What is a chatbot?
A chatbot is software designed to converse with people using natural language. Early chatbots followed rigid, rule-based scripts; modern ones are powered by large language models and can handle open-ended, freeform conversation.
Rule-based vs AI chatbots
- Rule-based chatbots follow predefined paths — "Press 1 for billing, 2 for support." They're predictable but brittle.
- AI chatbots understand intent from whatever the user types and generate flexible responses, often drawing on company knowledge bases or documents.
What they're for
Chatbots are used for customer support, lead capture, internal employee help, scheduling, and as front-ends to more complex AI agents. A well-built AI chatbot can deflect a large share of routine questions while routing the rest to humans.
Choosing a chatbot
The best chatbot depends on the use case. For simple triage, a rule-based bot may be enough. For handling nuanced questions, an LLM-powered bot grounded in your actual content is far more capable — but it needs guardrails, accurate sources, and an easy path to a human when it hits its limits.