AI chatbot
An AI chatbot is software that holds a text conversation with people and writes its replies using artificial intelligence, usually a large language model, instead of following a fixed script. It can understand questions phrased in many different ways and, when connected to a knowledge base, answer from a specific organization's own information.
Example
A visitor on a bakery's website types "do you do gluten free birthday cakes?" and the chatbot replies with the options and lead time listed on the bakery's custom-orders page.
Why it matters for a website chatbot
On a website, an AI chatbot replaces the long scroll through FAQ pages with a direct answer. Older rule-based bots only matched keywords and broke on unexpected wording. ChatBento is an AI chatbot trained on your own pages, docs and Q&As, and it answers only from that content.
See it in practice: After-hours support
Related terms
- Large language model (LLM)A large language model (LLM) is an AI model trained on very large amounts of text to predict and generate language. It can answer questions, summarize, translate and write. Its general knowledge comes from training data with a cutoff date, so it needs supplied documents to answer accurately about a specific business.
- Conversational AIConversational AI is the field of technology that lets computers hold natural conversations with people in text or speech. It combines language understanding, dialogue management and language generation, and powers chatbots, voice assistants and phone systems that respond to what people say rather than to fixed menu choices.
- AI agentAn AI agent is an AI system that works toward a goal by deciding on steps and taking actions, such as calling tools, searching data or updating records, rather than only producing a reply. In customer support, the term is also used loosely for any AI that answers customers on a company's behalf.
- Chat widgetA chat widget is the small interface embedded on a website, usually a round button in a bottom corner, that opens a chat window when clicked. It connects visitors to a chatbot, live agents or both, and is normally added to a site with a short JavaScript snippet or a platform plugin.