internet. It’s designed to engage your customers and help increase your sales by providing your customers with personalized experiences.

7. HubSpot – A marketing and sales platform that helps businesses increase traffic, leads, and sales through marketing automation tools and CRM software. It includes natural language search, which is a conversational search engine that enables users to search for content using casual language.

Chatbots, Benefits, and Disadvantages

Chatbots can help businesses increase engagement with customers. For example, a bot may be programmed to answer questions about an airline’s services, including flight information, baggage rules, and cancellation policies. These bots can also help businesses improve their digital marketing by collecting data about customers and processing that data through automation. 

A major benefit of chatbots is that they can be developed and deployed quickly since they don’t require complex IT infrastructure.

On the other hand, these bots can only handle a small number of tasks, and they aren’t equipped to conduct complex reasoning. This makes bots more susceptible to hacking and spamming. Businesses should also be cautious about what information they share with customers. If a customer asks too invasive of a question, businesses should be cautious about answering them.

 Conclusion

There is no doubt that chatbots are becoming a major force in the tech industry and are expected to change the way we do business forever. They can help businesses streamline administrative tasks and can be used for customer service, marketing, and more. A bot can also be used to handle tasks that require customized answers or that require a specific response. So far, chatbot technology is not advanced enough to understand human emotions and be able to have real conversations. That’s why we don’t see them being used in more places. However, things are changing. There are companies working on new technology that will allow their chatbots to understand human emotions and feelings. This will allow their chatbots to be used in a wider range of applications and mimic human conversations.