Chatbots
Chatbots are the future! The way we interact will be completely different after this revolution sets foot. As one of many digital marketing tips, chatbots can help streamline and engage customers. They have a lot of benefits, yet some avoidable drawbacks.
What are Chatbots?
ChatGPT has no doubt changed the landscape of chatbots. A chatbot is a fantastic tool that helps you solve problems without waiting for someone to speak with you. As the name states, it is a bot that chats and is beneficial on web pages.
It is simply a computer program. It doesn’t have feelings or emotions (although it sometimes appears to). Its purpose is to minimize human interactions and increase efficiency when performing tasks.
Chatbots are ubiquitous nowadays, and if you’re reading this, you’ve likely interacted with one before. If you are using Windows or a new Apple operating system, examples include Siri or Cortana. That is a chatbot, and I will tell you about other types.
The Current State of Chatbots
Sometimes, when you look at things like Siri, Cortana, Alexa, or Google Assistant, you will be very impressed with how far technology has come. However, on the other hand, you may sometimes need to interact with your bank’s telephone chatbot. Currently, I like to think that there are two main categories of chatbots: those that are good and those that are not.
The current state of chatbots is on the rise, but it is nowhere near perfection yet. Although they are fascinating and complicated today, they are still not good enough to solve any problem you throw at them. Perhaps when the time comes, chatbots will be able to understand someone who is very frustrated with their online banking app and needs help.
As of 2025, Amazon’s latest chatbot is intelligent enough to engage in conversation as if you are talking to a human. Whether it’s a refund or a product replacement, it can complete the task far more efficiently than a human.
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Potential of Chatbots
The positive aspect of all this is the potential of chatbots. When chatbots are sufficiently advanced, they will be ubiquitous across all industries and will be challenging to avoid. You wouldn’t even try to avoid them because you wouldn’t know how to chat with a chatbot. The reason it will be like that is because of Artificial Intelligence.
Over the years, more time and resources will be invested in developing chatbots to the point that they will become an integral part of our daily lives. You will be talking and telling jokes in your car, engaging in small talk with your phone that appears to have emotions, and having a virtual therapist in your pocket that you can talk to at a moment’s notice. Anything you can think of can be partially automated by chatbots.
The people who will benefit from this are those who develop it, and they will be called the pioneers of chatbots. Big companies are already starting to create exciting products, but these are far from reaching the full potential of chatbots.
Benefits of Chatbots
Chatbots have a lot of benefits. One of the benefits is that customer service will be available 24/7. If you own a business and want to spend quality family time after work, you won’t have to worry about talking to customers and providing them with quotes; let a chatbot take care of that for you.
Another significant benefit is saving time and money that can be used better elsewhere.
When you have a chatbot, you won’t need to employ someone to talk to customers all day long; just let a computer handle it. On the other hand, we should teach people how to create and maintain these bots because, first, we will need people like that, and second, the individuals who will lose their jobs due to this technology can pursue different and better careers.
Initially, chatbots may seem to have numerous drawbacks, but as time passes, these drawbacks can be gradually transformed into benefits if we act promptly.
Drawbacks of Chatbots
Although there are numerous benefits, there are also some drawbacks. The first issue is that, due to the nature of chatbots, Artificial Intelligence can take a long time to become sophisticated. Additionally, since no one is funding the development and advancement of chatbots, we now have some that provide minimal answers and cannot respond to essential prompts that the human species may present.
On the other hand, another futuristic and perhaps unrealistic aspect is that some devices are made using Artificial Intelligence, which can take over the device if it is not maintained correctly. It can send messages to people, it can take pictures of you, it can access your bank account, and if it is brilliant, it can hack banks and government agencies (and of course, you will be responsible for that), so it is something that needs to be executed carefully and with constant monitoring. Although there are disadvantages, with proper funding and the right personnel, these disadvantages can be mitigated and controlled.
Types of Chatbots
Although chatbots are a simple concept, they come in many types and have various technical implementations. A prevalent type is a menu-based chatbot; this bot presents the user with a list of options, and depending on the response, it provides another list of options until it believes it understands the user’s intent.
Another common type is the rule-based chatbot; this chatbot operates using if/else statements and logic (if you are a programmer, you will be familiar with this approach). There are also other types, such as voice bots, which are usually used on phones, and the final type, my favorite one, is the Artificial Intelligence bot. This bot is my favorite because it is the only one that can reach the potential that I previously mentioned.
Choosing a type for your chatbot depends mainly on its purpose. It will be much different from an online virtual therapy system if you need it for a phone system. Another factor will be the cost; the more complicated the AI, the more expensive the final product will be. You will have to hire genius individuals who will develop this excellent product for you, and, of course, hiring people is not free.
Engati, https://www.engati.com/blog/types-of-chatbots-and-their-applications.
How to Make a Chatbot?
Making a chatbot can be tricky and fun at the same time. There are many ways to go about programming or developing a chatbot. Of course, I would recommend learning to code first, but I will also mention techniques to build a chatbot without programming.
They first learn to program and investigate libraries like Google’s Dialogflow, IBM Watson, or Microsoft bot. These frameworks or libraries act as a helping hand to programmers who want to write a chatbot.
Another way if you don’t want to program is using chatbot platforms like Tidio (which is entirely free). Those are the ways to make a chatbot, but before you start making that bot, you need to plan and know why you are doing this.
A World Without Chatbots
That is a lot of information you just read. After reading about the benefits and drawbacks, do you think it is worth advancing this technology? I think it is worth it.
You have already imagined a world full of those virtual assistants; now, let’s imagine one without them. For example, you buy a Christmas gift on Amazon…a day until Christmas, and nothing. You pick up your phone and dial the Amazon customer service phone number, and all you can hear is, “we are currently busy. Please call back later”.
Takeaway
Chatbots are very useful and have a lot of benefits, but they also have some drawbacks. The benefits outweigh the disadvantages if we advance and spend more money on this technology. We need to start sooner rather than later because this is not a question of whether it will happen. It is a question of when it will happen; will it be in the next year? Maybe the next five? Who knows?
This is a revolution, so let’s be the first to revolutionize and innovate. A new Elon Musk needs to form a team and pitch ideas to investors, and in no time, we will see this being a part of our daily lives. Many aspects of our lives will be made much easier, and some people will come out and say that these bots have feelings, so we must give them rights and freedom. Wars and conflicts might occur because of this ideology. It sounds unrealistic that people might think that, but we already have many people who do. Some people believe robots have rights because they are different from human beings. It is a revolution, but it will be beneficial or destructive to society is how we execute it and educate people on this topic.
Suppose you want to be the person that will make millions (if not billions) from this technology. In that case, you should be researching it more now, learning more about Artificial Intelligence and developing chatbots.