AI · 4 min read
AI Chatbot or AI Assistant: What's the Difference?
A chatbot answers questions. An assistant does a job. Knowing which you need saves money and disappointment.
The words get used interchangeably, but they describe different things. Choosing the wrong one is the most common reason businesses come away from AI feeling underwhelmed.
A chatbot talks
A chatbot sits in a chat window and replies to what is typed. The good ones answer from your own information. The poor ones guess, because they know a bit about everything and nothing about your business. Either way, a chatbot's job ends when the conversation does.
An assistant does a job
An AI assistant is given a task, not just a conversation. It reads the invoice and enters it into your accounts. It drafts the quote from your prices. It chases the overdue payment, reads the reply and tells you what happened. It connects to the software you already use, follows your rules, and checks with you before anything goes out.
Chat can be one of the things an assistant does. Buildloop's Live chat, for example, answers customers from answers you have checked, takes their details and hands over to your team when it should.
Why knowing your business matters
Both only work well when they know your business: your prices, your policies, your customers and how you like things said. That is why every Buildloop assistant plugs into one AI control centre. It holds what your business knows, and what one assistant learns is passed on to the others.
Which do you need?
If customers keep asking the same questions, start with chat. If the pain is the work after the conversation, the quoting, invoicing, chasing and filing, you need an assistant. Many businesses end up wanting both.