Best Chatbot Software

Chatbots, also known as virtual agents or virtual assistants, are used to conduct specific tasks or provide information based on written or spoken requests, replacing human interaction. They can handle both external, customer-facing requests and internal, employee-facing requests. Chatbots allow users to interact with an application in a conversational manner, either textually or audibly, to perform certain functions.

While chatbots often utilize some degree of natural language processing (NLP) or speech recognition to understand written and spoken requests, they primarily function through scripted conversations. This is in contrast to intelligent virtual assistants, which utilize natural language understanding (NLU) to conduct more human-like conversations. Businesses can leverage chatbot technology to automate tasks that previously required human intervention. Based on a user’s request, the chatbot provides the user with an output, which is a response to the request in text or speech form.

Customer support tools, such as live chat software, help desk software, or contact center software, may already have chatbots implemented as a first line of defense when dealing with customers. However, they are becoming more widely used in other applications, such as sales and marketing knowledge bases. Users may even use them instead of a query language to find certain data points in business intelligence software; by simply typing or speaking a request to a business intelligence platform, a chatbot can provide the relevant data. Chatbot capabilities are constantly expanding and being implemented in various types of software.

In summary, chatbots are conversational interfaces that automate tasks and provide information based on user requests, utilizing scripted conversations and natural language processing/speech recognition technologies. They are becoming increasingly prevalent across different software applications, from customer support to sales, marketing, and business intelligence.