When your customers need tech support, they need it fast. But not every ticket requires your best IT specialists. Your best AI chatbot can often get the job done faster, freeing up human agents to respond to more complicated incidents faster, thus improving your IT department’s resolution time and user experience.
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Using AI Chatbots for Your Business
An AI chatbot can provide immediate, 24/7, personalized support for everything from resetting passwords and performing basic troubleshooting, to searching your knowledge base and answering FAQs, to procuring new devices and configuring them remotely. And these are just a handful of the many chatbot examples and use cases.
Unlike old-school (rules-based) chatbots that require a script for every possible user interaction, the AI tools of today just require a lot of data. If you have a robust knowledge base, your chatbot starts out smart, and because it “learns” from each user interaction, it gets smarter and smarter. Over time, it can solve more problems more quickly, which improves user engagement, boosts human agent productivity, and streamlines IT workflows.
“Imagine your AI analyzing the most common types of IT tickets logged, organizing the data for you, identifying the most common types of tickets, and automating the resolution using a bot flow,” says Mukesh Mirchandani, Senior Vice President of Global Solution Engineering at Freshworks. “Imagine the artificial intelligence then deploying the bot flow across the company’s messaging channels. You can execute analyses, builds, and deployments (that typically take days or weeks) in a matter of minutes.”
Fast Facts About Chatbots
- 67% of worldwide consumers interacted with a chatbot to get customer support over the past 12 months. (Invesp)
- 1/4 of organizations will rely on chabots as their primary service channel by 2027 —Gartner
- 2.5 billion hours of work will be saved by chatbots in 2023 —Juniper Research
- $11 billion saved by chatbots —Juniper Research
Evaluating AI Chatbots
Not so long ago, chatbots were a novelty—and often a nuisance to users who struggled to get useful information from script-reading bots. Modern AI chatbots are much more effective, and users are increasingly willing to interact with them, often preferring to chat with a bot than wait in a queue or wait until normal business hours.
As a result, the chatbot market has grown exponentially in recent years, and businesses have more options than ever to choose from. But not all chatbot software is created equal. Before investing time and money in a chatbot, it’s important to consider which bot is actually best for your business.
Here’s what to consider when evaluating potential chatbot vendors:
Artificial intelligence
Not all chatbots are AI-enabled. Rules-based chatbots tend to be limited to simple automation, such as providing scripted answers to predefined questions, searching your knowledge base using specific keywords, and collecting user data.
Advanced AI-enabled bots leverage natural language processing and machine learning. Natural language understanding enables them to recognize intention (even if chatters don’t use the right keywords) and respond with personalized answers in a human-sounding way. They also leverage predictive analytics to anticipate users’ needs, so they can provide additional support users haven’t even asked for, solving future problems while they’re working on current ones.
Sentiment analysis
The best conversational AI chatbot solutions also leverage sentiment analysis, so the bot knows if it’s providing satisfactory answers or needs to change tactics. If a user is getting frustrated or annoyed, a good bot can immediately pass the conversation (and any data it has already collected) along to a human agent. This ensures a seamless experience, and users don’t have to repeat themselves.
Price
There are plenty of free versions of AI chatbots, but as with most things in business (and life), you get what you pay for. Most “free AI chatbots” aren’t actually AI-enabled. Even if a free plan does leverage basic conversational AI functionality, it probably won’t provide sentiment analysis or intelligent routing, enhance workflows, or easily integrate with your CRM or helpdesk software.
Different paid chatbot vendors offer different pricing strategies. Some charge a flat fee with surcharges for add-ons. Others offer a pay-as-you-go model where the price is determined based on cost-per-message, cost-per-chat, or cost-per-user. Different models will suit different business needs, so it’s important to consider which makes the most sense for your business—based on the number of users, the anticipated volume of user inquiries, and how many interactions are typically needed to resolve an incident.
Multichannel communication
The best AI chatbots can communicate with users via their preferred channels, so your employees don’t have to open a specific tool or log into your helpdesk system to chat with your bot. Look for an AI chatbot that can be integrated with all the digital channels employees already use to communicate with your IT department, and with each other. This includes preferred collaboration apps, such as Microsoft Team, Slack, and WhatsApp.
Easy access (low-code/no-code)
You shouldn’t need a team of developers to build and train your AI chatbot. Opt for a provider that has a customizable chat widget or an easy-to-use API that you can leverage to deploy your bot across channels. Or better yet, find an ITSM vendor with native chatbot functionality already built into the helpdesk platform (like the Freddy AI). Then all you have to do is feed it data to train it to answer FAQs using your preferred brand tone.
Integrations
The more data your chatbot can access, the smarter it becomes, and the more problems it can solve. Thus, integration with key business applications is one of the most important chatbot best practices. Before deploying a chatbot, make sure it can integrate seamlessly with other key business applications, especially your helpdesk system or ITSM software, identification and authentication systems, CRM, and any third-party messaging or collaboration apps that your team uses
Security and privacy
If a chatbot vendor can’t guarantee security and privacy law compliance, it’s not worth the risk to your business. Before choosing a vendor, learn as much as possible about how they encrypt and secure any data the chatbot collects and whether their solutions comply with all national and state-level privacy laws in the regions where you do business.
Scalability
Depending on the size of your team, you might have dozens or even hundreds of users who need chatbot access at the same time. Ideally, you want a chatbot solution that can manage all those interactions simultaneously, without crashing the server or slowing response time. Not all chatbots scale equally, so it’s important to discuss your needs (now and in the future) with potential vendors to ensure they can meet the demands of your growing business.
Personalization
Best-in-class chatbots deliver a personalized user experience. To do this, they must be able to access each user’s previous chat history, communicate in the user’s preferred language, and make recommendations based on the user’s past behavior. Free and consumer-grade chatbot solutions typically don’t enable the advanced systems integrations necessary for this level of service.
Agent assist
Robust business-grade chatbots don’t just assist users; they also assist agents. When the chatbot escalates user queries to agents, they provide the agent with any data they’ve already collected as well as contextual insights. They might also provide previous chat history records and links to relevant knowledge base articles. This information helps to boost agent productivity and improves the user experience.
Reliability
Your IT department and IT users will rely heavily on your chatbot, which means your business needs a reliable chatbot vendor. Before signing any dotted lines, check reviews or talk to existing customers to determine whether the provider delivers what they promise on schedule, how frequently the technology goes down, and how fast their maintenance team responds to customer requests and fixes reported bugs.
Data analytics
The best AI chatbots don’t just learn from your data; they share theirs. Look for solutions that offer dashboards with statistics that let you monitor chatbot KPIs and keyword trends. When this behavioral analysis data is extrapolated correctly, it provides actionable insights that can help you improve efficiency for both bots and human agents.
Best AI Chatbots of 2023
Leading AI chatbots basically do the same thing, but they do it in different ways, with varying features and functionality that appeal to different types of organizations. The best chatbot for your business is easy to deploy, user-friendly, fits your budget, and meets the needs of your growing business. Perhaps most importantly, it can be seamlessly integrated with your ITSM software and all the other business apps that your team relies on.
Check out this rundown of the best conversational AI chatbots on the market to discover your perfect fit:
Freshchat
Freshchat offers AI-driven, omnichannel chatbots that help IT departments streamline service delivery by automating resolutions, powering self-service, and providing human agents with contextual insights. Powered by the powerful Freshservice Freddy AI engine, Freshchat can be deployed as part of your ITSM platform or as a standalone tool.
Freshservice knows that businesses come in all shapes and sizes, and this best-in-class AI chatbot can be right-sized and customized to meet your unique needs. Freshservice has deep expertise working with partners across a wide variety of industries, from highly competitive industries like ecommerce and travel, to highly regulated industries like education, banking, and healthcare.
Freshchat Pricing
- 21-day free trial
- $0 for up to 10 agents
- $19 to $79 per agent/per month (depending on the features you choose)
Key Features
- Automated resolutions, where bots handle simple user interactions and follow-up in real-time without human agent intervention
- Intelligent routing, where bots collect all the required context and triage your conversations to the relevant agent groups
- Omnichannel support via your website and mobile app, as well as third-party messenger apps (WhatsApp, Instagram, LINE, FB Messenger, and Apple Business Chat, and more)
- Small talk responses rather than scripted robotic-sounding answers
- Simplified change management that lets you refine bot flows in a couple clicks—no code-level corrections required
- Agent handover, where bots seamlessly transfer users to suitable live agents with just one click and provide agents with relevant customer data and contextual insights
- Easy, fast deployment enabled by no-code builder and ready-to-use bot templates
- Bring-your-own-bot capabilities using Freshservice APIs to connect your homegrown bot to your Freshchat messenger and Team inbox
- Multilingual capabilities to support +30 languages
Why Customers Are Raving About Freshchat
“The incremental cost of reducing wait time from say 1 minute to a few seconds would be very high with any other technology or headcount investment. With Freshworks, Dunzo is able to resolve 48% of queries without human intervention enabling them to save 30% in support costs.” —Arvind Prashanth, Program Manager, Dunzo
“The intuitive and engaging chatbots extended beyond simple answers to offer intent-based solutions. Agents no longer had to engage in routine conversations with customers. Our timely switch to Freshchat has set us off on a path that will allow us to scale our business with tools that offer engagement and efficiency at affordable prices.” —Amr Onsy, Director of Customer Service, Wadi Degla SC
How Chatbots Improve IT Service Delivery
- 57.28% decrease in Average Resolution Time
- 47.25% decrease in Average First Response Time
- 27.84% increase in First Contact Resolution
- 5.26% increase in First Response SLA Percent
- 5.04% increase in Resolution SLA Percent
Not all chatbot solutions are the same. With so many solutions to choose from, how do you pick the best AI chatbot for your business?
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The Fin chatbot from Intercom is designed primarily for IT support, as well as sales and marketing teams. It helps businesses speed up customer resolutions, qualify leads, and grow your pipeline.
Pricing
- 14-day free trial
- Starts at $74/per month for small teams
- Custom pricing for large teams
Key Features
- AI-enhanced, omnichannel support
- Code-free bot builder for custom chatbots
- No-code automations and pre-built chat templates
- Intelligent triage and agent routing
- Easy integrations with +400 pre-built apps (no native app integrations)
Read more on Freshchat vs Intercom
Drift
The Drift chatbot is primarily focused on sales lead generation, targeted marketing, and customer support. It is designed to support customer-facing teams at different touch points throughout the buyer journey.
Pricing
- $2,500 per month for small businesses
- Custom pricing for enterprises
Key Features
- Targeted messaging to drive customer engagement and retention
- Lead generation and qualification to boost sales conversions
- Meeting scheduling templates for sales teams
- A/B testing to refine bot-driven marketing campaigns
Zendesk Chat
Zendesk Chat is part of the Zendesk Suite platform, a customer service software solution for businesses of all sizes. It enables businesses to incorporate Zendesk’s Answer Bot, use Sunshine Conversations to build their own bot, or integrate a third-party bot.
Pricing
- 15-day free trial
- $55 to $115 per month/per agent, depending on business size
Key Features
- Multi-channel deployment
- No-code bot builder geared towards CX
- Intelligent skills-based agent routing
- Ability to create tickets from ongoing chatbot interactions
- Integrations with third-party systems
Live Chat
LiveChat is an online customer service software with online chat, help desk software, and web analytics capabilities. It offers ChatBot integration to assist live agents.
Pricing
- 14-day free trial
- $20 to $59 per month/per agent depending on business size
Key Features
- No-code AI chatbots that work out of the box
- Template-based to power Welcome chatbots, Afterhours chatbots, FAQ chatbots, Lead Generation chatbots, and Appointment chatbots
- Seamless skill-based routing to human agents, who receive transcripts of chatbot conversations
- Native integration with FB Messenger
Olark
Olark is a live chat solution that enables businesses to communicate with customers via their website and is designed to integrate seamlessly with CRM. It features the Chatbot CoPilot to automate some customer interactions and lead generation.
Pricing
- Free trial
- Starts at $29 per month/per agent
Key Features
- Lead generation automation: CoPilot auto-starts conversations based on triggers such as pages viewed or whether a customer is new or returning
- Lead qualification automation: CoPilot captures contact info, asks questions to qualify leads, and prioritizes chats for sales
- Intelligent routing: CoPilot lets qualified prospects book a call or patches them through to sales agents
- Automatic CRM updating
- Pre-built, no-code bots
Zoho SalesIQ
Zoho SalesIQ is a customer engagement platform designed for sales, marketing, and customer support teams. It features Zobot, a customizable chatbot that can be deployed on customer websites.
Pricing
- $0 to $20 per month/per user (depending on which features you want)
Key Features
- Self-service AI chatbots
- Codeless drag-and-drop chatbot builder
- Integrations with top AI technology
- Knowledge-base-building platform to enhance chatbots
Crisp Chat
Crisp Chat is an all-in-one business messaging platform designed to improve the customer experience.
Pricing
- 14-day free trial
- $0 to $95 per month/per agent depending on number of agents, number of contacts and desired features
Key Features
- Code-free chatbot editor or API-based chatbot integration
- Intelligent routing
- Automatic CRM data entry
- Multilingual
- Automatic meeting scheduling
- Multichannel chatbot deployments (website, Facebook Messenger, Line, WhatsApp or Instagram)
Freshchat in Action: Customer Case Studies
ChatGPT Enterprise
ChatGPT (or Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is currently one of the most popular and most talked-about chatbots. Developed by OpenAI and launched just last year, it is best known for its ability to generate written content based on user prompts. The new ChatGPT Enterprise solution enables businesses to launch chatbots on their websites and social media channels.
Pricing
- $0 per month for basic plan
- $20 per month/per user for the chatgpt plus plan
- Custom pricing for enterprise plan
Key Features
- Conversation history tracking/storage
- Enterprise-grade security and privacy
- Advanced data analytics
- Admin console with bulk member management
- Ability to connect ChatGPT’s knowledge with your company data and knowledge base
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Landbot.io
Landbot is a code-free chatbot building platform that lets businesses deploy chatbots on their websites and/or via WhatsApp.
Pricing
- $0 to $300 per month for website chatbot (depending on number of chats)
- $169 to $300 for WhatsApp chatbot (depending on number of chats)
Key Features
- No-code chatbot builder for websites and WhatsApp
- API-enabled integrations with mobile apps and third-party channels
- Lead generation and lead capture tools
Pandorabots
Pandorabots is one of the oldest and largest chatbot service providers, focusing on B2C messaging.
Pricing
- 2-week free trial
- $0 to $199 per month depending on message volume
Key Features
- No-code chatbot builder
- Customer engagement tools
- Character chatbots and speaking avatars
- Small Talk library with +10,000 chit-chat inputs
- Third-party integrations for multichannel communication
- Multilingual
Tidio
Tidio is an AI-enhanced customer experience platform that combines plug-and-play chatbots with human support tools to improve customer service. It offers the Lyro AI chatbot as an add-on to enhance intelligent automation.
Pricing
- Free trial
- Chatbot and communicator solution starting at $54 per month
- Lyro chatbot add-on starts at $39 per month
Key Features
- Lead generation
- Third-party integrations
- Triggered marketing messages and email campaigns
- Lyro AI chatbot, a multichannel tool that can answer up to 70% of customer questions
- Intelligent routing to live agents
Aivo
A conversational AI solution owned by Meta, Aivo is a leading AI-powered chatbot solution designed to help businesses increase sales and streamline customer service.
Pricing
- One-time onboarding fee of $500 to $2500 based conversation volume
- $99 to $399 per month depending on conversation volume and number of users
Key Features
- AI-enhanced customer service and sales enablement tools
- Third-party integrations
- Native WhatsApp, FB Messenger, and Instagram functionality
- Supports live text and voice messaging
- Provides image, voice, and video support
- Leverages ChatGPT
AI Chatbots Are Only the Beginning
Artificial intelligence is changing the way IT departments work by automating workflows and operations. AI-enhanced ITSM solutions enable your tech teams to automate redundant and repetitive tasks, so human agents can spend their time solving complex problems and focusing on higher-value tasks.
Simply put, chatbots provide human teams with some much-needed backup, so they can focus on modernizing IT operations and future-proofing your business.
FAQs
How do chatbots work?
AI chatbots use conversational AI algorithms and natural language processing technology to understand human language and intention. Then they use data from previous interactions to understand the context of each communication and formulate a personalized, human-sounding response. They also leverage machine learning so they become better at these tasks over time.
How do I know which chatbot is right for my business?
The best conversational chatbots for business are actually AI-powered, not rules-based or scripted. They are easy to deploy and require low-to-no coding. They enable multichannel communication and can be integrated with ITSM software and other key business applications. They are reliable, secure, and the chatbot platform can be scaled to meet the needs of your growing business.
Are chatbots secure?
Chatbot security can vary widely from one vendor to another. A particular chatbot’s vulnerability depends on the sophistication of its encryption, the identification and authorization processes it employs, and the processes the vendor has in place to protect data and ensure its chatbot technology is both secure and compliant with state and federal privacy laws.
Are there any limitations of artificial intelligence chatbots?
AI chatbots leverage natural language processing and machine learning to “understand” human language and intention. The more data and experiences they have to learn from, the better they get at answering questions and performing tasks. But they lack the ability to reason. They are only as good as their data and are limited by available AI technology. Currently, they can perform simple and repetitive tasks, but even the best AI chatbots can’t always understand or address complex issues. They can analyze sentiment and accurately detect frustration, excitement, and other easily identifiable emotions, but they lack the ability to understand complex or nuanced human emotions.
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