Chatbots vs AI Assistants: Knowing the Difference
Both answer questions, but a scripted chatbot and an AI-powered assistant work very differently and suit different jobs. Choosing the wrong one leads to frustrated customers.
Here is how to tell them apart and pick the right fit.
Scripted Chatbots
These follow a fixed set of buttons and rules. They are predictable, cheap to run and easy to audit, but they cannot handle anything their author did not foresee.
AI Assistants
These use a language model to understand free-text questions and reply flexibly. They feel more natural but are less predictable and need guardrails to stay accurate and on-brand.
- Handle questions phrased in many different ways.
- Can draw on your documents to answer specifics.
- Require monitoring to catch wrong or off-topic replies.
A Sensible Middle Ground
Many of the best support tools combine the two: a scripted flow for common, sensitive tasks and an AI assistant for open questions, with a clear hand-off to a human when needed.
| Feature | Scripted | AI assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Predictability | High | Moderate |
| Flexibility | Low | High |
| Running cost | Low | Higher |
| Setup effort | Moderate | Moderate |
If you need a hand with any of this, your Progressive Robot delivery team is ready to help. Raise a ticket from the Support area of your client portal or speak to your account manager and we will guide you through the next steps.