Chatbots are automated dialogues. One of the biggest benefits of technology is that chatbots can be extremely successful in customer service for businesses. But they are not limited to that! They have similar potential for the entire field of digital communication, depending on the type of chatbot you use.
Basically, there are different types of chatbots. Generally, you can distinguish between two types of chatbots: rule-based chatbots and AI bots.
Types of chatbots by operating model
- Button bots
- AI bots
- Omnichannel chatbots
Button-based bots are also called menu bots or feed bots. The interaction with the end user is done through a predefined knowledge base and technical capabilities that can only respond appropriately through specific scripts. In this case, the requests must be aligned with the language programmed in the bot, so the developers have automated this functionality with menu buttons that start the execution of each scenario.
Chatbot assistants:
Chatbot assistants are more or less a middle ground between the above two points. When they know a little about a range of topics, they perform better. Many people hope that one day these bots will become browsers along with all the other bots that exist now. Assistant chatbots, while being as entertaining as possible, should be conversational and answer almost anything.
Suppose a person wants to pay a bill, the virtual assistant will help the user to connect with the banker’s assistant.
Siri is a beautiful current example. Although she does so many things and is phenomenal in virtual assistants, people constantly ask her stuff just because the response she gives seems to be humorous even when she doesn’t carry out the command.
Conversational AI Chatbots
AI-powered chatbots combine the power of machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) to understand context and intent of a question before formulating an answer.
Such conversational AI bots generate their own answers to more complex questions using natural language responses. The more you use and train these bots, the more they learn and the better they work with the user.
Rules-Based Chatbots
Rules-based bots are able to respond to queries based on a predefined set of rules embedded in them. The complexity of the rule can vary greatly from a simple set to an advanced set. Usually it depends on the area of activity, the tasks that the company wants to solve using the bot and the resources (money, people).
These bots are built on an if/then conditional basis, which makes them really easy to train. Thus, you don’t have to spend a fortune to implement such a bot – just write a script.