How it works
There are two main types of chatbots:
Rule-based chatbots follow pre-programmed decision trees. They respond to specific keywords or menu selections with pre-written answers. They are predictable but limited, they cannot handle questions outside their programmed scope.
AI chatbots use natural language processing and large language models to understand the intent behind messages and generate contextual responses. They can handle unexpected questions, maintain multi-turn conversations, and learn from new content. Modern AI chatbots (2025-2026) use retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to answer from your specific knowledge base.
Chatbots are deployed as website widgets, in-app messengers, WhatsApp bots, Slack integrations, and voice assistants.
Why it matters
Chatbots are the primary interface for AI-powered customer support. They provide instant responses (vs hours for email), operate 24/7, and scale to handle thousands of simultaneous conversations at near-zero marginal cost. In Tidio's survey, 82% of people said they would use a chatbot instead of waiting for a human agent.
How Chatsy uses it
Chatsy is an AI chatbot platform that lets businesses create, train, and deploy chatbots powered by 15+ AI models. Each chatbot is trained on your content (knowledge base, docs, FAQs) and deployed as a customizable widget on your website. It combines AI resolution with live chat handoff for a complete support experience.
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What else should I know about Chatbot?
AI chatbots using RAG can understand natural language and answer from your specific knowledge base
Key takeawaysTest this in your own agent
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Example scenarios
- 01
E-commerce FAQ automation
An online retailer deploys an AI chatbot to handle the top 50 questions (shipping times, return policy, order tracking). The bot resolves 70% of incoming chats automatically, reducing support team workload by half during peak holiday seasons.
- 02
SaaS onboarding assistant
A software company embeds a chatbot in its app to guide new users through setup. The bot walks users through connecting integrations, importing data, and configuring settings, reducing onboarding support tickets by 60%.
- 03
Lead qualification on landing pages
A B2B company adds a chatbot to its pricing page that asks qualifying questions (company size, use case, budget). Qualified leads are routed to sales with full context, increasing demo booking rates by 35%.
Key takeaways
- Chatbots range from simple rule-based scripts to sophisticated AI systems powered by large language models
- AI chatbots using RAG can understand natural language and answer from your specific knowledge base
- Comm100 reported chatbots handling 68.9% of chats from start to finish in its benchmark data
- The best chatbot deployments combine AI automation with seamless human handoff for complex issues
- Chatbots are deployed across websites, apps, WhatsApp, Slack, and other messaging platforms