What is an AI Chatbot?
5 Must-Have Chatbot Features In 2024

What is an AI Chatbot?
5 Must-Have Chatbot Features In 2024

When was the last time you came across an AI chatbot?

The use cases of AI chatbots have been steadily increasing since the turn of the decade. Siri, Google Assistant, Bing AI, and the chatbots in your favorite e-commerce website are all examples of AI chatbots. They tell us the shortest route to the location, the best product to buy, or the current weather.

The AI chatbot market will reach 1.25 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2025 (Source: Statista). They continuously learn daily and have been deployed into new workflows with staggering results. But what are the features of the best AI chatbots in the market right now? Before getting into that let’s go deeper into some basics of AI chatbots.

In this article we will learn:

• What is an AI chatbot?
• How does AI chatbots work?
• What are AI chatbots used for?
• What are the 5 must-have features of AI chatbots?
• Best practices for selecting the right AI chatbot.

So let’s get with the article.

What is an AI Chatbot?

AI chatbots are software powered by artificial intelligence and can carry a natural conversation with a human being using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML). They differ from general chatbots as they leverage LLM (large learning models) to respond via text or audio.

In simple terms, a well-designed AI chatbots can:

• Use the past conversational data to understand and learn the prompts
• Differentiate between correct and incorrect responses
• Continuously provide better responses with machine learning

Interested in learning the most common use cases of chatbots? Here’s an article: 8 Real-life Use Cases For AI Chatbots

One of the most asked questions is how AI chatbots work. Let’s get to the bottom of this as well.

How Does AI Chatbots Work?

To understand how AI chatbots work, let’s look into a typical interaction flow between the customer and the chatbot.

1. The AI chatbot is first deployed in the business workflow. For example on the e-commerce website.
2. A customer starts a conversation with the AI chatbot by typing or speaking the query into the user interface regarding a product.
3. The AI chatbot leverages natural language processing to comprehend the words and phrases to get to know the user's intent.
4. The AI chatbot goes through its past and existing database for the correct response through the user interface.
5. This flow is repeated until the customer’s query is satisfied.

The best AI chatbots leverage a database of information, natural language processing, and machine learning to identify patterns in every conversation. This helps them to become more human-like and increase customer engagement.

IntellyLabs’ iBot. Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa are some of the best examples of AI chatbots. But what are the best chatbots of 2024 used for? Let’s delve into this question a bit deeper.

What Are AI Chatbots Used For?

AI chatbots are used in messaging applications, social media, websites, and IVRs. They are also deployed in smart appliances such as watches, speakers, and various kitchen appliances. Businesses use AI chatbots to automate tasks in marketing and sales such as lead generation and nurturing, upselling, cross-selling, and customer engagement.

It is important to note that businesses cannot solely depend on chatbots to provide a seamless experience. There are times when customers are not satisfied with the responses and need to converse with a live human agent. This transfer needs to happen seamlessly.

Some common use cases of AI chatbots include.

1. 24/7 assistance as a customer service agent.
2. Answering FAQs
3. Providing product details and recommendations on e-commerce websites.
4. Chatbot marketing - To promote your business.
5. Scheduling and sending reminders for appointments.
6. Ordering and tracking online deliveries.

Now let’s have a look at the 5 must-have features of the best AI chatbots in 2024.

5 Must-have Features Of The Best AI Chatbots

If you are looking for the best chatbot for your business, you need to make sure it has the most advanced features to achieve your business goals.

Implementing AI chatbots to automate your business workflows is a fantastic way to stay ahead of the competition. But to provide a great customer experience, your AI chatbot needs to have the following features.

1. Multilingual capabilities

When you are scaling your business or if your existing business has a multilingual customer base, your chatbot needs to be on the same wavelength. AI chatbots such as iBot can converse in more than 50 languages engaging your customers in their native tongue. The best AI chatbots will have multilingual capabilities to satisfy a wide range of customers and strengthen customer relationships.

2. Third-party app integrations

The best AI chatbots have third-party integration features such as your help desk or tools you use in business workflows. This is particularly helpful to enhance the customer experience.

For example, if one of your customers is unsatisfied with the responses, it can convert this conversation into a ticket via the help desk and assign this to the correct department. This way you can provide uninterrupted customer service.

3. Omnichannel presence

Your customers are present in multiple platforms and to engage them simultaneously is a feature the best AI chatbots need to have. Connecting your communication channels such as websites, social media, mobile applications, and offline stores with an AI chatbot will help provide new opportunities for marketing and sales. What’s more, you can actively engage your customers in multiple channels and increase your CX tenfold.

4. Privacy and security

In today’s digital world, customers will associate themselves with businesses that value data security and privacy. This includes names, addresses, credit or debit card details, and other private information.

The best AI chatbot should have data security features such as end-to-end encryption, authorization, and authentication capabilities so that the customer’s data is not leaked online.

5. Easy chatbot flow builder

The best AI chatbots will have the most simple and interactive conversation builders. The user can structure the queries and their respective responses. The chatbot flow builder will set up triggers based on the customer’s responses. This data then can be used to teach the chatbot with machine learning and natural language processing to provide better responses in the future.

iBot: The Best AI Chatbot Of 2024

Have the best chatbot features and more with iBot, the world’s #1 AI chatbot.

iBot has a state-of-the-art NLP engine that helps to deliver customized experiences for every customer across all customer touchpoints of the customer journey.

Deploy your personal customer service agent in seconds. Click here to schedule a live demo with us today.

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