Classic chatbot or AI assistant?
Menu bots fit narrow scripts. Flexible language and summaries need AI—with guardrails.
A classic chatbot follows buttons and fixed paths: 1 sales, 2 support, 3 address. When the script is limited, it is fast, cheap, and reliable. Off-script, it should hand off cleanly—not trap people in loops.
An AI assistant handles free text, FAQs, drafts, and triage. Risks include confident wrong answers, so you need a grounded knowledge base and a clear “I don’t know / escalate” policy. Brand voice and forbidden topics should be explicit.
Choose hybrid often: AI for first response and routing; humans for money, complaints, and edge cases. The bot’s job is to accelerate the next right step—not to win a conversation contest.
Measure resolution quality, not chat volume.
