We have all communicated with ChatGPT at least once in our lives. Also, Snapchat has recently come up with an AI chat as its function. These are basically chatbots. A chatbot is an AI-powered software application designed to simulate human conversation. These can be used for various purposes other than chatting with fun. When we visit websites in today’s times, we see a customer support section that is run by chatbots. These are designed to help customers with the majority of the information already being fed to the chatbot.
Other uses include information retrieval and personal assistance. They can interact with users through text or voice interfaces and are commonly found in messaging apps, websites, and mobile apps. This makes communication faster and saves time as the issue is forwarded without unnecessary initial questioning. This way the help can be made instantly without any delay.
Types of Chatbots –
1. Rule-based chatbots –
These are also known as decision-tree chatbots or menu-based chatbots and operate on predefined rules and scripts. They follow a structured flow of conversation and provide responses based on specific user inputs. These chatbots are suitable for handling simple and repetitive tasks. They are best suited for straightforward tasks like FAQs, basic customer support and simple data collection.
2. AI-based Chatbots –
These are also known as intelligent chatbots and utilise machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) to understand and respond to user inputs dynamically. They can learn from interactions, understand context, and handle more complex queries. Usually, these are suitable for personalized customer service, virtual assistants, and conversational interfaces.
3. Hybrid Chatbots –
This has the speciality of combining the qualities of both rule-based and AI-based chatbots. They use predefined rules for common queries and leverage AI to handle more complex interactions. This approach allows for more flexibility and better user experience. This is highly useful for businesses that require both simple automation and advanced conversational abilities.
4. Voice-activated Chatbots –
Alternately known as voice assistants or voicebots, they are known for interacting with users through spoken language. They use speech recognition and NLP to process voice inputs and generate voice responses. These are known to be useful for home automation, voice search, and voice-enabled customer service.
5. Contextual Chatbots –
Contextual chatbots are designed to understand and remember the context of a conversation over multiple interactions. They use advanced NLP and ML techniques to maintain context and provide more relevant responses. These are ideal for customer relationship management and personalized user experiences.
6. Social media Chatbots –
These chatbots are integrated with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. They engage with users on these platforms, providing support, information, and services. Commonly, these are suitable for social media marketing, customer support, and information dissemination.
Summary –
Chatbot is a highly essential part of today’s world. They are built with the help of instruction mechanisms and AI. This AI-powered software is useful for business management. They have proved to be an asset in customer support management, in e-commerce by providing additional information and handling returns and exchanges. Furthermore, they have also been utilized in the banking and healthcare sectors to manage functions that make work easier. Chatbots have placed a resourceful mark on today’s world of the internet.