The Best AI Chatbots for Customer Service List
Here are the top 10 ai chatbots for customer service I’d like to highlight out of the 30 I cover in this article:
When your customers contact you, they want their concerns resolved quickly and efficiently. But as your customer base grows, it can be challenging to assign a service agent to every request. Thankfully, the best AI chatbots for customer service provide excellent customer care while taking some of the load off your service team.
In this article, I've compiled a list of the best AI chatbots for customer service. I've focused on tools that automate customer service inquiries by leveraging machine learning (ML) to glean context from text, images, patterns, and customer history.
At the end of the article, I also answer some frequently asked questions (FAQs) about AI chatbots for customer service.
What is AI Chatbot for Customer Service?
AI chatbots are an automated method of responding to customer requests. These tools are delivered via a cloud-based software platform, and connected to your customer-facing website. AI chatbots are programmed to provide customized support based on your organization's unique specifications.
Generally speaking, when a customer visits your website with a concern, the chatbot option would allow them to immediately "speak to" a representative by typing their request into a chat window. The experience would run seamlessly from your website, despite being managed by a third party provider.
An Overview of the 30 Best Chatbots for Customer Service
Here’s a brief description of each of the best AI chatbots for customer service on my list, showing what it does best, plus screenshots to showcase some of the features.
Zoho SalesIQ
Best for its varied customization options
Zoho SalesIQ is software designed to help businesses enhance their customer support and sales processes through live chat and visitor tracking. You can engage with your website visitors in real-time through a chat widget that you can customize to match your brand, add proactive chat messages, and even route chats to the right team member based on the visitor's behavior.
The software is user-friendly and easy to set up, and it offers a range of useful features that make it stand out from other live chat software. One of the standout features is the ability to see what visitors are typing before they hit send. This allows you to anticipate their needs and respond quickly. Another great feature is the ability to create chatbots that can handle basic inquiries and free up your team's time for more complex issues.
Zoho SalesIQ plans start at $7/operator/month, and they offer a 15-day free trial.
Conversica
Best for continuity across the entire customer journey
Conversica is designed mainly to assist marketing and sales teams to engage potential customers as they enter the customer journey. The software integrates with Salesforce.
One of the tool’s most useful features is its ability to conduct A/B testing. This feature makes it possible to message different lead segments based on specific details collected by the bot.
Conversica costs from $2999/month and offers a free demo.
Netomi
Best for reducing customer wait times
One of the main advantages of using Netomi is that the tool has native integration into other tools such as Zendesk Chat, Salesforce Chat, and LivePerson. It’s also designed to help organizations to serve up highly relevant articles from their knowledge base so bots can quickly find answers to queries.
The tool provides immediate resolution to most problems by identifying feedback on social media.Cost information is not provided. You can request a free demo on the site.
Intercom
Best for creating targeted messages for different customer segments
Intercom provides services under three broad categories: conversational support, conversational engagement, and conversational marketing. The tool comes with iOS and Android apps, making it easy to access information on the go.
Intercom also has an in-app feature that provides cross-platform support for Ionic React and Native React.Intercom costs from $59/month and offers a 14-day free trial and a free demo.
Drift
Best for real-time conversations with website visitors
Drift is designed for teams that want to communicate with potential customers in real-time on the company website. The tool is designed to help customer service teams identify the quality leads that should be transferred to interaction with human agents through chat, phone, or a meeting.
It contains questions that assist customer service teams to better understand the needs of such customers.Drift costs from $40/month + $20/additional seat as needed. They offer a free trial.
Jitbit Helpdesk
Best for customer engagement through automation
Jitbit Helpdesk’s automation engine improves workflows for customer service teams. This software can be used for various tasks: sending auto-responders, assigning tickets to help desk agents, helping managers identify tickets that have not been dealt with for a certain number of days so that they can escalate these overdue tickets.
Jitbit Helpdesk provides a great reporting feature that allows you to sort tickets based on date, ticket status, or assigned agent. Jitbit Helpdesk costs from $29/user/month and offers a 21-day free trial.
Kommunicate
Best for seamless flow between AI chatbots and human agents
Kommunicate can assign tickets to free agents based on an analysis of incoming customer communications.Kommunicate’s automation features are extremely useful for lead generation, especially the lead collection forms that help customer service teams gather all the necessary customer details.
Kommunicate also allows for seamless customer movement between the chatbot and the human agent so that resources are used where they are needed most. The software has an intuitive and clear dashboard.
Kommunicate costs from $24/month for up to 2 agents and offers a 30-day free trial.
Ushur
Best for customer care in high-contact industries
Ushur is a tool specifically designed to assist customer service teams in high-contact industries like finance, logistics, and insurance. The chatbot is enhanced with the capability to extract data, from which it learns new skills. It can also be integrated with some of the leading backend systems like Salesforce and HubSpot.
Ushur offers customized pricing upon request and a free demo.
IBM Watson Assistant
Best for budget-conscious customer service teams
IBM’s Watson Assistant streamlines the customer service process by providing accurate answers to queries across different devices, applications, and channels. This tool works well for teams that don’t have a lot of experience working with chatbot for customer service tools because no specialized knowledge is required to manage the software.
Watson Assistant is free to use for up to 10K messages/month. Paid plans cost from $140/month and come with a 30-day free trial.
Tidio
Best for small to medium sized businesses
Tidio is a customer service platform that helps your team level up your customer support and generate more sales. With an easily accessible live chat widget, Tidio makes your business available 24/7, while AI-powered chatbots engage your customers in real-time.
Tidio is currently trusted by 300,000+ websites worldwide.Tidio is designed and built for small businesses. It is delightfully easy to set up and use, so you can transform your customer service into a sales machine in no time.
Connect Messenger, Instagram, live chat, and email to Tidio multichannel and answer all messages from one place, also on mobile. Tidio easily integrates with all websites and platforms like WordPress, Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce, and many others.
Tidio is free for 3 operators and up to 100 unique visitors. Paid plans costs from $39/month and come with a 7-day free trial.
The Best AI Chatbots for Customer Service Summary Table
| Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zoho SalesIQ Best for its varied customization options | 15-day free trial available | From $7/operator/month | Visit Website |
| 2 | Conversica Best for continuity across the entire customer journey | Free Demo | From $2999/month | Visit Website |
| 3 | Netomi Best for reducing customer wait times | Free Demo | Visit Website | |
| 4 | Intercom Best for creating targeted messages for different customer segments | 14-day free trial | From $74/month (billed annually) | Visit Website |
| 5 | Drift Best for real-time conversations with website visitors | Free trial available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
| 6 | Jitbit Helpdesk Best for customer engagement through automation | Free demo available | $1700/10 agents | Visit Website |
| 7 | Kommunicate Best for seamless flow between AI chatbots and human agents | 30-day Free Trial | Starts at $40/month | Visit Website |
| 8 |  Ushur Best for customer care in high-contact industries | Free Demo | Pricing Upon Request | Visit Website |
| 9 |  IBM Watson Assistant Best for budget-conscious customer service teams | 30 Days Free Trial | From $140/month | Visit Website |
| 10 | Tidio Best for small to medium sized businesses | 7-day free trial | From $19/user/month | Visit Website |
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Other AI Chatbot for Customer Service Options
Here are some other conversational AI platforms that didn’t make the top list.
- Zoho Desk
Best for service teams looking for a tool that learns fast from the knowledge base
- LivePerson
Best for answering questions during the purchase interaction
- Mercury
Best for e-commerce self-service
- Comm100 Chatbot
Best for ease of setup
- Finn AI
Best for banks and credit unions
- ChatBot.com
Best for streamlining customer service processes
- Odus
Best for automating calls and messages
- Boost
Best for building a self-learning AI chatbot in a short period
- Amelia
Best for teams with little experience in conversational AI
- Heyday
Best for retail messaging
- Linc
Best end-to-end CX automation solution
- HappyFox Chatbot
Best for teams of different sizes that need custom solutions
- Bold360
Best for personalized digital experiences
- Ivy.ai
Best for higher education
- Replicant Voice
Best for teams looking for full automation
- LiveChat
Best for sales teams
- Khoros
Best for faster insights and collaboration
- Ada
Best for dealing with customer inquiries in real-time
- Jetlink Conversational AI Platform
Best for teams that want to scale
- Kindly Assist
Best for building complex AI chatbots based on NLP
- LiveAgent with Quriobot
Best for lead generation, customer support, and feedback.
How I Selected the Best AI Chatbot for Customer Service
Are you wondering how I selected the best AI chatbots for customer service that appear on this list? I started by reviewing the tools with the highest customer reviews.
After gathering my long list, I applied the evaluation criteria below to see how each platform stacked up against the next. Lastly, I finalized the shortlist by drawing on my years of experience to identify which features added the most value.
- User Interface (UI): With chatbots, the UI must be intuitive and modern on both ends—the one that is agent-facing and the customer-facing one. I want chatbot functionality to be immediately obvious based on design context clues.
- Usability: Is it easy to learn and master? Does the company offer good tech support, user support, tutorials, and training to the service team? Is the response time fast once queries are generated? How well does the chatbot do in terms of intelligence, management of errors, answering questions, navigation, and onboarding?
- Integrations: Is it easy to connect with other tools to deliver valuable metrics? Any pre-built integrations? In this case, I am looking for a chatbot that I can use with popular messaging apps like Slack and Facebook Messenger.
- Value for $: How appropriate is the price for the features, capabilities, and use case? Is pricing clear, transparent, and flexible? I always look for a chatbot for customer service software that provides a free trial to test drive the tool before I commit to a paid plan.
People Also Ask
Here are the answers to the questions I receive most often about AI chatbots for customer service.
What is chatbot service?
Chatbot service is the provision of AI and machine learning assisted chat functionality to enhance customer experience. When a customer contacts your organization, certain types of requests can be routed to an Artificial Intelligence chatbot rather than to human support agents. You can use chatbots to address simple questions easily and assist customers in finding self-serve solutions, thereby increasing customer satisfaction.
What are some key features of AI chatbots for customer service?
Here are some key features to look for when choosing customer support chatbots:
- Natural language processing (NLP): This AI technology feature makes it possible for the chatbot to understand messages and respond appropriately. NLP helps provide context to the chatbot.
- Comprehensive Knowledge Database: Chatbots powered by AI use the aggregate knowledge base of an organization to find solutions that improve user experience. This allows such tools to do most of the work that previously would have been done by customer support teams.
- Data collection: Sophisticated AI chatbots should be capable of collecting essential data and learning from it to improve their functionality and, ultimately, the customer service experience.
- Compatibility with different mediums: The most useful AI chatbots can be used via different mediums, including live chat, SMS, or social media (e.g., WhatsApp or Facebook messenger).
- Wait Times: A chatbot should reduce the customer wait time by providing accurate responses with speed.
What are the advantages of using AI chatbots for customer service?
The modern customer has no time to wait so that they can get answers to their inquiries. When they hit a blockade, customers simply move on to the next business. This is the main advantage of having AI customer service chatbots ready and able to answer basic questions or escalate issues 24/7.
Chatbots can help a company save time and money because human representatives are called on to deal with complex problems only. AI chatbots also help the business to generate and follow up on leads by collecting customer contact information on the spot. The data collected by chatbots can be used as learning material for both the chatbot and the company.
How do AI and machine-learning-based chatbots differ From rule-based chatbots?
Rule-based chatbots listen to keywords in a query and then search through available answers to respond to the query. Therefore, they will always answer queries with the keywords they understand, using the same predefined responses. On the other hand, machine-learning- and AI-based chatbots use human NLP and machine learning to constantly learn new ways of responding to queries.
What Do You Think About These AI Chatbots for Customer Service?
Any business or organization that still believes in human interactions as the only approach to customer relationship management (CRM) probably hasn’t seen the numbers. For instance, it is expected that up to 85% of customer interactions are already being managed without involving human agents.
If your organization is ready to make the leap, check out these fantastic articles from our subject matter experts:
What is a Chat Bot and How Do They Work?
Customer Support Automation: Benefits, Challenges, and How To
Have you tried out any of the AI chatbots for customer service tools above? Did the tool meet your expectations or make it easier to help customers? Sound off in the comments. Please sign up for the newsletter for the latest insights from top thinkers in the niche.
Related List of Tools: Customer Database Software For CX Professionals