Chatbot

A chatbot is software that holds conversations with people in messengers, social DMs or a website chat. Scripted chatbots follow buttons and rules: “choose a service”, “pick a time”. AI chatbots understand free-form questions and answer in natural language. Many modern bots combine both: buttons for the main path, AI for everything else.

For a small business, a chatbot answers the same ten questions so the team does not have to: prices, opening hours, delivery, booking. It also captures leads at night and at weekends. The risk is a bot that traps people in loops; a good one always offers a way to reach a human.

Example: a car service’s Telegram bot asks for the car model and the problem, shows the nearest free slots and confirms the booking. If the question is unusual, it hands the chat to the manager.

In AI SMM chatbots are built as chat flows, and AI answers can come from your own knowledge base, handing the conversation to a person when unsure.