Top 15 AI chatbots for customer service

Customer service chatbots

Artificial intelligence (AI) is radically transforming the customer service industry, creating new opportunities and new challenges. Modern communication tools enable your support team to deliver a seamless omnichannel experience faster than ever. But your customers also expect more than ever. As technology evolves, the majority of customers expect faster service and better personalization.

A conversational AI chatbot helps your customer support team rise to the challenge by delivering instant answers and personalized interactions—anytime, via any channel. What are the best AI chatbots for customer service? How do they transform your CX? And which solution is right for your growing business?

What is a customer service chatbot?

A customer service chatbot is a computer program that responds in real-time to customer questions and requests through a live chat interface.

Traditional chatbots are rules-based or menu-based, meaning they provide scripted answers based on keywords in user queries. A conversational AI chatbot doesn’t follow a script — it leverages natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to interpret human language and context, and to respond in a conversational, human-sounding way.

AI support bots are also equipped with machine learning (ML) capabilities, so they can extract information from your knowledge base, FAQ pages, customer relationship management (CRM) software, and internet articles to formulate a relevant response to users’ questions. ML also enables bots to “learn” and improve over time. Like a human agent, the more data it has at its disposal, and the more experience it has answering customer questions, the better it performs.

AI customer service chatbots don’t replace human reps; they support your agents. Good chatbots can seamlessly hand off customer interactions to agents when users have complex issues that require advanced expertise or a human touch.

The 15 best customer service chatbots in 2024

What are the best chatbot software solutions for customer service organizations to leverage in 2024? 

1. Freshworks Customer Service Suite

The Freshworks Customer Service Suite live chat software includes a no-code visual chatbot builder you can leverage to create conversational support bots for your website, mobile app, social media platforms, and third-party messaging apps.

Features

• AI-powered chatbot software

• Multilingual

• Sentiment analysis and intent detection

• Chatbot analytics

• Major integrations with other Freshworks products and popular third-party messaging apps and collaboration software

• Advanced Freshworks Customer Service Suite features that improve customer satisfaction

Price

Free AI chatbots for up to 100 agents (learn more about paid plans here)

Trial

Free 21-day trial

See for yourself why customers rave about Freshworks Customer Service Suite’s intuitive, powerful chatbot software

Request a demo

2. Ultimate

The Ultimate customer support automation platform enables you to build a customized AI chatbot for your social media and messaging apps.

Features

• Support in 109 languages

• Personalized CX at scale

• Easy-to-use, no-code platform

• Suite of automation products

Price

Contact Ultimate for pricing.

3. Zendesk bots

Formerly known as Answer Bot, Zendesk bots come in two categories: standard (scripted) and advanced (AI-powered).

Features

• Simple to set up for existing Zendesk users

• Includes standard bots as part of Zendesk Suite

• Delivers instant answers 24/7 via messaging, email, live chat, and ticket forms

• Standard plan covers up to 1,000 monthly active users

Price

Zendesk Suite Team starts at $55 per agent/month.

Trial

14-day free trial

4. Netomi

Netomi is an AI-powered chatbot platform designed for customer service teams.

Features

• Comprehensive conversational AI

• Rich, proactive messaging

• Free text and form input

• Menus and suggestions

• Integrations with messaging apps, CX platforms, and contact center software

Price

Contact Netomi for pricing.

5. Zowie

Zowie is a customer service automation platform focused on chatbot support.

Features

• Built for ecommerce brands

• Historical ticket analysis

• Analyzes customer feedback

• Support in more than 175 languages

Price

Zowie offers three plans, including two free options. Contact Zowie for custom bot pricing.

6. Ada

Ada is an AI-powered customer service automation platform with a no-code chatbot builder.

Features

• Easy to understand, drag-and-drop UI

• Proactive messaging

• Supports more than 100 languages

• Skills-based routing to human support agents

Price

Contact Ada for pricing.

7. Einstein

Salesforce’s AI chatbot, Einstein, focuses on sales and customer service and is only available to Salesforce CRM users.

Features

• Point-and-click bot builder UI

• Workflow automation capabilities

• Integrates with SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and other messaging services

Price

Available as a Salesforce add-on for $50 per agent/month

Trial

30-day free trial

8. IBM watsonx Assistant

The watsonx Assistant (formerly Watson Assistant) is IBM’s chatbot API, which lets you add chat widgets to any channel.

Features

• Low-code, drag-and-drop chatbot builder

• Conversation editor and text summarization

• Human in-the-loop

• Runs on public clouds, including IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft

Price

A lite version of watsonx Assistant is available for free. The next tier starts at $140/month.

Trial

30-day free trial

9. Boost.ai

Boost.ai is a cloud-based or on-prem conversational AI platform designed for customer service.

Features

• Easy-to-use, no-code bot builder

• Automated customer support workflows

• Chatbot analytics

Price

Contact Boost for pricing.

Trial

30-day free trial

10. Zoom Virtual Agent

Formerly Solvvy, the chatbot was acquired in 2022 by Zoom and relaunched as Zoom Virtual Agent. It is available as an add-on to Zoom Contact Center or as a standalone offering. 

Features

• Easy integration with Zoom CRM

• Knowledge base with searchable articles

• Community forums

• Mobile optimization

Price

Contact Zoom for pricing.

11. Intercom

Intercom is an all-in-one customer service automation platform that offers live chat and a chatbot widget.

Features

• Quick and easy to set up

• Out-of-the-box bots or custom solutions

• Agent chatbot monitoring capabilities

• Agent escalation

Price

Starts at $74/month

Trial

14-day free trial

12. Forethought AI

Forethought is a generative customer support tool designed to be a self-service add-on for helpdesk software. It includes the Agatha chatbot API.

Features

• Integrates with many helpdesk platforms

• Enables workflow automations

• Agent assist/escalation

Price

Contact Forethought for pricing.

13. Certainly

Certainly is an AI chatbot platform built exclusively for e-commerce brands.

Features

• Easy out-of-the-box solution

• No-code template integrations

• Native integrations with popular helpdesk software and CRM solutions

• Plug-and-play Shopify integration

Price

Contact Certainly for pricing.

14. Gladly Sidekick

Formerly Thankful, the Sidekick AI chatbot was recently acquired and relaunched by Gladly, a live chat solution for e-commerce businesses.

Features

• Generative AI and no-code automation

• Enables self-service e-commerce

• Executes transactions, returns, and exchanges

• Agent escalation

Price

Starts at $150 per agent/month

15. Landbot

Landbot is an AI chatbot generator designed to automate marketing, sales, and customer service conversations.

Features

• Available for websites and WhatsApp

• No-code interface

• Easy integrations

Price

Landbot offers five pricing plans, starting with a free tier for individuals. Paid plans range from $45 to $450 per month.

Trial

7-day free trial

Benefits of AI chatbots for customer service

Deploying an AI chatbot for customer service streamlines both the customer and employee experience and improves business outcomes.

Agent benefits

Chatbots provide human support agents with:

• Context into conversations: When chatbots pass conversations along to human agents, they also provide the details of the conversation thus far, including order history and previous interactions, so agents can quickly resolve the issue without asking customers to repeat themselves.

• Guided workflows: Even during agent/customer conversations, the chatbot can work behind the scenes—retrieving information for the agent, suggesting next steps or answers to customer questions, and generally guiding the agent workflow.

• Productivity boost: By deflecting some tickets and guiding agents through the resolution of other tickets, chatbots boost customer support team productivity and effectiveness.

• Performance improvements: Advanced chatbot solutions generate analysis for each customer conversation, helping to train customer service reps on how to improve their responses in the future.

Customer benefits

Chatbots provide customers with:

• Faster response times: Chatbots deflect simple queries, such as “What's your refund policy?”. They can detect intent and offer the right FAQ article, ensuring customers receive prompt resolutions on the channel of their choice. 

• Personalized responses: Chatbots can access customer information in an instant, and generative AI makes conversations feel more personal and engaging.

• Guidance through the customer journey: Interactive chatbots can help customers navigate websites and mobile apps, learn how to use products or software, book services, or complete transactions.

Business benefits

Chatbots provide your business with:

• Scaled support (without scaling costs): By improving agent productivity, your customer support team can do more with fewer agents. And with no-code chatbot builders, admins can create chatbots and get them up and running in no time—without needing to invest in developers and designers.

• Content improvements: As smart chatbots learn from the knowledge base, they recognize gaps in the available resources. If the chatbot receives questions to which it doesn’t find answers, it will alert customer service teams to the missing information so they can fill in those gaps with relevant content.

• Performance improvements: Chatbots analyze and learn from each interaction and deliver insights about how to improve the customer experience going forward.

Freshworks Customer Service Suite conversational support benchmark report 2023 Get the report

Key features of the best customer service chatbots

There are many AI customer service chatbots available on the market today, with varying features, functions, and capabilities to fit different business needs. But the best support bots have a few things in common. At a minimum, your chatbot should be able to:

Work seamlessly across channels

Customer service happens on different channels, but to customers, it’s all one brand experience. Customers expect to be able to connect with your brand via phone or email, web browser or mobile app, and third-party messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. They also expect you to recognize them, however they reach out.

A good support bot can be integrated into all these channels and access customer information from all of them. This enables you to deliver a consistent, omnichannel customer journey. 

Hand-over to live support agents

AI chatbots can answer questions, automate repetitive tasks, and even complete transactions, but some complex issues require a human agent. If your chatbot isn’t capable of routing interactions to a live agent, the customer has to switch channels for support, which adds friction to the customer journey.

The best chatbot software enables a seamless hand-off to live agents. Not only does it automatically transfer the conversation, but it provides the agent with all the relevant customer information so users don’t have to repeat themselves.

Integrate with your helpdesk and convert conversations to tickets

Bots for customer service are most valuable when integrated into your helpdesk ecosystem. This way, if a chatbot can’t solve the problem or if the customer request takes a long time to resolve (like a product exchange or software bug), it can convert the conversation into a ticket. Then your customer care team can record context, collaborate internally, and close the ticket when the issue is resolved.

The most advanced chatbots can also convert tickets into workflows. For example, the Freshworks AI engine can identify recurring tickets and build bot flows to address them.

Mukesh Mirchandani, senior vice president of global solution engineering at Freshworks, provides the following example: “Imagine there’s an airline that flies out of a major city. A big storm comes in, and suddenly hundreds of flights get canceled. Now you’re going to have thousands of people calling and saying, ‘Book me on the next flight.’ Freshworks has the ability, in real-time, to see that you’re getting those types of tickets, construct a bot flow that automatically rebooks those customers, and deploys that bot flow across channels. That would take hours and hours for human beings to deploy, but the AI can do it in minutes.”

Integrate with your self-service portal

You shouldn’t have to create two different knowledge bases, one for your website and one for your customer service bots. Choose chatbot software that easily integrates with your existing knowledge base and self-service portal.

Not only does this prevent duplication of effort, but it also enables your chatbots to help your team fill the gaps in your knowledge base.

Automate workflows

Good AI support bots don’t just answer customer questions; they can also fulfill many customer requests without human intervention. This requires automation capabilities and deep integration with other key business software.

For example, depending on your business model, you might want your chatbot to be able to: 

• Collect and update contact information in your CRM

• Schedule appointments or reservations in your calendar or booking system

• Authenticate and process transactions in your payment system

• Update information or apply discounts from your loyalty rewards program

• Start or update services in your SaaS solution

• Trigger personalized campaigns in your marketing automation platform

• Schedule tech support in your IT ticketing system

• Perform other repetitive tasks that human customer service reps would typically do for customers

Provide chatbot analytics

The best chatbots don’t just offer insights to customers; they offer insights to your business. Chatbot analytics act as a feedback loop, enabling you to gauge the effectiveness of your support bots, improve bot performance, and better understand your customer journey.

A good chatbot should track:

• Total interactions

• Average chat duration

• Goal completion rate

• Missed utterances

• Human takeover rate

• Customer satisfaction score

• Retention rate

Choosing the right chatbot software for your needs

What should you consider when selecting an AI chatbot for customer service? Ask these questions to determine if a solution will meet your needs:

• Business size: Large enterprises and SMBs have different needs and different budgets. Does this chatbot solution meet your needs? Can it be right-sized for your business, or will you be forced to pay for bells and whistles you don’t need?

• Scalability: As your business grows, will it be able to handle the increased traffic you hope to have? Will you be able to add the features and capabilities you need in the future?

• Industry expertise: Some chatbot solutions are designed specifically for certain industries while others work for any type of business. Does this vendor have experience working with companies like yours? Does it understand your audience and business needs?

• Automations: What type of workflows do you need to automate, and can this solution enable you to do so?

• Integrations: Does this solution enable easy integrations with your CRM, marketing automation platform, payment system, and any other key technology?

• Security and privacy: If your chatbot will be accessing sensitive customer information, it needs to meet the highest security standards. Does this vendor have strict security protocols? Does it comply with the data privacy laws that govern your industry and the regions in which you do business?

• Ease of use: What does it take to deploy this chatbot solution across your channels? Does the vendor offer a chatbot builder that makes it easy to create a customized bot and a chatbot API that simplifies bot deployment?

How to create a customer service AI chatbot

Creating a customer service chatbot involves several steps, from planning and design to implementation and deployment.

• Know your chatbot goals: Clearly define the purpose of your chatbot. Are you looking to provide basic customer support, answer frequently asked questions, assist with product recommendations, enable self-service transactions, or something else?

• Personalize your greetings: Use fields like “first name” to customize every interaction and engage users right from the start.

• Design conversational flows: You don’t have to script AI bots, but designing a conversational flow helps to ensure the interaction sounds natural and yields relevant content. Consider the various user interactions, potential paths, and how the chatbot will respond to different inputs.

• Simplify the user experience: Use buttons, menus, and suggested replies to make it easy for customers to get their queries resolved as quickly as possible.

• Use FAQs to inform conversations: By integrating your bot with your FAQs, you enable it to answer the questions directly in the chat, rather than sending users to your FAQs page.

• Monitor and maintain: Continuously monitor your chatbot's performance and user interactions. Survey users about their chatbot experience, and leverage chatbot analytics (including intent analytics, messaging analytics, and usage data) to keep improving your chatbot. Regularly update the chatbot's responses based on new information and user feedback.

• Provide escalation options: Chatbots can handle most inquiries, but sometimes human intervention is necessary. Ensure customers have a clear and easy way to escalate to a human agent.

Examples of customer service chatbots

There are many different chatbot use cases for many different industries, including:

E-commerce and retail

• Iba Cosmetics: Iba Cosmetics uses the Freshworks Customer Service Suite Freddy chatbot to communicate with customers after hours, collect their information, and tee up the conversation for an agent to take over first thing the next morning. This contributed to a 260% increase in online sales since Iba deployed Freshworks Customer Service Suite.

• Dunzo: Dunzo, an all-in-one 24x7 delivery platform, uses Freshworks Customer Service Suite’s AI & ML chatbots to offer low-touch customer service by automating repeated queries, sharing delivery partner and order details, and processing cancellation and refund requests. This led to saving of 30% in the support cost.

Travel & hospitality

• Travix: Travix, a leading global travel company, uses Freddy (renamed Travis) to help customers with its six most common queries: cancellation, changes, luggage, online check-in, travel document request, and refund status checks. Travis can resolve three of them without human intervention. For the other three, it begins the interaction, collects customer information, and routes the conversation to an available live agent.

• Wadi Degla: Freddy assists Wadi Degla’s two-person support team by offloading some of its 5,000 monthly interactions. Freddy answers FAQs, collects customer information, and routes conversations to agents when necessary. 

• Musafir: Musafir, a premium travel-experiences firm in the UAE, uses support bots to generate leads and collect prospect information when human travel agents are offline. This custom bot flow has increased Musafir’s offline leads by 15%.

Financial services

• PhonePe: PhonePe, a digital payment platform in India, leverages Freddy to answer FAQs, deflecting 80% of customer queries without agent intervention. PhonePe also uses the Freddy agent-assist bot to provide agents with customer context, guided workflows, and next best actions.

• Large creditor: One of the largest credit card companies in the world uses a customized Freshworks Customer Service Suite bot on its mobile app and Apple Business Chat. The chatbot fetches information from various internal systems and answers customer account questions instantly (vs three minutes with agents). This has saved more than 10,000 agent hours and enabled customer service to scale chat volumes 10x without adding new agents.

• Mama Money: Mama Money, a social money transfer platform, leverages bots on WhatsApp to answer basic questions and direct complex queries to agents. Using Freshworks Customer Service Suite and bots has enabled the firm to improve SLA resolution by 40%.

More AI customer service chatbots in action: Freshworks Customer Service Suite case studies

• Klarna wows its 80M customers with instant responses and rapid resolutions with Freshworks Customer Service Suite
• Doctaly uses Freshworks Customer Service Suite to reduce COVID-19 consultation time from 25 minutes to 4 minutes
• NuDebt increases revenue by 40% with Freshworks Customer Service Suite’s WhatsApp API

Tips for managing your AI customer service bots

Consider these chatbot best practices as you leverage support bots to deliver a personalized, omnichannel customer service experience:

• Design the right tone for your bot: Give your bot some personality while keeping in mind its purpose: to provide customer service and enable self-service. Consider how you want your bot to “sound.” Is it formal and authoritative, or conversational and empathetic?

• Choose your messaging channels: Decide where you want to deploy your support bots. Which channels do your customers currently use for live chat? Do they frequent channels your business isn’t using? Bots enable you to scale support without adding new agents, so you might have the bandwidth to leverage more channels than before. (SOURCE: Freshworks Customer Service Suite Benchmark Report 2023)

• Optimize for mobile: If you’re building a bot for your mobile app, consider how the user experience might be different on a smaller screen with on-the-move users. Keep this in mind while designing the look-and-feel and conversation flow of your mobile bot.

• Use your chatbot as a translator: AI customer service chatbots “speak” far more languages than any of your agents, so they enable you to serve a more global customer base.

• Connect the right content: The more information your bot can access, the more services it can provide. Build a knowledge base, write a robust FAQs page, design a self-service portal. If you already have these resources, polish them up and integrate them with your new bot, enabling it to deflect basic customer queries.

Enable continual improvements: Leverage chatbot analytics and user feedback to continuously adapt, update, and upgrade the user experience with your support bots.

6 Essential KPIs for measuring your chatbot performance

How do you measure chatbot performance? The metrics that matter include:

1. Average response times: How quickly does your bot respond to each customer query?

2. Average resolution time: How long does it take your chatbot to resolve the average query?

3. Number of resolved conversations: What percentage of queries can the bot resolve on its own, without human intervention?

4. Customer satisfaction: How do users rate their interactions with your bot?

5. Ticket volumes: How many tickets does your bot deflect? 

6. Agent hours saved: By deflecting tickets, how much time do your chatbots save your live agents?

Monitoring these metrics enables you to gauge chatbot effectiveness so you can continually upgrade your bot and your customer experience.