A chatbot is a program or script designed to interact and respond to humans in real-time conversation. Different organizations and individuals employ chatbots for a variety of different uses and business functions. Broadly, chatbots provide pre-written responses and information to handle basic requests or to get enough information from customers to connect them to a live agent for better and more specific service. More advanced chatbots use machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI technology to generate real-time responses based on user input. Chatbots have become a sort of Swiss-Army-knife for many organizations, one tool that fulfills many business needs. 

Chatbots have been around for a long time; the first program that could be defined as a chatbot was created in 1966 with Joseph Weizenbaum’s Eliza. In 1988, British-born programmer Rollo Carpenter created a “chatterbot” named Jabberwocky, among the first “conversational AI” to learn new responses instead of simply serving pre-written language. 

In that time, chatbots have come a long way and are better than ever at holding a conversation. The primary chatbot use case for most businesses is to ease communication between the organization and the customers. Still, they’re imperfect and even the best chatbot can’t successfully imitate a human indefinitely, but despite their occasional clumsiness, customers now expect organizations to have a customer support messenger chatbot to help them self-serve or troubleshoot issues before escalating to a live agent. 

There are two types of chatbots, rule-based and AI-powered. Rule-based chatbots use pre-defined rules and scripts to respond to specific keywords or phrases. They offer limited flexibility but are quick and efficient tools for simple tasks. AI-powered bots leverage machine learning and NLP (natural language processing) to understand prompts and context. They can learn from past interactions and improve over time. 

Most chatbots, even sophisticated ones, rely on a combination of critical elements. It starts with user input, where a user asks questions or prompts the chatbot through SMS, voice or some other interface. The chatbot then instantly analyzes the request using NLP techniques like tokenization, stemming and lemmatization to understand the meaning behind the request. 

Based on the NLP analysis, the bot will identify the goal or purpose of the query–is the user just chatting, do they want to book a flight or do they want to track an order? The bot will use intent recognition to decide and its internal logic and algorithms will determine the appropriate response based on the recognized intent. Sometimes this involves accessing a knowledge base, searching for relevant information or generating a creative response. 

How organizations use chatbots 

By and large, chatbots have become the go-to method for organizations to provide around-the-clock customer service. Customers expect 24/7 service and rapid resolution of issues. Chatbots give businesses an always-on channel to render service or support to customers and potential customers. They allow the organizations to qualify leads in real time and can help guide prospects directly to the products, services or information they’re looking for. Chatbots are also assisting organizations in improving user retention by providing immediate responses to customer inquiries and reducing wait times. 

Advanced chatbots deliver personalized experiences by remembering past interactions and preferences, a personal touch that makes customers feel valued and understood. In addition, many organizations also employ proactive chatbots that initiate conversations, upsell, offer help or suggest products or services a customer might not be familiar with. 

However, there are a few drawbacks. When an organization decides to employ a chatbot, the onus is on them to ensure that it provides valuable customer service and is customized for that purpose. A confusing or unhelpful chatbot may drive a customer away and damage an organization’s brand reputation. Also, organizations that don’t provide a connection to a live agent and rely solely on conversational chatbot technology might face adversity as customers become frustrated with their inability to speak with a person. 

The wide array of chatbots in the market today showcases the versatility and efficiency these tools bring to different industries. Lyro, for instance, is revolutionizing customer service with its deep learning capabilities, handling up to 80% of common inquiries and improving response times significantly. Kuki, available on Facebook Messenger, and Google’s Meena, set new standards in daily interaction and open-domain conversation with advanced language processing and context understanding. Ada, developed by ServiceNow offers a friendly and personal approach, often using emojis and GIFs to express empathy and humor. The variety of use extends to specialized bots like Domino’s Messenger Bot, simplifying food orders; Insomnobot 3000, providing quirky nighttime companionship; real estate chatbots that enhance property browsing; a slew of banking chatbots help users pay bills, check account balances and stay on top of their finances; Woebot, offering mental health support; and Buoy, aiding in medical triage. These use cases illustrate chatbots’ growing role in improving user experience, streamlining operations and providing support across sectors. 

But the benefits extend far beyond automation. Chatbots are quickly becoming co-workers for human agents, pre-populating necessary information and highlighting urgent issues so agents can focus on solving complex problems and emotionally charged situations. With global reach and 24/7 availability, chatbots can break down language barriers and provide instant support, building trust and satisfaction at all levels. By combining AI insights with sentiment analysis, companies more quickly understand the customer journey, identify customer pain points, improve offerings and predict needs before they arise. 

Best chatbot examples for enterprise businesses 

Customer service 

Customer service chatbots provide a seamless experience and enhance customer and employee satisfaction. These AI-driven assistants offer support across web and mobile platforms, making them readily accessible to most people. 

Chatbots also play a crucial role in gathering customer feedback automatically, a vital aspect of service improvement. Furthermore, they help customers track orders and check on their shipped items, adding transparency and trust to the buying process. Online sellers like Amazon have extended chatbot automation to refund and exchange processes, streamlining operations and reducing manual intervention throughout the sales journey. 

Standard chatbots, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are becoming increasingly crucial for enterprises in enhancing customer service and business operations. Their popularity stems from the ability to engage customers quickly with website content and self-service support options, reducing the need for face-to-face interaction with service representatives. This capability allows customers to solve problems on demand and reduces the workload on service teams, enabling companies to expand their customer support team’s bandwidth. 

Some organizations use chatbots to proactively engage customers and inform them about available help, offering immediate support upon a user’s site visit and guiding users through the site, tailoring the customer experience to their needs. Some businesses integrate their chatbots with a knowledge base for efficient support query handling, while others use chatbots to determine customer needs before routing complex issues to their support team and human agents. 

Employee enhancement 

Internally, virtual assistants and AI tools assist with employee support, answering queries and providing timely information. Chatbots liberate customer service reps from the time-consuming task of answering basic questions, which typically consume 70-80% of their workday. By automating these tasks, chatbots enable faster customer responses and free up reps for more proactive support roles. This efficiency improves customer satisfaction and presents a cost-effective pricing solution for understaffed service teams, as chatbots do not require salaries like real-life human agents. 

Sales and marketing 

Chatbots are helpful in automating lead generation in sales, enabling robust marketing campaigns and ensuring a consistent flow of potential customers by collecting information from website visitors or mobile app users upfront and converting anonymous site visitors into leads. They nurture these leads effectively, providing timely and relevant information to guide them through the sales funnel. 

Chatbots facilitate easy booking and scheduling appointments, simplifying the interaction between the business and the customer. Moreover, they offer personalized recommendations that enable customers to purchase online at their convenience, increasing conversion rates and aligning with the growing e-commerce trend. 

Chatbots offer enhanced customer engagement for marketing efforts, creating interactive and personalized experiences. They are increasingly used for automated news aggregation, helping businesses stay ahead of global news and trends, which is crucial for timely and relevant marketing strategies. Additionally, e-commerce chatbots provide automated product recommendations based on users’ interests, improving the overall shopping experience and boosting sales. 

Chatbots have become central in the domain of social media engagement and messaging platforms. They form the backbone of business messaging, facilitating efficient and effective communication both internally within organizations and externally with customers.

Human resources 

In human resources, chatbots streamline recruitment through automated pre-screening, efficiently filtering candidates and saving time. They offer conversational onboarding and interactive FAQs, providing instant answers to common questions and customer queries, thereby enhancing the candidate and employee experience. Moreover, chatbots provide automated progress updates, keeping candidates informed and engaged throughout the recruitment process. 

Overall, chatbots are transforming various aspects of business operations, offering efficiency, enhancing customer and employee experiences and contributing significantly to the digital transformation of enterprises.

How to best implement a chatbot for your business 

Implementing a chatbot within an organization requires careful planning and consideration. What follows are best practices an organization should consider when implementing a chatbot successfully. 

1. Define your goals and objectives: Be clear about what your organization wants the chatbot to achieve. Is it for customer service, employee assistance, internal information retrieval or something else? Having well-defined goals will guide your development and implementation process. 

2. Identify your target audience: Understand who will interact with the chatbot. What are their needs, expectations and preferred communication styles? Tailoring the chatbot’s tone and capabilities to your audience is crucial for user adoption and satisfaction. 

3. Choose the right chatbot platform: Research different platforms and tools based on the organization’s needs, budget and technical expertise. Consider factors like scalability, security, integrations and ease of use. 

4. Design the chatbot experience: Plan the flow of your chatbot’s conversation. Create user stories and map out potential scenarios to ensure intuitive interaction and efficient resolution of user queries. 

5. Develop the chatbot: This can involve building a knowledge base, scripting dialogues and training the AI model (if using a machine learning chatbot). Make sure the chatbot’s language is clear, concise and error-free. 

6. Testing and refinement: Rigorously test the chatbot before deployment. Identify and address any bugs or inconsistencies. Gather user feedback and refine the chatbot based on their experience. 

7. Launch and promotion: Develop a communication plan to introduce the chatbot to your target audience. Provide users with clear instructions on how to access and interact with it. 

8. Monitor and maintain: Monitor the chatbot’s performance and gather user feedback. Analyze data to identify areas for improvement and update the chatbot’s knowledge base and responses as needed. 

Additional important chatbot considerations

• Data privacy and security: Ensure your chatbot adheres to privacy regulations and securely protects user information. 
• Accessibility: Make your chatbot accessible to users with disabilities. 
• Human oversight: Remember, chatbots are not a replacement for human interaction. Ensure you have human support agents who can handle complex issues or situations where the chatbot struggles. 

By utilizing these resources and frameworks, organizations can confidently integrate chatbots into their operations and unlock tangible improvements in communication channels between customers and businesses. Allowing organization to answer questions and schedule appointments more easily, as well as offer more personalized recommendations to boost user satisfaction and sales. These are just a glimpse of the possibilities and with careful planning and implementation, your business can reap the rewards of a well-designed and deployed chatbot.

Learn more about IBM watsonx Assistant, a conversational AI platform that can help your business build and deploy AI-powered voice agents and chatbots.