
This allows businesses to create chatbots that are completely tailored to their business and industry.
INTERCOM CHATBOT SOFTWARE
Some vendors may provide only the APIs or software development kit (SKD) needed to build the chatbots. This type of software includes the tools needed for developers to build their own chatbots along with pre-designed chatbots themselves. The third type of chatbot technology is often called conversational platforms, conversational AI, or chatbot builders. These types of chatbots can also be found in our AI Virtual Sales Assistant software category, which provides a narrower look at chatbots designed specifically for sales. Using Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NPL) technology, these chatbots learn from all of the exchanges they have over time to provide customers or application users with better and more contextual information. Rather than providing a simplistic rules-based interface, these types of applications rely on artificial intelligence technology to respond to customer inquiries in a personalized way. Intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) can be thought of as the next level of chatbot technology. However, simplistic chatbots usually have the capability to escalate an exchange to a human agent if a request is too complex. While these chatbots are great for companies that handle a large volume of routine or repetitive customer inquiries, their ability to deal with more complex or nuanced requests is quite limited. These types of chatbots allow web visitors or application users to select a specific question to ask, which is then answered by the chatbot. The simplest type of chatbot is a rules-based conversational interface that can engage individuals in a basic exchange. However, there are differences between the complexity and level of artificial intelligence used across these platforms. Names for this type of software like chatbots, conversational AI, virtual customer assistants, intelligent virtual assistants, digital assistants, etc are sometimes used interchangeably. There are a few different types of chatbot platforms, chatbot builders, or intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) that fall under the ‘chatbot’ umbrella. This allows SDRs and marketers to spend their time on more high-value activities, such as nurturing leads identified by the chatbot. Chatbots are often used by sales and marketing teams to help engage early-stage prospects and qualify new leads. This frees up more time for agents to focus on more complex requests.

In the customer service industry, chatbots help resolve simple and routine customer inquiries. Virtual assistants and chatbots are especially well suited for companies and individuals working in the customer service industry, sales teams, marketing teams, and customer success teams.
However, even though certain chatbots are marketed towards specific end-users, the underlying technology is the same. For example, chatbots can be designed for use by sales reps, marketers, eCommerce websites, internal employee requests, or customer service agents. Many vendors that provide chatbots, conversational platforms, or virtual assistants market them to a specific type of user or department. Chatbots can be programmed to respond to specific key phrases or questions, or carry out more complex conversations about various topics.Ĭhatbots can be deployed on website landing pages, mobile applications, or messaging platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat, etc.

They conduct online exchanges web visitors or customers via text or text-to-speech.

