What is an AI chatbot?

This article explains what AI chatbots are, their use cases, and key benefits.

What Is an AI Chatbot?

• An AI chatbot is a system that uses AI technologies to deliver responses as if you were having a conversation with a person. Its defining feature is a conversational user interface that lets users obtain information through dialogue.
• While traditional chatbots respond based on preconfigured scenarios, AI chatbots can interpret a user’s intent and answer questions accordingly.
• Because chatbots can operate 24/7 without breaks, they help improve efficiency and reduce costs.

Use Cases for AI Chatbots

Chatbot use cases can be broadly categorized based on whether the users are consumers or employees. For consumers, they generally fall into three main types depending on the objective.

• For Consumers
  • Companionship & Entertainment: A type focused on interaction as an “empathetic companion,” such as listening to concerns or engaging in casual conversation, rather than serving a specific goal.
  • Problem Solving: Used when consumers want to resolve an issue—such as contacting a company or government office, or asking how to use a product.
  • Sales Promotion: A type where the chatbot proactively engages consumers with a purpose, aiming to increase purchase intent.

• For Employees
  • A chatbot designed to help employees resolve issues when they need guidance on internal rules or how to use internal systems.

Key Features of AI Chatbots

Below, we explain the key characteristics of AI chatbots from the perspectives of functionality, types, mechanisms, and technical components.

• Functional Features
  • 24/7/365 availability: Without requiring human staff, chatbots can provide support around the clock as if a person were responding.
  • Automation of routine tasks: They can automate tasks that were once thought to require human handling even when partially standardized.
  • Cost reduction & operational efficiency: Once configured, they can respond automatically, reducing handling effort and the cost of training staff.

• Types
  • When classifying chatbots by whether they have a clear goal and how broad the conversation topics are, it becomes easier to assess the performance required. “Goal” refers to whether it’s clear that the conversation is intended to accomplish something. The “topic range” refers to how broadly the chatbot needs to cover topics.
  • If the goal is not clear (as in casual conversation), longer interactions are generally better. If the goal is clear, shorter conversations that reach the goal quickly tend to be preferable. Also, when the topic range is narrow, the scope of information the chatbot must handle can be smaller.
  • As you can see, the required mechanisms differ depending on the type of chatbot.

• Mechanisms
  • Chatbot mechanisms include scenario-based models that respond according to predefined scripts, and AI-based models that learn from large volumes of data and generate answers on their own. Within AI-based models, there are multiple types—such as those that generate answers directly and those that retrieve information and have AI summarize it into a response.

• Technical Components
  • AI chatbots combine natural language processing, which enables understanding of human language, with machine learning, which learns from large datasets to generate answers.

Benefits of AI Chatbots

In addition to improving operational efficiency and reducing costs, AI chatbots can enhance service quality and increase the number of inquiries they can handle.

• Benefits for providers (companies, government agencies, etc.)
  • Operational efficiency & cost reduction (reduces workload and labor costs, among others)
  • 24/7/365 availability (can respond outside business hours)
  • Consistent response quality (eliminates variation in responses between staff members)
  • Scalability (can handle a higher volume of inquiries)

• Benefits for users (customers, employees, etc.)
  • Fast responses (no waiting time)
  • Consistency (no differences in answers depending on the person in charge)
  • Convenience (can ask questions anytime, with ease)

Comparing AI Chatbot Architectures

Performance, as well as how you prepare and operate the system, will vary depending on the chatbot architecture. It’s important to choose the approach that best fits your intended use.