An AI Chatbot or ‘bot’ is a computer program or an Artificial Intelligence software that can simulate a real human conversation with real-time responses to users based on reinforced learning. These computer programs use text messages, voice commands, or both. AI robots use a natural language to communicate with Artificial Intelligence features embedded in them. 

The main aim of creating AI chatbots is to help customers make better-informed decisions and are designed to have conversations with humans. These conversations range from the rudimentary to the more advanced ones like Alexa. 

Here are some things chatbots can do: 

• Hold a human-like conversation 
• Answer user questions 
• Collect and analyze data 
• Guide users through processes 

• Use predictive analytics to provide personalized services to the users & so much more. This is not an exhaustive list. 

Chatbots can help organizations smoothen their operations, engage customers, and handle requests and complaints faster. They can help to: 

• Increase operational efficiency by allowing humans to spend more time on complex tasks; 

• Improve customer experience by providing 24/7 support; 
• Shorten response time with instantly replies to multiple users simultaneously; 
• Reduce costs by handling a larger volume of requests without any additional spend; 
• Analyze market and customer data to offer instant insights and recommendations that meet the audience’s needs; 
• Pre-qualify leads and support issues to provide context to live agents; 

• Drive more sales by actively engaging potential customers with personalized experiences; 
• Decrease human error since bots are pulling standardized information instantly from a database.
  
  Chatbots help companies increase their responsiveness and personalization abilities which, in turn, leads to better customer engagement and satisfaction. 

Chatbots are a big part of many companies’ digital transformation efforts, so there’s no reason to assume your company will never need one. However, implementing a chatbot should come only after you have a clear idea of the challenges it’ll help you resolve. 

In general, a chatbot is a good idea when: 

• Your support team spends too much time on repetitive requests from customers. 
• You can’t afford or don’t want to have 24/7 human support. 
• You’re looking for a way to engage visitors of your site who have come to view content. 

• You want an automated way for users to find products or check stock availability in real time. 
• You want a way to qualify leads before salespeople can reach out to them. 
• You want to increase the number of channels you engage your audience on and your team is insufficiently staffed. 
• You want to offer a way for your customers to check their accounts and get advice without having to engage live agents. 
• You want to offer better customer experience by providing an intelligent, personalized assistant to your customers.