14 Myths about AI Chatbots: Expectations vs Reality

We all know the feeling. You’re excited about a new technology or gadget, you can’t wait to get your hands on it, and then… it doesn’t quite meet your expectations. Why is that happening? You ask yourself and hurry to leave behind the bad experience without knowing the exact problem. That’s mostly happening because you didn’t know the reality and have your own expectations of something that you are not quite familiar with. You blame the technology that ruined your day/project/event/business, but did you ask yourself if you read everything about it and learn how to use it properly? Did you make the test, any adjustments? Maybe the answer is I didn’t have the time to do it… That’s not an excuse if you want your business to grow and you thought for example that the chatbot technology would help but didn’t meet your expectations. AI chatbots! People have a love-hate relationship with them, but with exact knowledge of the proper planning, implementing, training, creating the content, promoting, and what mistakes to avoid before using, for sure they will do their job and the expected awesome results will turn into reality. If you want to know what the real purpose of one chatbot is, and how to handle it to work at its best and in favor of your business, customers, and employees, continue reading our blog posts to not miss the opportunity to learn! Stay tuned!

Here are some myths we discovered our potential customers had before joining the AI chatbot family. It is time to unravel them once and forever.

The Expectations Versus the Reality of AI Chatbots

Dying and not a trendy technology? Sure, the first AI chatbot Eliza was created a long time ago at the time of the first albums of Rolling Stones – in 1966, older than most of the readers of this article. One can guess that there are new cooler things that already are replacing chatbots. Yes, there is – the conversational AI. While a couple of years ago basic bots with predefined information and those upgraded with keywords recognition were experiencing some doubts from the business as very limited on benefits solutions, chatbots with conversational AI have shaped communications in the past 2 years not only for businesses but also for customers and employees. Conversational AI, conversational marketing, conversational commerce – all three happen in chatbots and conversational commerce (selling through SMS, chatbots, and smart speakers) is one of the fastest-growing and most popular trends in marketing and sales globally. It is one of the fastest adoption ways to improve your marketing and sales for your business overall. From 2020 to 2025, a 590% growth is expected with 50% of sales in conversational commerce happening in chatbots. The conversational AI market size is also expected to reach USD 41.39 billion by 2030, according to a new report by Research and Markets and it is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 23.6% from 2022 to 2030. These amazing prognoses are more likely to turn into reality with the market for enterprise chatbots and virtual digital assistants (VDAs) that is expected to more than triple from 2020 to 2026 to at least USD 8 billion, according to a new report “Chatbots & Virtual Digital Assistants 2022: Market Trajectory, Forecasts” by Omdia. Big numbers for big expectations which we are sure will turn into reality.

Putting aside the age and the trends of the technology, here are 14 myths that people still think of chatbots, and we want to break them for you:

• The AI chatbot is the Terminator … from whom to be afraid that might steal your job!

There are still people that are afraid of chatbot technology. First, the basic bots with predefined information cannot be a technology to be afraid of, as it’s simple and can perform only limited routine tasks. On other hand, chatbots with conversational AI are much more developed and versatile in what services they can perform, but still, the business itself decides what to include and has full control over the content and functionalities. There is no place to worry that technology has its own “brain”. A common misconception – people still think that the AI chatbot would conquer the world one day like in the movie I, Robot. That’s just a movie and the AI chatbots are as good and as powerful as the team that creates and maintains them. They cannot replace human conversation on 100% and cannot replace human beings – their mission is to help people by relieving them from the routine and allowing them to have more time for the more exciting job.

Up to 75-80% of customer questions at any business usually are recurring and frequently asked at any time of the day! The AI chatbot helps automate these questions and routine tasks to make staff work easier. With its help, employees will be able to take on more complex tasks and have more opportunities for personal development, and focus on the development of the company they are working for. An AI chatbot will not steal their job but will replace them only in these tasks that prevent them from doing better!

One perfect example is the hotel AI chatbot of hotel complex Izgreva – Izgrevcho relieved the manager and the staff of the responsibility and the time to always be available to pick up the phone instead of doing their actual work. The hotel AI chatbot made on the Umni platform, helps with customer communication and reservations, 24/7/365 and the hotel staff have more time for more exciting communication with the guests that they see as their friends and part of the hotel family.

• AI chatbot is a Superhero … who can solve absolutely all problems!

The AI chatbots are not superheroes that will help with all your business problems. There are still business owners who would think that having a chatbot is a panacea for all business issues, having unrealistic expectations about it. When their chatbot would not help, they conclude that this technology is not helpful at all. They would think that the chatbot even with AI is a dummy. However, one cannot blame technology! The well-planned, created, and maintained AI chatbot has strictly defined tasks set by the business itself and its employees. The quality and performance of a chatbot depend heavily on the business team. AI chatbot usually performs tasks, that are predictable and part of a routine! It could help with increasing sales, improving customer service and experience, revolutionizing marketing, saving on costs and resources, etc., but all this depends on the business and how to do it with the help of an AI chatbot to achieve its goals.

Superheroes exist only in movies. Better replace the rose-colored glasses with a reality check of AI chatbots’ world and how they can help your business, customers, and employees. Now is a good time to start your project to have a fully working digital assistant in just a few months. Learn more about how to start it in our blog post on the topic. Also, check if you haven’t done one or two of the 10 most common mistakes in creating and using an AI chatbot.

• AI chatbot is looking for customers itself! Think twice – marketing efforts are needed!

The AI chatbot on the website is not a spider crawling all over the internet and hunting for customers. It is an innovative tool that is upgrading your website and business communication experience. “On the website” is key to understanding that your team would need to have a proactive role in creating awareness about your chatbot. You cannot think that customers will come to it without knowing about its existence. Show it to the world, make a marketing campaign, advertise it, and show your customers how to reach it, and use it. The AI chatbot won’t search for potential customers itself, you have to direct them to it! Each part of the AI chatbot has its own unique link, which allows customers to be directed to a specific place in the bot (form, information, or other) from all your social media accounts and ads, instant messaging, emails, any place online and offline with a direct link or a QR code to click or scan.

Marketing efforts are also needed to promote the chatbot while your customers learn to use it! In our blog post on the topic, we shared many ways and best practices of chatbot promotion so feel free to try them for your newest team member of your business family and your customers will fall in love with your chatbot.

• The AI chatbot is Einstein!? It’s great for easy and predictable tasks and routine questions, but it still requires creative people behind it!

Einstein is one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time! But here is another story. The AI chatbot could not invent itself the theory of relativity. The AI chatbot requires great team behind it to have the best working digital assistant in favor of the business, its customers, and its employees. The content of the AI chatbot is determined entirely by the business itself! The chatbot gets smarter with its constantly training and usage, and the more creativity is shown, the more interesting and engaging it becomes for all customers! The AI chatbot doesn’t know everything from day 1, and the team that takes care of it has to develop and maintain it constantly! That are rules which need to be followed for impressive performance and accomplishment of the most desirable goals of the brand. There are also some mistakes that need to be avoided for a smooth and trouble-free process.

• AI chatbot is a one-time job! Sorry but it’s a long process with conversational AI training and content management!

The chatbot is not a one-time job of creation and implementation and forgets about it. The AI chatbot needs daily or weekly checking for analyzing customer behavior and discovering missed trends and opportunities. By knowing better your customers with the help of the automatic collection of first- and zero-party customer data by the AI chatbot, you will provide more relevant products and services for a better customer experience. More happy customers, more direct sales, right? The AI chatbot could have a pre-trained module of topics with questions and answers that need less attention, but if it is started from scratch, the team that takes care of it must have the patience for its training! To become a fully trained digital employee, the AI chatbot must be constantly trained with every customer interaction. The more the bot is trained, the more information relevant for the business it gives. The predefined content in the chatbot also needs actualization and upgrades based on customer search history. That way customers will always receive what they are looking for and won’t go to search for other alternatives.

• The AI chatbot fails to feel human. It could do it if you make it with the perfect personality!

Some businesses still think that only person-to-person service can provide quality and understanding. That is right, nothing can replace a true human conversation. When it comes to the business and knowing its target audience, there can be various tools for the best customer experience and support. Today, with the development of conversational AI, AI chatbots could mimic a human conversation and when well trained, people could not distinguish if they are talking to a human being or a bot (keep in mind, there is an EU requirement for transparency to conversational AI chatbots, which means users shall know they communicate with a chatbot).

40% of people do not care if they are talking to a bot or human when it comes to getting help quickly and easily, as shown in a report by HubSpot. Why does it matter if you are talking to a real team member or a digital one when the result is satisfaction?

• The AI chatbot technology is expensive. Actually, it is more affordable than ever now!

A common misconception is that chatbot technology is an expensive one and only big corporations could afford them. In some old forums online at the sunrise of the technology, you can still find posts that mention 5-digit amounts only for a chatbot creation. That’s not true anymore. It became a mass technology that every business, no matter its size and budget, can have – one that also saves time and business resources, and make money. Yes, a few years ago it was more expensive to have an AI chatbot on your site and the technology was not so developed and known. But now, it is more affordable than ever, and it is up to you and your business which AI chatbot provider to choose. All have different monthly or yearly plans according to the business size and needs of functionalities and goals.

For example, the large 5-star hotel Casa di Fiore Spa & Medical has a hotel AI chatbot – Miss Fiore on their site that helps with customer service and reservations. The small 24-room family hotel complex Izgreva also has a hotel AI chatbot with a landing page. They both made their chatbots on the Umni platform – both working in favor of the hotels and affordable for the hotel management. They also save on the time of the hotel staff answering routine questions and talking through the phone – now the AI chatbots deal with guests from many countries at once.

• The AI chatbot is rocket science in use! Facts: it is easy to use, no download and installation needed or any special skills – just an automated chat on the business site!

Chatbot technology is used for many years now and there are still people who think if it is related to artificial intelligence, it is something difficult to learn and use. AI chatbots that are made on the Umni platform are as easy as 1-2-3 to create and maintain, they are placed on the business site and people just need to enter them to chat, no need to download or install them.

There are businesses that spend much time and many resources for developing mobile apps for customer communication. AI chatbots also need time and resources but they are easier to use, with a better conversational interface, and more affordable than ever. Customers already have their phones full of applications and think twice when it comes to downloading another one so if you want to drive traffic to your website and provide an easy-to-use chat for a better customer experience – the AI chatbot is the right decision to make. There are also people that would ask – why on the site and not on messengers – here are the 10 answers we will happily share with you. Keep moving forward to not stay behind your competitors that could right at this moment consider the implementation of an AI chatbot on their side (site).

• The AI chatbots are dummies! For that look in the mirror. The AI chatbot is as good as the team does it – the more you train it, the smarter it becomes!

AI chatbots can be dummies if the business didn’t plan them well or trained them well – it depends on the business itself. Which business wants to ruin its brand reputation? That’s why when considering implementing an AI chatbot you shall properly plan and train your chatbot as a digital representative of your brand.

It is necessary for the implementation of an AI chatbot, its content to be planned, its development to be constant and not to miss its promotion and popularization! It is necessary to have one person or better a team, who trains and maintains the chatbot to be useful for the business, its customers, and employees! You can check the 12 benefits we collected to see how AI chatbots help exactly the business, its customers, and its employees.

• The AI chatbot is not for our business! Stats: today it is used by any kind of business, no matter its size and industry, needs, and goals!

An AI chatbot cannot fit into my business. Of course, that’s a decision up to the business owner, but technology can help with many problems, no matter the business industry and size. An AI chatbot for sure is for every business! For example, among the Umni customers are hotels, small and big ones, a university, beauty salons, a clinic, a library, an art gallery, a funeral agency, a tour operator, a wholesaler, online stores, foundations, and organizations, and many others, even singer – all have AI chatbots with different purposes that assist their clients, partners, and employees.Our recommendation to businesses that think a chatbot is not useful for them is to dig dipper into their activities, communication, operations and procedures and analyze them for discovering the routine elements that could be automated – it is not necessary that the need is at your direct customer, it could be at the customer of your customer! It could be your employees that need it… Even if the chatbot would affect only 10% of the cases that could be handled, in a long term this would bring benefits. Walk that extra mile!

The chatbot of Queen’s for example is a purebred marketing instrument, while the chatbot of the Varna Regional Library helps with the re-assignment of borrowed literature and related to the field tasks. Anyone can implement an AI chatbot into their brand communication and it only depends on the business specifics and needs.

Do you manufacture machinery? Put a QR code on each of them and the user with one scan will be able to log into the chatbot and get information on how to use it, troubleshoot or order maintenance.

And, just in case that behind “it is not for our business” stays “I don’t like chatbots”… remember, it is not about your feelings, but what your customers and employees need. Check, ask and analyze before making your final decision.

• I do not need an AI chatbot, I use messengers!

Why do I have to use an AI chatbot when I use messengers, talk through the phone, send emails, and have live chat agents…? Here is the unambiguous answer – the AI chatbot automates communication lowering the usage of all these channels, saving time and resources for the business, its employees and of course, customers who love to chat, not talk. By using messengers, you direct and keep customers out of your site. Isn’t your website the place where they shall make the final purchase? Don’t you want more website traffic? An AI chatbot on your site can guide customers and help with their orders without the need for a real person to handle the routine tasks and questions.

Also chatting in messengers would not allow your business to get structured first and zero-party data about the customer behavior, questions, and needs, which is the added value of AI chatbot usage. Not to mention that on average 35% to 45% of the chatbot users interact with the business chatbots outside of the company working hours… Do you enjoy calls and notifications about customer questions before going to bed?

Talking through the phone – takes too much of your time when you can do something more complex and exciting. An AI chatbot saves up to 12 minutes of employees per talking to a customer – very cool, right? How much does your business communication costs? Businesses pay annually $1.3 trillion for calls for customer service and support, yet up to 80% is about routine questions and tasks.

Sending emails – yes, they are more personalized, but you cannot be sure that the person on the other side will receive it, read it, and in the best scenario will answer it. But you can guide customers from emails to your AI chatbot on your site – to a specific webpage with a precise chatbot element opening in the widget on it, so customers would accomplish the desired action that the business wants them to do with 1 click. That’s how email marketing and AI chatbots work together for the best customer experience.

Live chat agents – yes, they can solve the most complex tasks but have to be 24/7 online and need breaks. An AI chatbot does not need any coffee breaks or sleep at all – always available 24/7/365.  That’s why we wrote a whole blog post on the topic in which we mentioned all AI chatbot alternatives and their pros and cons so go check it if you are still not convinced that the AI chatbot is the right decision.

• People don’t want to talk to chatbots!

That’s a matter of wrong expectations and prejudices, as well because of old memories – of the time the chatbots were first introduced and lack conversational AI, integrations and … good practices in their creation. Technology keeps developing literally on a monthly basis. The fact that chatbots assist in a matter of seconds and 24/7 is the actual reason why people love to chat with them and be guided and receive answers to their questions. In fact, in a survey of 1,000 respondents, about 35% said that the number one reason to use a chatbot is to save time and 54% indicated that they would always use one of the savings were 10 minutes and more. Almost 70% of the respondents said that they have used chatbots already which proves that most people would use a chatbot to have an informal chat or receive valuable information. On the Umni platform, the repeater users of the chatbots are on average 75%, which means 75% of the business clients, once introduced to the business AI chatbot, come back to it for more assistance.

• All chatbots are the same!

Have you ever chatted with a chatbot?! If not, you could believe the statement, but it is just a myth! There are different kinds of chatbots with different purposes: business AI chatbots, virtual assistants, ChatGPT (that is actually not an AI chatbot, but an AI language model that you can chat with), entertainment chatbots, basic chatbots, rule-based ones, and other. All of them have different goals and use different technologies, some of them include the usage of artificial intelligence, and some of them do not so they are not all the same. Even the 2 chatbots of 2 companies-competitors from the same industry would be different as they are a result of the work and expertise of the business team behind them. Business AI chatbots help businesses improve their customer service and support, marketing, and sales in a business-controlled environment while the big language models like ChatGPT are still in development and not always could give correct information, but could make up interesting content and materials.

• AI chatbots are a security risk!

AI chatbots could be vulnerable to security threats, just like any other software. However, chatbot developers and platforms, as well as your company can take steps to protect chatbots from security risks, such as using encryption, and other security measures such as:

– Access control: Limit access to the chatbot’s backend systems and data to only authorized personnel.

– Security testing: Regularly test the chatbot environment for vulnerabilities, such as hack attacks.

– Monitoring: Monitor the chatbot’s logs and traffic to detect and respond to any suspicious activity.

– Compliance: Ensure that your chatbot implementation is compliant with relevant data protection regulations such as GDPR.

– Regular software updates: Keep your chatbot and the related to it software updated to the latest version of the technology to make sure you benefit from the latest version and any security patches and fixes that may come with it.

Do you have another objection why not to use an AI chatbot that could be just a myth?

We are sure that you will make the right decision for your business. Firstly, you need to rely on the experts that share relevant information, like we are doing in our blog every week to keep updated all chatbot enthusiasts. Do not start your AI chatbot journey before knowing how to plan, promote and use it! Do your homework and it will pay you back later with an AI chatbot that works and accomplish your goals. If you want a shortcut into the chatbot world, contact us for a personal consultation. If you want to be hands-on and experience it yourself, you can start your 14-day free trial now!