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Forbes
15-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
4 Ways Businesses Should Be Using AI Chatbots Now
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.
Forbes
24-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How To Use AI To Test Ideas, Refine Marketing, And Grow Smarter
Photo by Growtika on Unsplash As a founder with a developer's background, I never considered myself a marketing pro—until I launched my company in 2006. Overnight, I had to learn everything I could about getting the word out. My strategy, as a bootstrapper, was simple: launch a free version while keeping my day job. I tested the idea, refined the product, and slowly gained traction. Over time, free users became paying customers. Today, artificial intelligence is quickly reshaping the marketing landscape. But some fundamentals haven't changed: experimentation and listening to customers are still essential. What has changed is how easily and effectively we can do both, thanks to AI. Tools that once required global teams and big budgets are now more accessible to any entrepreneur, including solopreneurs. While I wouldn't change my path—bootstrapping was the right move for me—I would have absolutely used AI for market research had it been available. Here's how I recommend today's founders harness AI for marketing research and sustainable growth. Gather Pre-Launch Insight Like an airplane without fuel, a great idea without customer demand will never take off. Before investing significant time or money, it's worth validating what people actually want. Sometimes your idea might have no market. Or, it might be one small tweak away from traction. I've seen this firsthand. We once launched a new version of a product that, to me, seemed like a clear improvement. But usage dropped. I was stumped—until we polled our users. It turned out they didn't dislike the new version; they just wanted the option to choose. So we gave it to them. That simple insight made all the difference. Today, AI can help uncover those kinds of insights faster. In a recent experiment, we used Google's Dynamic Search Ads to validate a new idea. As we prepared to launch our AI agents, we asked: What if we replaced traditional website forms with conversational agents that could interact with users and have some personality? We built a directory of 2,000 AI agents—each designed to replace a specific type of form. Then we handed the entire library to Google's AI—no headlines, no keywords, just the agent pages. Google's system analyzed the content, generated ad copy, selected keywords, and ran the campaigns. What we got back was instant market research. We saw which agents sparked engagement, which use cases drove traffic, and where demand really existed. This approach helped us identify our top-performing use cases before committing major resources. And anyone with a website can do this: use AI to spin up new landing pages, run dynamic ads, and let the data show you where the opportunity lies. Instead of guessing, you can pre-validate ideas with AI and double down on what the market wants. Optimizing Your Creative With AI Nowadays, personalization is key. Research has found that 71 percent of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. What's more, 76 percent said they became frustrated when companies did not deliver that kind of tailoring. In one study, 65 percent of customers reported that targeted promotions were a top reason for making a purchase. AI-powered tools can help you to gather important customer insights—who are your users, what do they need, and how do they behave—and tailor interactions to them accordingly. For example, you can use AI to analyze chatbot transcripts, support tickets, or survey responses to cluster users into personas and identify pain points or motivations. With generative AI, companies can craft personalized messages and content at a fraction of the speed and price. As McKinsey notes, addressing small consumer groups with customized content has traditionally been cost-prohibitive and infeasible. With gen AI tools like ChatGPT, marketers can craft tailored content at scale while keeping costs down. We're also seeing a major shift in how paid ads work, especially with Google. In the past, you could buy specific keywords and manually manage bids. Then came smart bidding strategies, where Google's algorithms optimized based on your campaign goals. Now, with tools like Performance Max, AI does nearly all the heavy lifting. You just give it your creative assets and goals, and it figures out how to serve the right ad to the right person at the right time. Manual optimization has basically become obsolete. What's exciting is that AI is getting better and better at this. It means you can move faster, test more, and focus your energy on the creative and strategic side of marketing, while AI handles the execution and optimization. Unlike the first example, validating your ideas, this is more about validating which marketing messages connect with which audiences. AI accelerates that process. In the end, the goal isn't to hand over your marketing entirely to machines, it's to hone your great ideas and amplify the messaging. AI gives founders the freedom to test more, learn faster, and make smarter bets without burning through resources.
