A chatbot is software that holds a text conversation with your customers, usually on your website or WhatsApp. There are two kinds. A scripted chatbot follows a menu or decision tree you design, and an AI chatbot uses a large language model to understand free text and reply in natural language.
Why it matters for your business
Most customer questions are the same twenty questions. Opening hours, price ranges, location, "is this in stock", "can I book Saturday". A chatbot answers those at 11 pm on a Sunday, collects the customer's details, and hands the conversation to a person when it should.
The risk is that a chatbot speaks for you. A Canadian tribunal ruled in Moffatt v. Air Canada (2024) that the airline was responsible for wrong fare information its website chatbot gave a customer, and rejected the idea that the chatbot was separate from the company. It was a small claims decision in one province, not a global rule, but the lesson travels: whatever your bot says, customers will treat as your word.
Scripted vs AI chatbots
| Scripted chatbot | AI chatbot | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | Buttons and fixed paths | Reads free text, writes replies |
| Handles unusual questions | No, it falls back to a menu | Yes, within what it has been given |
| Can say something false | Only if you wrote it wrong | Yes, unless grounded and tested |
| Best for | Bookings, order status, simple routing | FAQs with many wordings, mixed languages |
Many good bots are a mix: AI to understand the question, fixed paths for anything that books, charges or promises.
An example
A salon's WhatsApp gets the same questions all day. The chatbot answers prices and hours from a list the owner approved, offers available slots from the booking system, and takes the name and phone number. When someone writes "I had a reaction after my last treatment", it does not try to answer. It passes the chat straight to the manager with the history attached.
How to use it
Write down your real top questions from the last month of chats before anyone builds anything. Decide what the bot must never answer, such as medical, legal or refund questions, and send those to a person. Ground AI answers in your own approved content, test with your staff trying to break it, and read the logs weekly for the first month.
For WhatsApp specifically, the WhatsApp Business app vs API guide explains which access you need. Our WhatsApp chatbot service covers the build, the knowledge base and the human handover.
Frequently asked questions
Will customers be annoyed talking to a chatbot?
They are annoyed by bots that trap them. If the bot answers quickly, says it is a bot and lets them reach a person easily, most people are glad not to wait. Always offer a clear "talk to a person" option.
Can a chatbot reply in Arabic or Hindi?
An AI chatbot can usually understand and reply in many languages, including Arabic and Hindi. Quality varies by language and model, so have a native speaker test the replies before launch, especially for prices and policies.
Is a chatbot the same as an AI agent?
No. A chatbot's main job is to answer, while an agent uses tools to complete tasks such as booking or updating records. A chatbot can include a few agent-like actions, and that is often the sensible middle ground.
Last reviewed 22 Oct 2026 by the Astrafolio team.