Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2021 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

What is an AI chatbot?

AI chatbots have been a revolutionary tool for managing online customer experiences across various industries. Utilizing AI chatbots for service, upselling, brand engagement, and funneling customers through to point of sale has become standard practice across the board.

Using these smarter Bots reduces telephone and email interactions and may allow better, more targeted service across more leads and all departments of online business. Dramatically reshaping the resolution of customer issues, AI chatbots utilize artificial intelligence and Natural Language Processing (NLP) for natural language processing, interpretation and conversational response.

Your AI Chatbot can now be constructed with an avatar and a name, allowing your clients to feel more relaxed and cared for. The end game is boosting conversions. Some AI chatbots have been designed well enough to guarantee that all-important transitions get instigated quickly.

Why use an AI chatbot?

AI Chatbot tech allows your customer to experience contemporary machine learning. Each interaction feeds into historical logs valuable insights that teach your AI bot to respond more intuitively, guide users request more targeted and relevant information, and further personalize customer interactions throughout.

AI chatbots can also understand when your customer needs to be connected to a team member. The interaction record thus far is then available, improving clarity and saving time for all parties.

Leading your customer to that connection point, with all the pertinent information saved, is the golden ticket for chatbot interaction. Smarter, faster, and more ‘human' interfaces are now available with AI chatbots with numerous self-build and built-in features offered widely across the market.

Naturally, not all AI chatbots are created equal. Choosing the interaction and upsell tech that works best for your industry is important. While AI chatbots are taking names for your company, be sure you have the software solution that serves you best.

The pros and cons of AI chatbots

We have rolled out some great AI Chatbot options for your business conversations and conversions, and it's easy to see where this kind of automation will feed into your business's future.

However, is the move away from human contact the best way forward? We have all experienced the intense frustration of chatting online with what we thought was a person only to have a weird moment when we realize that ‘Kevin' is an AI Chatbot bot who keeps throwing a response at you that is irrelevant to your questions.

AI is more vulnerable to hacking, and we want to keep our customers' and visitors' information safe online. No one closes an account faster than a customer whose data has been shared with malicious organizations.

‘Man in the middle' attacks pose as your company's own bot, and entice customers to reveal sensitive information, and people often leave their computers open with live AI chatbot windows active.

Classic phishing scams can target your AI Chatbot more easily than person-to-person contact, and it will be a nightmare to have your AI bot or chatbot tech dealing with complaints about phishing they have, in effect, participated in.

Why use Brightcall instead?

All our research into AI chatbots led us to Brightcall, a new way of interacting and converting that puts the ‘human' back in contact while still utilizing the great conversion rates that AI chatbots have been getting right.

Brightcall runs on ‘speed to lead generation,' and it is way out front as far as customer engagement and interaction goes, getting a call into your lead in 55 seconds. Running on brilliant forms and instant call buttons with incredibly streamlined reporting and feedback loops, this software surprised us with its simplicity and ability to make every lead a hot lead for your sales team.

Has a recording feature on every sales call that allows you to listen and learn from every interaction, picking up where tone moves your lead to convert to a meeting or a sale. You also access smart widgets and one-click call buttons that let you know where they were when a potential customer first chose to proceed.

This is a massive shift in understanding where your marketing dollar works hardest for you. We discovered that it is a highly responsive person-to-person AI that has instant reporting features to keep your entire team informed in real time about what your customer wants now.

You can use this tech today to ensure that when your customer comes looking for you, you are ready to speak to them within that golden minute.

10 best AI chatbots

To help you discover whether AI chatbots and bots have the features you need to serve your your business and clients best we have compiled a list of some of the best chatbots and bots available today.‍

AI Chatbot Platform #1 Intercom

At the top of the list is Intercom. Intercom offers AI chatbots that roll out the internet the best conversational experience and tie in marketing and customer behavior in fluid ways that translate to more leads and actual conversions.

Offering a streamlined build process, Intercom's chatbot is the cleanest to create and launch, even for amateur users. The intercom conversion bot has a beautiful UI and is packed with powerful features.

AI Chatbot platform #2 Drift

Encompassing 6 billion learned conversations, Drift has a staggering data bank to work with straight out of the gate. Functioning in ways that cancel out the need for online forms.

Drift is particularly smart at getting the relevant information to your customers over the line and engaging them conversation with the right person to move their conversation to sales.

AI Chatbot platform #3 Genesys DX

Genesys DX (formerly Bold360) is a great customer interface AI chatbot with a fairly high price point. Capable of initiating video learning for customers, multilingual, and featuring fully customizable live chat widgets and buttons. This bot is a great choice for teams that lean heavily on media communications.

AI Chatbot platform #4 Salesforce Einstein

Salesforce Einstein is an NLU technology allowing you to train chatbots made with Salesforce to automate answers and save time.

This bot is known for its great conversion rate and ability to lead customers across tracking, reporting, refunds, and returns.

Some industries report that the Salesforce Einstein chatbots are returning higher customer efforts scores (CES) than their human counterparts.

AI Chatbot platform #5 Inbenta

Boasting a 95% correct response rate, Inbenta is super intuitive and integrates smoothly with multiple third-party platforms.

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Known for its excellent variable and entity support, Inbenta provides businesses with one of the most seamless escalations and leads to agents on the market.

AI Chatbot platform #6 HubSpot Chatbot Builder

Although Hubspot is rules-based, it still operates well to free up resources for your team until they have all the information required to offer streamlined service calls.

HubSpot Chatbot is free and very easy to build and alter, providing a good level of power of personalization - a simple interactive conversation choice to enhance your website data collection features.

AI Chatbot platform #7 Rulai

Rulai hits the mark regarding operational efficiency and capturing interactions and more leads across all your tiers.

Providing seamless integration across all your service points - including voice-based services and apps - Rulai offers businesses the benefits of a smart, frictionless AI chatbot that is quickly climbing the tech ladder.

AI Chatbot platform #8 Vergic

Valued for its simplicity and power, Vergic integrates easily and is a no-fuss deploy and develop AI tool that works. Easily handling repetitive tasks, customer interactions, multiple dialogs, and converting leads, Vergic operates well with seamless handover for your bot/agent transfers.

AI Chatbot platform #9 Watson Assistant

The Watson Assistant from technology giant IBM utilizes rich media and highly tailored interactions to enhance it. This AI chatbot works fast and is known for its high containment rate of customer satisfaction.

Able to handle deviations and preferences with more intuitive alternate pathways, the Watson Assistant is a smart choice for businesses that for consistent customer service.

AI Chatbot platform #10 Ada

Although Ada is coming in last on our list, it is not lacking its full potential. Used by MailChimp and Shopify, this is a no-lag, no-code option for easy business integration e-commerce.

Shopped as a fast-launch product, Ada promises 70% automation across customer interactions. This translates to streamlined revenue management and smart business sense.

The Bottom Line

Brightcall is injecting warmth and safety back into your conversions process. Many companies are turning to this tech to get voices back on phones - this is where trust and connection grow and sales teams shine.

Cutting out dropped forms and growing trust faster, Brightcall instant call buttons are a great alternative or complement to even the best AI chatbots.

While you may love your AI chatbot, and many companies are reaping significant benefits, another option that gets your sales team back into the driving seat and quickly increases revenue is available.

Whether you run the two alongside each other or consider converting to Brightcall's software across all your platforms, your customers will benefit from better, warmer communications.