Chatbot
An AI-powered software application that simulates human conversation through text or voice interactions.
Definition
A chatbot is software designed to simulate conversation with human users through text-based messaging, voice interaction, or both. Modern chatbots range from simple rule-based systems that follow predetermined scripts to sophisticated AI-powered assistants that understand natural language, maintain context across conversations, and learn from interactions.
Chatbots are deployed across customer service, sales, healthcare, education, and internal operations. They operate on websites, messaging platforms (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger), mobile apps, and voice assistants (Alexa, Google Assistant).
Why It Matters
Chatbots have become essential infrastructure for businesses scaling customer interaction. They handle routine inquiries instantly and around the clock, freeing human agents for complex issues. For customers, chatbots provide immediate responses without hold times or business hour limitations.
The rapid advancement of large language models has dramatically improved chatbot capabilities. Modern AI chatbots can handle nuanced conversations, personalize responses, and escalate to humans when needed — making them valuable for both cost reduction and customer experience improvement.
Examples in Practice
An e-commerce company deploys a chatbot that handles 70% of customer inquiries automatically, reducing support costs by $500,000 annually while improving response time from hours to seconds.
A healthcare provider uses an AI chatbot for initial symptom assessment, directing patients to the appropriate care level and reducing unnecessary emergency room visits by 15%.
A B2B company's chatbot qualifies website visitors by asking targeted questions, booking meetings for sales representatives only with high-potential leads, and increasing the sales team's efficiency by 40%.