What Is an AI Chatbot?
An AI chatbot is a software application that has been developed using artificial intelligence (AI) and various data processing techniques to conduct human-like conversations. Thanks to machine learning and natural language processing, an AI chatbot is able to answer questions and solve problems. AI chatbots are to be distinguished from rule-based chatbots (also known as click chatbots), which use predefined rules and patterns to control interactions. Due to their numerous advantages, AI chatbots are used today in many industries and areas, such as customer service, marketing and sales.
How Does an AI Chatbot Work?
An AI chatbot is based on various technologies that enable the bot to communicate with people and respond specifically to their requests.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) ensure that an AI chatbot can understand and process human language and recognise the intentions and meanings behind user messages.
As a rule, AI chatbots are trained to generate appropriate responses to various user queries using supervised learning. The AI is therefore fed with examples of correct answers so that it can recognise patterns and respond appropriately to them. In addition, an AI chatbot can also have self-learning functions that allow it to learn from user interactions and continuously improve its skills independently over time.
Relevance of AI Chatbots for Companies
AI chatbots are playing an increasingly important role in companies for two reasons.
Firstly, the expectations of customers are changing. Due to the widespread use of chat as a communication channel, they have long been accustomed to exchanging information quickly and receiving feedback on questions in real time. They are therefore counting on companies to adapt to this type of communication in this fast-paced and efficiency-driven world.
On the other hand, the use of the tool brings numerous advantages for companies. Companies appreciate the new technology as it offers an efficient and scalable way of interacting with customers. They can increase customer loyalty and satisfaction while reducing costs, optimising workflows and gaining valuable insights into customer preferences.
The 16 Best AI Chatbot Software at a Glance
In order to benefit from the numerous advantages of using an AI chatbot, the choice of a suitable chatbot provider must be made carefully. Because not all chatbots are the same.
On the one hand, the various tools differ in terms of their areas of application: For example, there are AI chatbots specifically for
- customer communication,
- research and text creation,
- image and video generation and
- programming and coding.
On the other hand, the individual providers can also be differentiated from each other within the application areas in terms of different features.
Below you will find an overview of the best AI chatbots on the market, sorted by use case and features:
Top 4 AI Chatbots for Customer Communication
Chatbots for customer communication are characterised by the fact that they are integrated into companies‘ websites and answer users’ recurring questions. To do this, the chatbot learns a series of topics that are tailored to the user's needs and have been created in advance by the chatbot owner. ‘How do I reset my password?’, 'What payment options are available?' or 'How is my data protected?' are examples of repetitive questions that customers ask companies.
By automatically answering these questions, service employees are relieved and customer satisfaction can be increased because 24/7 availability is provided. In addition, a chatbot can also be used as a product advisor for customer communication and make personalised recommendations to (potential) customers.
Top 4 AI Chatbots for Research and Copywriting
Chatbots such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini (formerly Google Bard), YouChat and Neuroflash are AIs that are very well suited for research purposes and the creation of texts. The knowledge that these bots have acquired is impressively extensive and the answers are correspondingly precise, making them a very helpful support for private use.
However, it is important to note that these tools are not suitable for customer communication in companies. The reason for this is that generative AIs such as these have no manual control mechanism and content is played out without filters. Chatbots for customer communication, on the other hand, have a chatbot owner who manages the bot's content - this prevents information from being published that is incorrect, inappropriate, damaging to the company or discriminatory.
For more information on generative AI and control, read our article 'The 6 biggest chatbot fails and tips on how to avoid them'. You can also find an even more detailed overview of chatbots for research and text creation in our article '20 alternatives to ChatGPT at a glance'.
Top 4 AI Chatbots for Image Generation
After the big hype surrounding AI chatbots such as ChatGPT slowly became the norm, chatbots with other functions increasingly moved into the limelight. These include chatbots such as Midjourney, DreamStudio, Dall-E-3 and Adobe Firefly, which can generate AI-controlled images. The design industry in particular is making use of these practical tools, although here too - as with ChatGPT - the question of copyright has not yet been conclusively clarified.
Top 4 AI Chatbots for Coding
AI chatbots for programming are also currently very popular with software developers. A bot of this type is able to play out code itself, check code from users, make code suggestions and provide corresponding explanations. Most AI chatbots for coding are proficient in common software languages such as C, C++, Java, Python, C#, Visual Basic, JavaScript, PHP, R and many more.
The Top 16 AI Chatbot Software in Detail
1. moinAI
moinAI is a self-learning AI chatbot solution for digital customer communication that is used in over 100 companies - including home24, Katjes, ImmoScout24 and Blume200 - in customer service, marketing and sales to increase customer satisfaction, generate more automated leads, increase conversion rates and reduce support volumes.
2. Userlike
The chatbot provider Userlike specialises in chatbots for support and sales and answers recurring questions from customers. The answers provided by the chatbot are based on a constantly evolving knowledge database.
3. Melibo
Melibo offers a chatbot solution for customer service and support that can be used to process user enquiries. In contrast to moinAI and Userlike, the platform is less suitable for marketing and sales, as it does not provide any customer insights or tracking options.
4. BOTfriends
BOTfriends is a chatbot and voice assistance platform aimed at businesses in the hotel industry, among others. Depending on their use case, companies can choose from the different Xplore, Xelerate and Xpand tariffs.
5. ChatGPT
You may have already tested the ChatGPT tool yourself. This is the chatbot from OpenAI, which is particularly suitable for research and text creation. In our article ChatGPT: The 14 most important questions + answers you will find all the important information about ChatGPT.
6. Google Gemini (Bard)
Google's chatbot, which was originally called Google Bard and later renamed Google Gemini, can be used to research and generate content, just like ChatGPT. In which areas Google Gemini and ChatGPT have differences and similarities, you can find out in our lexicon article What is Google Gemini (formerly Bard)? Everything you need to know. Information about the language model on which Google's chatbot is based is also available in the article Google Gemini: An overview of the new Google AI.
7. YouChat
YouChat is a platform founded by former Sales Force Chief Scientist Richard Socher. It originally positioned itself as a personalization-focused search engine. While the tool still offers web search capabilities, it now specializes primarily in offering an AI chatbot.
8. Neuroflash
Neuroflash is one of the few AI chatbot tools for research and text creation that scores points for being German-speaking. The fact that Neuroflash's servers are located in Germany offers clear advantages over other providers such as ChatGPT in terms of GDPR compliance.
9. Midjourney
Midjourney is one of the most popular software programmes for AI-based image generation. Version 6 has been available as an alpha since 21 December 2023. Midjourney is connected to the Discord chat programme, which allows users to give orders to the artificial intelligence via prompts. Midjourney then creates various image suggestions, from which users can select one for further processing.
10. DreamStudio
The DreamStudio image generator is based on the Stable Diffusion language model, which, like Midjourney, can generate images based on text-based instructions. In addition, the AI is proficient in tasks such as inpainting, outpainting and creating image-to-image translations.
11. Dall-E-3
In addition to the language model GPT, the company OpenAI has developed the software called DALL-E to enable not only the creation of texts, but also the generation of images. The name of the AI model is inspired by the Disney character WALL-E (a small robot) and the Spanish painter Salvador Dalí. The current version of the text-to-image generator is called DALL-E-3.
12. Adobe Firefly
Adobe Firefly is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud and - like Midjourney, DreamStudio and Dall-E-3 - is used in the design sector. The tool is currently in the public beta test phase and can create AI-based images, posters and flyers, among other things, based on free text specifications.
13. GitHub Copilot
The AI pair programmer GitHub Copilot was developed by Github and OpenAI and offers auto-complete suggestions during programming. Users enter a programming code and the AI can make several suggestions based on how the code could look complete. Copilot works on the basis of public code such as different repositories.
14. Tabnine
Tabnine is also an AI-based code completion assistant that is used by developers to simplify coding. Unlike most AI systems, which usually work online to continuously collect up-to-date data, Tabnine can also be used offline.
15. Amazon Code Whisperer
In contrast to Github and Tabnine, the programming aid Amazon Code Whisperer focuses less on general programming and more on AWS (Amazon Web Services) cloud development, primarily helping developers who are in the AWS system.
16. AskCodi
AskCodi is also a popular tool for programmers, which is based on OpenAI's GPT model and can be integrated into platforms such as Visual Studio Code or JetBrains IDEs. The artificial intelligence offers functions such as code generation, code completion, documentation and insights into time complexity.
Create an AI Chatbot for Free With moinAI
There are many different chatbot platforms on the market however, only a small number is actually suitable for use in corporate customer communication. While it is helpful to read about these differences in the first step, it is also necessary to try out the individual solutions yourself in the second step. This is the only way to gain an impression of how intuitive and user-friendly a chatbot software is and what advantages result from its actual use. moinAI offers you the opportunity to create an AI chatbot that is exactly right for your use case in just a few steps, free of charge and without obligation. See for yourself:
