Chatbot

The core problem chatbots solve is the cost and complexity of providing 24/7 customer support. Traditionally, every customer question required a human agent—expensive, slow, and impossible to scale during peak hours. A chatbot is like hiring a tireless customer service representative who never sleeps, never gets frustrated, and costs a fraction of a full-time employee.

Think of chatbots on a spectrum. On one end are simple rule-based bots: if a customer types 'refund,' the bot automatically responds with your refund policy. These are like decision trees—useful but rigid. On the other end are AI-powered chatbots (often called conversational AI) that use large language models to understand context, handle nuance, and even detect emotion. These feel more like talking to a real person.

In marketing practice, chatbots show up everywhere: on your website answering pre-purchase questions, in your email automating responses to common inquiries, on social media handling customer service, and in your sales funnel qualifying leads. A prospect lands on your site at 2 AM asking about pricing—a chatbot engages them immediately, answers questions, and captures their contact information for your sales team.

The practical implication for buying AI tools is this: not all chatbots are created equal. Some are cheap but dumb (rule-based only). Others are powerful but require significant setup and training data. When evaluating a chatbot solution, ask: Can it handle off-script questions? Does it integrate with your CRM? Can it escalate to humans when needed? Does it learn from conversations? The best chatbots for marketing combine automation efficiency with enough intelligence to feel natural and actually solve customer problems.