What Is a Chatbot?
A computer program anybody can talk to with normal language.
No matter what type of chatbot it is, they all have a similar purpose — to take regular human language input, understand what is being said and to provide a relevant, correct answer based on the knowledge it has. Chatbots excel at completing repetitive tasks and work around the clock. They can work alone or alongside humans, and are effective at completing 60–90% of an average human team’s workload, depending on the use case. They are also very effective at lead generation, as a conversational company wiki, for first-stage interviews in HR, and much more. We wrote an extensive guide to 25 Chatbot Use Cases to help you find the use case that matches your needs.
What Types of Chatbot Are Available?
There are two main types of chatbot. Button Bots and Conversational Chatbots.
Button Bots are based on predefined buttons and lead the user down a garden path with those button choices. You cannot talk to a button bot.
Conversational Chatbots understand user input. So a user should be able to type in a question and get a relevant answer from the chatbot. There are sub-types of Conversational Chatbot, which are covered more extensively in “How Do Chatbots Work”. Conversational Chatbots can, and generally do, use buttons as a backup…