4 Ways Businesses Should Be Using AI Chatbots Now

Forbes

6 days ago

Photo by Growtika on Unsplash
AI chatbots may resemble their old, less-intelligent predecessors, but appearances are where the similarities end. Rather than operating off of a narrow (and often unhelpful) script, AI chatbots use natural language processing (NLP) to offer nuanced responses to complicated questions.
At my company, Jotform, we've been going full steam ahead on our AI-powered chatbots and have discovered a slew of interesting ways they can help us serve our customers better. While we initially assumed most users would rely on them for customer support, the data has actually revealed several other uses we didn't expect. Let's dig into them.
Customer Service
As mentioned above, customer support is the marquee offering of AI chatbots, and it's worth talking about. Customers have come to expect lightning-fast response times at every hour. The chatbots of old may not have slept, but they also weren't very helpful. How many times have you painstakingly typed a question into the input field, only to be met with a series of canned, useless responses that did nothing to resolve your query?
Today's chatbots, in contrast, can engage in meaningful, multi-turn conversations—answering complex questions, handling follow-ups, and even escalating issues when necessary. They don't just regurgitate a fixed script; they respond based on the user's actual needs.
Anyone running a business should instantly see the value of having an automated support staff of highly capable chatbots. Take the media hosting service Photobucket, for example: After implementing their customer service-based AI agents, the company has seen a three percent increase in customer satisfaction and a 17 percent improvement in first resolution times. That means fewer frustrated customers and fewer support tickets passed on to human staff.
Lead Generation
With AI chatbots, businesses no longer have to wait for users to start a conversation. Instead, they're able to capture the information up front—sometimes before the user even makes the first move.
We noticed this trend especially when analyzing AI agents embedded on websites. Instead of passively waiting to respond, many bots kick things off with a question like: 'Can I get your email in case we get disconnected?' It's a soft, helpful ask, but it's also a strategic one. In the course of chatting with a customer, chatbots can also collect useful information like pages visited, geolocation, and preferences.
Lots of entrepreneurs are getting wise to this inventive use of their embedded chatbots. One poster on the EntrepreneurRideAlong subreddit commented that they're 'getting way more leads through the chatbot than we ever did with static forms.'
'My theory is that chat feels more immediate and interactive to visitors,' they added. 'They're more likely to engage, whereas with a form they might think 'they probably won't get back to me for a while' and just bounce.'
Our data has led us to the same conclusion. Even better, chatbots can then pass along this valuable data to marketing teams, who can use it to identify trends and consumer insights they may not have had before.
New Ways To Search
There's been a lot of chatter about how AI is replacing traditional search, but how about all the ways it can be used to find information on a single website? For example, a close friend who is planning a wedding recently complained to me about the lack of pricing transparency on venues' websites. Sometimes, the information wasn't there at all; other times, it was buried so deep in a labyrinth of dropdown menus it was exasperating to find.
Instead of going on a wild goose chase for answers that may not even exist, AI chatbots can help by instantly pinpointing the information you're looking for. For example, a visitor might type, 'What's your return policy?' or 'Do you offer enterprise pricing?' Instead of being taken to a generic FAQ page, they receive a direct, conversational response.
Navigation
Closely related to on-site search—but distinct in its purpose—is the role of AI agents in website navigation. While search is about finding specific answers or content, navigation is about directing users to the appropriate place.
Think about how often visitors land on a website, unsure of where to start. Take financial service sites—with separate sections dedicated to disparate functions like paying bills, making trades, or just looking up an account balance, navigating them can be tricky and frustrating. An AI agent can step in as a digital guide, asking a simple question like 'What are you looking to do today?' and then directing the user to the correct page—whether it's to schedule a payment, review recent transactions, or open a new account.
AI chatbots are increasingly indispensable as customer service agents. But that's hardly where their use ends. For us, they've also proven to be effective lead generators, savvy search guides and navigation experts that helpfully get users where they want to go. As AI technology continues to evolve, businesses that embrace these expanded capabilities won't just improve the customer experience—they'll gain a competitive edge.