AI chatbots are no longer the preserve of specialist developers or marketing technology experts. With the right AI chatbot platform, anyone can create a chatbot that uses the power of AI.

Artificial intelligence is being adopted in many roles, powering a new generation of software tools that can be fine-tuned to deliver context-aware, data-driven services across many different platforms. 

Chatbots with AI capacities are a perfect embodiment of this trend, as they perform much better than older versions, and can be trained on relevant data and programmed to recognize user’s motivations and intentions. 

Of course, chatbots of this type can be more complex to build. But new AI chatbot platform technology means that it’s now a question of choosing the right platform, rather than sourcing someone who knows how to program a computer to understand the nuances of real conversation.

The process of building an AI chatbot includes several stages, each one building upon the output of the previous. For this technology to create tangible business value, chatbots need to be built with a clear purpose in mind and prepared for the tasks they will face in practice. This requires close collaboration between business owners and technology partners that starts before even one line of code is written.

How to start building a great chatbot for your business

The first task in the process of creating a chatbot is to decide what it should do. 

Smart bots can be set up in many different ways, and the function they will play largely determines the methodology of their creation. When you know where the chatbot will appear on your website and which user actions will activate it, it’s possible to narrow the scope of design possibilities and focus on a handful of essential features. 

Such decisions need to be made with business objectives in mind, but also with full awareness about customer experience. Skipping this step could potentially cause delays during the realization stage, so it’s prudent to take your time and carefully select the primary purpose of your AI-driven bot.

Why choosing a chatbot platform is the most important step

While building an AI chatbot from scratch is certainly possible, it would require advanced programming skills far beyond the reach of most businesses looking to implement chatbot technology. 

A much more realistic possibility is to choose a chatbot platform that supports AI capacities and create a unique chatbot starting from a solid foundation. It goes without saying that the quality of the platform largely determines how successful your bot will be, so conducting some background research is highly recommended. 

Ideally, you want to work with a technology company that has extensive knowledge about conversational marketing and the know-how to turn client’s wishes into highly responsive, self-improving solutions. 

Modeling the conversation flow to cover all possibilities

Since advanced chatbots can react to user messages and generate responses that take the content as well as the emotional tone of the message into account, they are capable of organically driving the conversation in many different directions. 

Planning the conversation flow is one of the central tasks during the chatbot building process, and it has to be executed smartly in order to cover as much ground as possible. 

In practice, chatbots will have to respond to a huge number of different inquiries and there is a need to map out the paths that lead to the best outcomes. By defining the most likely scenarios and indicators that help to recognize them, it’s possible to optimize the behavior of the bot and positively affect user experience.

How to train your chatbot using relevant data from multiple sources 

The most important feature that separates smart bots from their simpler relatives is the ability of the AI algorithm to dynamically analyze information collected through user interactions, from databases, and other sources, gradually refining its discriminative power. 

This allows for detailed understanding of the user's mindset, intentions, and actions, providing a contextual framework for the bot to decide upon optimal responses. Training the chatbot allows it to react better to new situations based on the examples it already saw, with an incredible capacity for learning transfer. Machine learning principles involved in this process scale very well, so training becomes more efficient with large datasets.

Testing the chatbot and collecting user feedback

Chatbots need to be meticulously tested before they are launched, allowing for any minor imperfection to be discovered in time and fixed. This process can have multiple iterations, gradually leading to a finished product that is bug-free and ready to deploy. 

Even when a chatbot is installed live on your website, that’s not the end of work on its design and features. The way users interact with it must be carefully monitored, and their honest feedback systematically collected and statistically processed. Understanding which questions can confuse the chatbot and which routines require some tweaking is essential if you want to accomplish your goals using AI-based bots. 

Integrating the chatbot with existing software systems

It’s important to remember that a chatbot is not operating in a vacuum – it’s just the customer-facing element of a wider company software system. 

Chatbots can be directly plugged into a CRM system and dynamically update data about customers based on daily interactions. They can also communicate with cloud solutions and use online databases to improve performance. 

Modern AI bots are very versatile and can collaborate with different software frameworks, but they need to be programmed in a way that ensures smooth data exchange. With methods such as an API integration, this communication is fully automated, so the user doesn’t have to worry about compatibility issues or similar technical problems.

How difficult is it to create an AI chatbot?

From all of the above, it’s very clear that designing an AI chatbot requires some additional tools and insight. As opposed to simple bots that can often be purchased off the shelf, smart technology requires strategic planning and expertise. 

The most logical way to acquire a smart bot is to partner with a specialist company like Instabot and use their platform to create a new project that perfectly addresses your business needs. The process can go very quickly if you are working alongside professionals, so your AI chatbot could be ready to deploy within weeks after your first blueprints are drawn.

To find out more about AI chatbot platforms, their benefits, and collaboration opportunities, contact Instabot today.