A guide to the best AI chatbots

AI chatbots aren’t a luxury anymore—they’re the standard for providing an exceptional customer experience. According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2024, 67 percent of business leaders understand that chatbots can help build stronger customer relationships. As we learn more about the benefits of chatbots for businesses and customers, choosing the right AI chatbot is more important than ever.

You may know about AI chatbots thanks to OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in 2022. While ChatGPT is certainly one of the most popular conversational, generative artificial intelligence (AI), it isn’t purpose-built for every use case. Our guide details what you need to know about the top AI chatbots—for business and personal use—and ChatGPT alternatives in 2024.

• General use chatbots: ChatGPT, Perplexity, ZenoChat
• Customer and employee experience chatbot: Zendesk
• User experience chatbot: Gemini
• Web search chatbot: Copilot
• Creative writing chatbot: Claude
• Sales and marketing chatbots: Jasper Chat, Copy.ai, ChatSpot
• Gaming and fantasy chatbot: Character.AI
• Research and collaboration chatbot: Chatsonic
• IT and HR support chatbot: Workativ
• Education chatbots: Khanmigo, Socratic
• Healthcare chatbot: Woebot Health
• Human resources chatbots: Ideal
• Personal chatbot: Pi
• Open-source chatbots: Llama 2, HuggingChat
• Finance and banking chatbot: KAI by Kasisto
• AI chatbot aggregator: Poe
• Code generator chatbot: Amazon CodeWhisperer
• E-commerce and retail chatbot: Certainly
• Social media chatbot: Grok

1. ChatGPT

Use case: General use

Models: GPT-3.5 and GPT-4

Price: Starts at $0 per month

When OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022, it became the fastest-growing consumer app ever. It arguably popularized artificial intelligence, making generative and conversational AI tools accessible to everyone.

ChatGPT offers writing, summarization, coding, research, and parsing capabilities. ChatGPT can also integrate with add-ons and plugins to access accurate information or use third-party services. Some notable plugins include:

• OpenTable for restaurant reservations
• KAYAK for travel bookings
• Instacart for local grocery shopping
• Speak for learning other languages

Since its launch, ChatGPT has rolled out new iterations of the original intent model, such as GPT-3.5 (available for free plans) and GPT-4 (available for ChatGPT Plus and other paid plans).

ChatGPT also offers DALL·E, an AI-powered image generator. Users can enter a prompt or describe an image through voice chat. Based on the description, DALL·E will generate an output, such as a picture, logo, or comic strip.

ChatGPT has a few noteworthy limitations. The GPT 3.5 data set doesn't extend past the end of 2022, so some information may not be current. It might lack real-world knowledge and struggle with understanding context, leading to occasional irrelevant responses. Additionally, it can be susceptible to generating biased or inappropriate responses when prompted to do so.

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per month
• Plus: $20 per user/month
• Team: $25 per user/month
• Enterprise: Contact OpenAI

  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Unavailable

2. Zendesk

Use case: Customer experience and employee experience

Model: Proprietary

Price: Starts at $55 per agent/month

Unlike many AI chatbot solutions, Zendesk bots are fast to set up, easy to use, and cost-effective because they don’t require technical skills or resources to deploy. They come pre-trained on real customer, IT, and HR support interactions specific to your industry, saving teams the time and costs of manual setup.

Zendesk chatbots elevate our industry-leading ticket management system by engaging customers (or employees) as the first point of contact and automating support across web, mobile, and social messaging channels—and they’re available on every Zendesk plan.

Taking it a step further, Zendesk Generative AI—powered by OpenAI—enables teams to:

• Eliminate bot-building time by leveraging existing knowledge base content to deliver instant conversational responses using generative replies.
• Elevate your brand value with a consistent tone and chatbot persona that reinforces your brand.
• Optimize bot performance with intent suggestions based on past conversations that tell you what to automate.
• Enhance the bot's engagement by choosing intents where the bot responds using generative AI versus a predefined flow.

Beyond conversational bots, Zendesk also offers generative AI tools for agents. Our AI-powered agent tools include intelligent routing and triage—sending requests to the right human agent based on language, intent (what a conversation is about), and sentiment (if it’s positive, neutral, or negative)—and sharing these insights with agents to provide helpful context and suggestions for how to solve the issue. AI can also surface similar tickets, turn a few bullet points into a full reply, and summarize conversations to boost productivity.

What’s more, Zendesk recently announced its acquisition of Ultimate, an industry-leading provider of service automation, to deliver the most complete AI offering for CX on the market. Ultimate’s AI agents automate up to 80 percent of support requests. They leverage any knowledge source and offer full customization to resolve even the most sophisticated use cases. Together, Zendesk and Ultimate will give companies the flexibility and control to deliver customer support their way—whether through fully autonomous AI agents, workflow automation, or human touch.

Learn more about Zendesk and Ultimate.

Pricing:

• Suite Team: $55 per agent/month
• Suite Growth: $89 per agent/month
• Suite Professional: $115 per agent/month
• Suite Enterprise: Contact Zendesk

  *Plans are billed annually.

Explore more Zendesk pricing plans.

Free trial:

14 days

Take 30 seconds to start a free Zendesk trial or request a Zendesk demo.

3. Gemini

Use case: User experience

Models: Gemini, Pro 1.0, and Ultra 1.0

Price: Free

Gemini (originally Bard) is a conversational, generative AI chatbot developed by Google. Gemini's capabilities include engaging in multimodal dialogue (understanding and generating responses using different forms of communication such as text, speech, and images) and comprehending and producing content in multiple languages. It also possesses cultural understanding, enabling communication across diverse backgrounds.

Gemini can complete tasks like creating games, solving visual puzzles, and generating images with accompanying text descriptions. Its AI model is capable of logical and spatial reasoning—meaning it can follow instructions and understand logical relationships and spatial configurations, like in problem-solving tasks or game-play scenarios.

Gemini comes in three model sizes: Nano, Pro, and Ultra. Gemini Nano is optimized for smartphone and mobile devices, specifically for the Google Pixel 8. It can perform tasks like generating chat responses and summarizing text. Gemini Pro operates from Google's data centers, delivering fast responses and handling complex queries. Gemini Ultra is Google’s largest model, designed for highly complex tasks, coding, logical reasoning, and creative collaboration.

Gemini Advanced enables detailed conversations and understands more context than its previous versions. Gemini can serve as a personal tutor, generate step-by-step instructions, and assist with advanced coding scenarios. It can also analyze trends and help content teams brainstorm and create new content.

Google offers a free version of Gemini with the Pro 1.0 model that helps with common inquiries and integrates with Google apps. With the Ultra 1.0 model, the Advanced version targets highly complex tasks and will soon be available in Gmail, Docs, Slides, and Sheets (for Google One AI Premium subscribers).

Pricing:

• Gemini: $0 per month
• Gemini Advanced: $19.99 per month

Free trial:

2 months

4. Copilot

Use case: Web search

Model: GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo

Price: Starts at $0 per month

Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) is an AI-powered “companion” for web and mobile applications. With Copilot, users can ask questions and engage in follow-ups, get article summaries with personalized explanations, and generate emails and images. Copilot can also perform routine tasks with AI assistance, like suggesting meal plans.

Although some say it’s less conversationally creative than its competitors, the average user may find it handy for general planning, composing responses, and generating images.

Chatbot users can also view AI-powered results using the Bing search engine or app but have to download Microsoft Edge to get the full Copilot conversational experience. Copilot has a visual search and an enterprise-level chatbot that offers security features and citations for the answers it provides.

Microsoft Copilot has a free version, but there's a condition: Users must access the chatbot through Microsoft's Edge web browser. If the user has other browsers like Chrome, they will be restricted to five replies per conversation. Additionally, users can only engage in 300 conversations per day, with each thread capped at 30 replies, limiting extensive back-and-forth interactions.

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per month
• Pro: $20 per user/month

Free trial:

Unavailable

5. Claude

Use case: Creative writing

Model: Constitutional AI (CAI)

Price: Starts at $0.80/million tokens

Claude is a generative AI chatbot from Anthropic that uses Constitutional AI (CAI). The response bot software refers to itself as “self-contained,” meaning it responds to general queries without searching the internet. Claude uses the HHH system architecture, which stands for “helpful, honest, and harmless.”

Users can modify Claude’s behavior by prompting it with background knowledge to receive the desired responses. Claude comes in two paid models—Claude Instant and Claude 2—that can help users with text analysis, summarization, and creative content generation.

Since its original release in March 2023, Claude has upgraded to Claude 2.1, which was implemented in November 2023. Claude 2.1 showed an improvement over Claude 2.0, with a reduction in incorrect answers and improvements in understanding and summarizing long documents.

Claude 2.1 offers a range of capabilities but with some limitations. It has a daily limit of 200,000 tokens, roughly equivalent to 150,000 words. It lacks comprehensive world knowledge and cannot retain personal experiences. It operates within defined boundaries, struggling with adversarial or nonsensical input outside its domain.

Despite its conversational abilities, Claude is not a substitute for human intelligence. It’s incapable of offering psychological counseling, creative insight, strategic planning, or expert analysis.

Pricing:

• Claude Instant: starts at $0.80/million tokens
• Claude 2.0: starts at $8.00/million tokens
• Claude 2.1: starts at $8.00/million tokens

Free trial:

Unavailable

6. Perplexity

Use case: General use

Models: GPT-4, Claude 2.1, Gemini, Llama, or proprietary

Price: Starts at $0 per year

Perplexity is a general knowledge chatbot. It uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) and large language models (LLMs) to understand user queries and provide sources and citations to back up its responses.

Its search engine uses generative AI, including models from OpenAI and Meta's Llama. The conversational interface allows users to ask questions and get natural responses. The AI responds with summarized answers supported by source citations.

Perplexity also features Visual Perplexity, which allows the chatbot to respond to users using pictures and videos, and Llama Chat, an AI chatbot built on Meta’s Llama 2 model to support common programming languages and help developers with code.

Perplexity also features Copilot, a GPT-4-powered AI assistant. Users with a free account may only input five queries every four hours, while users on the paid plan get up to 600 queries on the free plan. Free-plan users can use their “Quick Search” more freely. It’s not powered by GPT-4 and has more rudimentary capabilities like serving up basic answers and search results to a question.

Perplexity.ai has its fair share of limitations and may occasionally generate factually inaccurate results. So, you might also end up with sentences that sound good statistically but include wrong information. Perplexity.ai may have issues understanding nuances of human language, such as sarcasm, humor, and cultural context.

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per year
• Pro: $200 per year

Free trial:

7 days

7. Jasper Chat

Use case: Sales and marketing

Models: GPT-4, Anthropic, Google, and proprietary models

Price: Starts at $39 per seat/month

Jasper Chat is an AI content and copywriting chatbot for businesses. Jasper’s AI bot helps brands generate content for various mediums like social media, advertising, articles, emails, and websites. It also helps users with ideas, maintains tone consistency, adheres to editorial guidelines and company information, and streamlines campaign collaboration.

Jasper can generate various content types, including video scripts and blog posts. It can also generate content and drafts based on bullet points or conversations. To use this tool, the user enters a prompt, refines their request, and exports the final result. Businesses can train Jasper on their preferred datasets and retain ownership of its outputs.

Jasper's AI bot ensures content adherence to a brand's voice and style while providing access to background information about the company for factual accuracy. It offers suggestions for content improvement and automated project management, enhancing transparency and efficiency in content generation tasks.

Additionally, Jasper can provide AI-generated text directly within Google Docs. It also offers AI recommendations for analytics and insights to enhance user performance and optimize content based on usage data.

Pricing:

• Creator: $39 per seat/month
• Pro: $59 per seat/month
• Business: Contact Jasper

  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

7 days

8. Character.AI

Use case: Gaming and fantasy

Model: GPT-3

Price: Starts at $0 per month

Character.AI users can choose the chatbot they want to talk to, and the bot will reply using the tone and language one would expect from that specific character. Here are some categories users can choose from:

• Helpers: dating coaches, psychologists, mock interviewers, and fitness coaches
• Famous people: Cristiano Ronaldo, Elon Musk, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking
• Game characters: Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Nathan Drake, and Shadow the Hedgehog
• Movie and TV characters: Regina George, Captain Jack Sparrow, Captain America, Eleven, Wednesday Addams, and Tony Stark

Character.AI users can have entertaining “conversations” with their favorite stars and characters, individually or in a group. For example, users can have a one-on-one chat with Socrates or have a group chat with all the members of The Avengers. Users can also create their own characters and personalities and make them available for chats with other Character.AI users. They can even design bots for specific uses, such as a generative AI host that leads a text-based adventure game.

Character.AI chatbots do face certain challenges, such as system updates affecting individual behavior, memory retention issues, and occasional inaccuracies in the information they give to users. Image generation may exhibit inconsistencies and quality issues, while pop culture references may not always produce accurate results. Users should be mindful of these limitations to manage expectations during interactions.

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per month
• Character.AI+: $9.99 per month

  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Unavailable

9. Chatsonic

Use case: Research and collaboration

Models: GPT-3.5 and GPT-4

Price: Starts at $0 per month

Chatsonic is a generative AI chatbot designed for content creation. Chatsonic can generate content directly from the chat window to various platforms like blogs or social media channels. It uses two of OpenAI’s intent models, GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, to enhance conversational experiences.

It has voice-to-text and text-to-voice capabilities that allow users to interact with the AI through spoken prompts. Users can request digital art outputs or content of any length, whether captions, email replies, or long-form articles. Chatsonic also offers Chrome extension plugins to make it easier for users to write and research by assessing and fact-checking information about events and topics in real time. That way, users get more accurate results during the research process.

Users can share conversations with others, enabling collaboration and feedback. Image generation using models like Stable Diffusion or OpenAI's DALL·E expands Chatsonic's capabilities beyond text, allowing for visual content creation. A prompt library offers pre-made templates for generating content, including SEO keywords. Users can save their prompts for future use or share them with team members.

ChatSonic also integrates with platforms like X and Slack to provide access to Chatsonic across different channels, facilitating communication and workflow management.

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per month (1 user)
• Small team: starts at $13 per month (1 user)
• Freelancer: $16 per month (1 user)
• Enterprise: starts at $500 per month

  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Unavailable

10. Workativ

Use case: IT and HR support

Model: GPT-4

Price: Starts at $0 per month

Workativ is a conversational AI platform that provides an AI chatbot to automate workflows and IT support for employee issues and requests. The Gen AI-powered chatbot, Workativ Assistant, helps employees handle issues independently without involving an IT support agent.

Workativ Assistant can understand the context of an inquiry and respond with relevant answers to facilitate self-service. It helps with unlocking accounts, reporting issues, password resets, access provisioning, account updates, email verification, and employee processes like onboarding and offboarding. The platform leverages Knowledge AI, powered by LLMs and Generative AI, to enhance the knowledge base and quickly respond to user queries.

Workativ also provides a no-code chatbot builder that enables users to create custom bots. These bots can manage conversations, answer FAQs, and integrate workflows. They can also notify users via chat about upcoming tasks, like reminders about expiring passwords, incomplete surveys, or personal information updates.

Workativ ensures the secure handling of user information provided to the bot, allowing admins to resolve user queries without storing or displaying sensitive data. For example, when users want to reset their password, they can provide the new password to the chatbot, which updates the password without storing or displaying it.

The platform also offers dynamic notifications to proactively notify users about actions they need to take in the workplace, such as updating passwords or filling out surveys. Users can also set up notifications using app triggers, providing endless possibilities for engaging with employees.

Workativ provides analytics and logs for deep insights into chatbot interactions, allowing users to monitor performance easily from a single dashboard. This includes tracking chatbot usage, sessions, user queries, and live status. Users can also review chat history and past conversations to identify areas for improvement and enhance chatbot effectiveness.

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per month (100 sessions)
• Starter: $1,530 per month
• Professional: $2,250 per month
• Enterprise: Contact Workativ

  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Unavailable

11. Copy.ai

Use case: Sales and marketing

Models: GPT-3.5, GPT-4, Azure, and Anthropic

Price: Starts at $0 per month

The Copy.ai chatbot is a text generation tool geared towards copywriting. The applications of Copy.ai include long-form articles, social media copy, product descriptions, content briefs, ad copy, and sales copy. It's designed for enterprise use cases in marketing and sales.

For example, the chatbot can write product descriptions for online shops, copy for digital ads, blog content, and more. Copy.ai has unlimited brand voices, pre-built prompt templates, and an “Infobase.” It can also generate content in 95-plus languages.

To get started, users must enter details about their project, including the topic, context, and tone. From there, sift through the bot's outputs and select your favorite option. Then, edit, add more details if needed, and publish your new content on the platform of your choice. It also offers prompt templates to speed up content creation and a Brand Voice feature that analyzes the content and infuses the brand's voice, tone, and style.

The platform's free plan is accessible for occasional content generation needs. Copy.ai isn't limited to a single AI model; it can work with various models like GPT 3.5, GPT 4, Azure, Anthropic, and more.

Additionally, Copy.ai leverages web scraping to pull and incorporate information from the web, ensuring relevant and up-to-date content creation. Copy.ai offers multiple user seats and shareable project folders for team collaboration.

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per month (1 seat)
• Pro: $36 per month (up to 5 seats)
• Team: $186 per month (up to 20 seats)
• Growth: $1,000 per month (up to 75 seats)
• Expansion: $2,000 per month (up to 150 seats)
• Scale: $3,000 per month (up to 200 seats)

  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Unavailable

12. Khanmigo

Use case: Education

Model: GPT-4

Price: $44 per year

Khanmigo is an AI chatbot created by Khan Academy, an educational organization. The AI-powered bot was designed to enhance learning experiences and provide personalized tutoring sessions. Khanmigo can provide teachers and tutors with effective strategies for teaching and engaging with students. Its virtual assistant helps teachers plan lessons and better understand their students’ needs.

For students, Khanmigo acts as an AI-powered, personalized tutor and can be used to help with assignments or break down complex topics. By leveraging the Socratic method, Khanmigo can help students find the correct answer without doing the work for them. It guides students through complex topics with thought-provoking questions and hints rather than simply giving them the answers.

Users can access interactive quizzes and review prior topics as they progress through Khan Academy's curriculum. Khanmigo offers 24/7 access, leveraging the GPT-4 language model for engaging conversations. Access to Khanmigo is currently only available in the United States and covers a limited range of subjects, including art, history, and math.

Pricing:

• $44 per year

Free trial:

Unavailable

13. Woebot Health

Use case: Healthcare

Model: Proprietary

Price: Free

Woebot, an AI chatbot developed by Stanford psychologists and artificial intelligence experts, aims to support global mental health by engaging users in therapeutic conversations, mood tracking, and interactive games. Founded in 2017 by Dr. Alison Darcy, a clinical research psychologist, Woebot offers multiple clinical and therapy approaches, including:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
• Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT)
• Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)

Woebot Health offers an AI chatbot that uses natural language processing and rules-based logic to provide 24/7 access to mental health support. Woebot’s conversational AI helps build relationships with patients, deliver personalized therapy techniques, and monitor user progress. The bot can also refer users to human providers when necessary. Its non-judgmental interactions cater to different age groups, providing personalized guidance while ensuring data protection.

In addition to providing on-demand support, Woebot Health offers evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy content, personalized care plans, and mobile access.

While Woebot is free to use, it is currently only available to users in the United States, limiting accessibility. Despite its unlimited query capability, some users may find it repetitive, and its effectiveness varies from person to person. Additionally, the platform lacks human interactions, which may be a drawback for some users.

However, its therapeutic effect, mood-tracking feature, and interactive conversations make it a valuable tool for enhancing well-being and engaging in therapeutic conversations.

Pricing:

• Free

Free trial:

Unavailable

14. Ideal

Use case: Human resources, recruiting, and employee onboarding

Model: Proprietary

Price: Contact Dayforce

Dayforce’s AI chatbot, Ideal, is a recruiting platform that automates contact with candidates and supports general talent acquisition efforts. The AI-powered recruiting tool streamlines candidate engagement, eliminates phone screenings, and automatically qualifies candidates, allowing hiring teams to prioritize top candidates through response screening and questionnaires.

It enables candidate interaction and qualification through automated responses. Candidates can be instantly qualified, complementing Ideal’s screening process. Moreover, the chatbot enhances the candidates' experiences by expediting communication and sending questionnaires via instant messages and emails within hours.

With AI-powered screening, matching, and automation features, Ideal prioritizes the top candidates and supports talent acquisition growth. It provides actionable insights, reduces hiring bias, and facilitates the construction of a more diverse workforce.

In addition to talent acquisition, Ideal uses DEI intelligence. This ensures businesses practice diversity, equity, and inclusion in the hiring process and throughout the employee life cycle. The platform also meets global compliance standards, adhering to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and more.

Pricing:

• Contact Dayforce

Free trial:

Contact Dayforce

15. Pi

Use case: Personal assistant

Model: Inflection-1

Price: Free

Pi is Inflection AI’s free, personal AI chatbot designed for conversations, emotional support, and companionship, responding with kindness, delicacy, and humor. Users can ask the bot for advice or answers to a particular query, brainstorm ideas, keep a journal, read a story, or just vent. It also declares that it has no interest in passing judgment or offering unsolicited advice, allowing users to discuss more sensitive topics.

Positioning itself as possessing greater emotional intelligence than ChatGPT, Pi aims to engage users in friendly conversations while offering varied perspectives on multiple topics. The chatbot operates with an unlimited query limit and utilizes the Inflection-1 language model. The human-like bot sends conversational messages (even emojis) to emphasize its points. The bot is free to talk to, but you must make an account if you want Pi to remember the details you share.

Pi features a minimalistic interface and a “Discover” tab that offers icebreakers and conversation starters. Though Pi is more for personal use rather than for business applications, it can assist with problem-solving discussions. The Discover section allows users to select conversation types, such as motivational talks or venting sessions. Although Pi may not have obvious productivity applications, its focus on personal well-being sets it apart.

While Pi lacks the flexibility of ChatGPT for tasks like internet searches or article writing, it offers a user experience characterized by minimalistic design, animations, and a preference for concise interactions. Pi fosters short bursts of conversation, often initiating discussions with open questions, like encouraging users to share their day or discuss personal challenges.

Currently available for free, Pi requires users to provide their name and phone number to maintain conversation history. This allows Pi to periodically check in with users, offering a gentle reminder to engage and reconnect. Despite occasional inaccuracies and slower response times, Pi's emphasis on privacy, creative content generation, and multilingual support adds to its appeal as a supportive and engaging chatbot experience.

Pricing:

• Free

Free trial:

Unavailable

16. Llama 2

Use case: Open-source

Model: Llama 2

Price: Free

Llama 2 is an open-source AI model developed by Meta. It uses LLMs to complete tasks like text generation and programming code. With an open licensing framework, users can access some of the code, allowing them to customize the model to fit business needs (until reaching a high revenue limit). Bear in mind that access to Llama 2's development details is restricted.

While deploying Llama 2 is tailored for developers, users can experiment with it on the Llama2.ai website to understand its responses. The output is straightforward and less refined than other chatbots, providing a basic exploration platform with minimal customization controls.

Llama 2 offers three model sizes: 7 billion, 13 billion, and 70 billion parameters. That means the larger models can understand more complex data and concepts but take more computing power and be more difficult to use. Offering a variety of model sizes makes Llama 2 accessible to businesses of all sizes. One of Meta’s goals for Llama 2 is to democratize the use of generative AI, making it available for personal, research, and commercial applications.

Pricing:

• Free

Free trial:

Unavailable

17. KAI by Kasisto

Use case: Finance and banking

Model: KAI-GPT

Price: Contact Kasisto

Kasisto’s conversational AI chatbot, KAI, is designed as a virtual assistant for financial institutions. Tailored for banking, KAI uses natural language understanding (NLU), NLP, and machine learning to handle customer queries around account information, transaction details, and personalized financial advice. Users can access it across various platforms like mobile, web, messaging, and voice-enabled devices.

Kasisto integrates with banking systems, allowing the AI chatbot to access account information and transaction history securely. The KAI platform includes KAI-GPT and KAI Answers, which work together for conversational support. These features combine GPT technology with Kasisto's conversational AI, delivering accurate and secure experiences that meet banking industry standards.

With KAI, financial institutions can automate intelligent customer support and provide 24/7 assistance. Think of KAI as the Siri of the banking world. It's designed to chat with users like a human, understanding language and intent and responding in a way that anyone can understand—not just finance experts. The chatbot platform also uses reporting and analytics tools to give users insight into customer behaviors and preferences.

Pricing:

• Contact Kasisto

Free trial

Unavailable

18. Poe

Use case: Chatbot aggregation

Models: GPT-4, DALL-E-3, Gemini Pro, Llama 2, Claude Instant, Claude 2, StableDiffusionXL, and more

Price: Contact Poe

Poe is an AI chatbot aggregator platform developed by Quora that consolidates various chatbots into a single online platform. It allows users to experiment with different language models and chatbots, including ChatGPT, Gemini, PaLM, Llama 2, and Claude.

Its AI chatbots can answer questions, generate content, translate languages, and play games. Poe’s native AI chatbot, Assistant, uses OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model, allowing it to answer questions and generate content similar to ChatGPT.

Poe enables users to create custom chatbots with or without coding, accommodating several language models tailored to various applications like writing, role-playing, and programming. Beginners can build a simple chatbot with its drag-and-drop tools, while developers can use Poe’s application programming interface (API) to integrate Poe with their current systems.

While training chatbots may take some proficiency, the platform features a Discover section. This tool lets users explore language models, tools for creating and managing chatbots, collaboration opportunities with other users, and cross-platform accessibility.

Despite potential message limitations for premium models, Poe remains a cost-effective choice for exploration. Additionally, users can develop their chatbots, tailor prompts, integrate knowledge bases, and monetize their creations through creator accounts, distinguishing Poe from OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Pricing:

• Contact Poe

Free trial:

Unavailable

19. Amazon CodeWhisperer

Use case: Code generator

Model: Proprietary

Price: Starts at $0 per month

Amazon CodeWhisperer is a tool available with Amazon Web Services (AWS). It’s an AI coding companion that enables developers to build secure applications quickly. CodeWhisperer was built for programming and trained on billions of lines of code. This makes it a top resource for business teams and individual users seeking coding shortcuts, suggestions, or support throughout challenging projects.

This tool is especially useful for programmers attempting to work with unfamiliar APIs and streamlining time-intensive projects. Those in industries with known security risks may also use CodeWhisperer to find hidden vulnerabilities in code and review suggestions to resolve them immediately.

CodeWhisperer offers contextual recommendations tailored to the user's coding environment. It considers factors like cursor location and surrounding code snippets within the same project. It is also adept at responding to natural language prompts.

Unlike conventional coding tools, CodeWhisperer can go beyond single-line suggestions. It can instantly generate entire functions or subroutines across varying programming languages and integrated development environments (IDEs).

LLMs power CodeWhisperer, so the tool draws insights from extensive datasets, including open-source repositories, internal Amazon resources, and API documentation. It specializes in cloud application development, expediting innovation in cloud-based projects.

While prioritizing coder productivity, CodeWhisperer upholds responsible coding practices by addressing concerns like bias, security vulnerabilities, and bugs. It features a built-in security scanner for vulnerability detection and a reference tracking mechanism to identify code similarities and review reference examples. Moreover, CodeWhisperer actively eliminates biased code recommendations to ensure fairness in coding practices.

Pricing:

• Individual Tier: $0 per month
• Professional Tier: $19 per user/month

Free trial:

Unavailable

20. HuggingChat

Use case: Open-source

Model: Llama 2, CodeLlama, Falcon, and Mistral

Price: Starts at $0 per month

HuggingChat is an open-source AI chatbot by HuggingFace. It functions similarly to ChatGPT, allowing users to craft texts, summaries, and content, as well as debug code, formulate Excel functions, and address general inquiries.

It can even help users create personalized meal plans and recipes or generate to-do checklists. The bot also elaborates on questions, predicting the user’s next question. If users have an account, they can refer back to the thread for details later—even if they’ve made another query since.

While the bot creates general content using its own data, you can toggle the “Search web” button so its outputs align more closely with other online results, giving you more recent information. Because it's open-source software, users can access and modify the source code to customize the platform to fit their specific needs and add additional properties.

HuggingChat does come with a few limitations. It may produce factual errors and spelling mistakes, and it is sometimes prone to generating hallucinations—an uncommon phenomenon that occurs when an AI chatbot provides responses not grounded in reality.

It occasionally stops generating output mid-response or strays from the original topic, particularly with longer prompts. While it's useful for brainstorming, you may want to choose a chatbot that specializes in critical task generation.

Pricing:

• HF Hub: $0 per month
• Pro Account: $9 per month
• Enterprise Hub: $20 per user/month

Free trial:

Unavailable

21. ZenoChat

Use case: General use

Models: ChatGPT-4 and Sophos 2

Price: Starts at $0 per month

TextCortex’s AI chatbot software, ZenoChat, is a content generation tool for writing assistance, such as rewriting sentences or editing internal documents. It's also ideal for translations, SEO, marketing support, information gathering, and entertainment. It uses a natural language generation (NLG) tool and tailors each chat with custom style, knowledge, and communication needs to the user.

The AI chatbot was trained using over 3 billion sentences to reduce plagiarism and create unique outputs. It also supports more than 25 languages, so users can communicate with people from different cultures and backgrounds.

The web search feature allows ZenoChat to provide the latest information from the internet. Users can customize their search by adding sources like Google Scholar, X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, or custom URLs. Users can also customize AI personas and link knowledge bases ZenoChat bots can use during conversations.

ZenoChat features a marketplace with numerous prompt templates that enable users to browse and choose the task they want to complete. These templates guide users, helping them ask precise questions to get the best results. In cases where prompts are too brief, ZenoChat offers a feature that expands them to ensure the topic is suitably covered.

Users can customize the base personality via the chat box dropdown menu, toggle web search functionality, integrate a knowledge base, or switch to a different language setting. In the free version, users are limited to 50 queries upon registration and 20 queries daily. Bear in mind that ZenoChat may have limited memory and context retention, posing risks of misinformation.

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per month (20 creations per day, 125 words per creation)
• Lite: $55.99 per month (up to 2800 creations per month)
• Unlimited: $83.99 per month (unlimited creations)

  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

14 days

22. Socratic

Use case: Education

Model: Google AI and search technologies

Price: Free

Socratic by Google is a search-based chatbot and learning app for education and research. It provides AI support for high school and college students to help them better understand their assignments. Socratic uses Google AI and search technologies to connect students with educational resources, including websites for study guides, tutorial videos on YouTube, and step-by-step guides. It also uses text and speech recognition, so students have different ways to communicate what they need help with.

Once prompted with a query, Socratic shares a top match from Google and a detailed explanation, often with visualizations. The app also provides links to reputable online resources and study guides written by experts to enhance learning experiences.

While the Socratic AI chatbot by Google helps students tackle homework questions or understand complex topics, it does have its limitations. For starters, it mainly relies on information available online. So, it might provide outdated or inaccurate answers, especially for more niche subjects. Also, Socratic may not be able to provide the in-depth analysis you need for tricky or abstract concepts.

Another thing to consider is language support, which might not cover all languages or dialects, making it less accessible for some users. Like with any AI, there's always a risk of getting misinformation, so it's wise to double-check important facts. It may be best to use the tool as a way to complement your own critical thinking and research efforts.

Pricing:

• Free

Free trial:

Unavailable

23. ChatSpot

Use case: Sales and marketing

Models: GPT-4 and Dall-E

Price: Free

ChatSpot is HubSpot’s AI-powered assistant that combines ChatGPT with HubSpot CRM data. Though the chatbot includes access to HubSpot, you don’t need to use the customer relationship management (CRM) software to use the AI support bot.

The public beta version of the bot helps marketing and sales teams draft emails, write social media captions, generate blog topics, and develop calls to action. ChatSpot can use prompts to surface research insights, keyword rankings, and answers to common questions. ChatSpot can also suggest prompts and templates for users to input into the chat. It comes with pre-built sales prospecting and marketing templates, too.

The tool goes beyond basic CRM functionalities, allowing users to summarize CRM data, generate reports and analytics, conduct keyword research, manage customer contacts, generate follow-up correspondence, write blog posts, and post directly to HubSpot websites. Additionally, the AI chatbot can collect company data and competitor analysis. With access to ChatGPT, ChatSpot offers additional writing functionalities, which help users create communication and marketing materials.

ChatSpot integrates with Google Drive, enabling users to send prompts directly to Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides to generate content. It also integrates DALL-E 2 to provide reports in various formats.

Pricing:

• Free

Free trial:

Unavailable

24. Certainly

Use case: E-commerce and retail

Model: OpenAI

Price: Starts at €2,000 per month (for 5,000 monthly conversations)

Certainly’s e-commerce and retail AI chatbots are tools for engaging customers, offering recommendations, and answering general inquiries. These bots enable businesses to provide automated support that mimics their top revenue-driving salesperson. They can understand the unique needs of online retailers and use online sales data to deliver insights into the e-commerce industry.

Certainly uses natural language understanding (NLU) and LLM models to create a conversational customer experience. It leverages bespoke data from customer conversations to understand customer needs for more accurate info during interactions.

The chatbot can automate mundane tasks and support tickets to help agents manage ticket queues. It also uses pre-made chatbot templates and intents to handle common customer queries.

With templated flows and one-click multilingual support, Certainly enables businesses to communicate with customers in their preferred language effortlessly. Additionally, businesses can customize Certainly's voice, tone, and appearance to match their brand identity.

Users can also employ Certainly as an SEO tool, collecting data and providing e-commerce brands with insights for improved online visibility. Its chat logs store data on customer preferences and behaviors for brands to use in their marketing strategies. It leverages this customer data to generate product recommendations, integrating GPT-based language models.

With the ability to understand customers and the context behind their messages, this chatbot can learn over time. It also integrates with other software, CRMs, and help desks.

Learn how Certainly integrates with Zendesk.

Pricing:

• Standard: €2,000 per month (for 5,000 monthly conversations)
• Enterprise: €5,000 per month (for 30,000 monthly conversations)

  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

14 days

25. Grok

Use case: Social media

Model: Grok-1

Price: $168 per year

Grok is a generative AI chatbot developed by xAI, the artificial intelligence company owned by X (formerly Twitter). The bot is named after the science-fiction novel “Stranger in a Strange Land,” and its persona is inspired by the comedic novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

Grok uses real-time knowledge through the X social media platform to answer questions and suggest related follow-up questions for users to ask. It’s designed to answer questions with wit and humor, differentiating itself from other AI chatbots.

Although Grok's access to real-time X posts reinforces its credibility, it is also susceptible to inaccurate or unverified information. It lacks the safety guardrails of competing chatbots, allowing users to get answers about “spicy” topics that most other AI chatbots typically reject.

Grok’s capabilities extend beyond conventional responses. It can draft emails, debug code, and generate ideas, all in conversational, human-like language. It can also handle multiple queries simultaneously. Despite its current limitation to text inputs, Grok is poised for future enhancements, including visual and audio capabilities.

The AI chatbot is currently in the beta stages and is only available for X Premium+ users. The xAI team that created Grok provides feedback forms for users to share their experiences. The goal of Grok is to serve as a research assistant and data processor, helping users innovate with new ideas.

Pricing:

• X Premium+: $168 per year on web (based on U.S. pricing)

Free trial:

Unavailable

The best chatbot platform for your business depends on several factors. Let’s explore some questions and considerations to understand your needs and limitations when choosing an AI chatbot.

• Ease of setup: Look for a pretrained AI chatbot that works right out of the box. Determine if it requires developer support that may entail manual training and configuration.
• AI model sophistication: Know the data the AI bot is trained on. High-quality AI chatbots often utilize NLP and ML algorithms to understand inputs and generate contextually relevant responses. Check for features like context retention, customer sentiment analysis, and generative AI.
• Integration capabilities: Ensure the AI chatbot seamlessly integrates with your existing systems and software. Look for compatibility with your messaging software, websites, CRM systems, and other tools relevant to your business. Evaluate the availability of APIs and integration options that facilitate connections with third-party applications, enabling a cohesive workflow.
• Security and data privacy: Prioritize security features to safeguard sensitive information. The AI chatbot should comply with data protection regulations and implement encryption protocols to secure user interactions. Verify the platform's privacy policies to ensure it handles user data responsibly and transparently. Look for options to customize data retention and privacy settings.
• Reporting and analytics: Robust reporting and analytics capabilities are essential for monitoring the chatbot's performance and gaining insights into user interactions. Check for features like conversation logs, user engagement metrics, and sentiment analysis reports. These analytics can help you understand user behavior, identify areas for improvement, and measure the overall effectiveness of the chatbot.

Choose an AI chatbot with the right features that align with your business needs. It’s also important to consider factors like scalability, quality chatbot support and updates, and the user experience.

Traditional chatbots require the creation of long, extensive flows to guide customers through step-by-step journeys to reach a resolution. These flows are difficult to maintain and scale as more use cases are added. Additionally, manual training on customer intent can require hours of admin time.

On the other hand, AI chatbots like Zendesk’s are pre-trained to understand customer intent from the get-go. There’s no need to build lengthy and complex flows. Instead, the bot can switch between answer-led flows based on customer intent, making it easier to scale and maintain the bot. Additionally, with generative AI, admins can save time by connecting the bot to a help center. The bot can easily understand customer queries, search the help center for the necessary information, and craft a response—all without the need to create long flows.

For example, you can create an AI chatbot in a few clicks with the Zendesk bot builder.