An AI chatbot for customer service reads a customer's question and writes an answer from your help content. It can reply at night, in many languages, and to the same question for the hundredth time. It can also answer with confidence when it is wrong. The setup decides which one you get.
What these chatbots do
Older chatbots followed fixed paths: press 1 for orders, 2 for returns. Today's AI agents read the question in the customer's own words and write a reply from the content you give them, such as help articles, your website or past answers.
Most can:
- Answer common questions about orders, prices, opening hours and policies.
- Hand the conversation to a person when they cannot help.
- Work in your website chat, and often in email or messaging apps.
- Take simple actions in some tools, such as looking up an order, when you connect them.
The risks
Wrong answers. The AI repeats what it finds. If your help article says returns are 30 days but the real rule is 14, the bot will promise 30.
Made-up policies. If it finds nothing, it may fill the gap with a likely answer. A customer told "yes, you can get a refund" will expect one.
Sounding sure. A wrong answer can sound just as confident as a right one. Customers cannot tell the difference, and they will take the answer as your business speaking.
No way out. A bot that keeps a frustrated customer in a loop makes a small problem bigger.
Private data. Check what customer data the tool stores and where, before you connect your shop or CRM.
How to set one up safely
- Write your facts first. Prices, delivery times, returns, refunds, opening hours and contact details.
- Give the AI only your own content. Turn off general web answers if the tool allows it.
- Tell it what not to answer: legal, medical, payment disputes and anything about a specific person's account.
- Tell it to hand over to a person when it is unsure, and make that easy for the customer.
- Say clearly that the customer is talking to an AI.
- Test it with 20 real questions, including tricky ones, before it goes live.
- Read a sample of its conversations every week for the first month.
A short fact sheet is the best place to start. Fill this in, check every line, then turn it into help articles.
Business: [name], [what you sell], [where you deliver or serve].
Prices: [main prices, or where the current price list lives].
Delivery: [times by region], [cost], [what happens if late].
Returns and refunds: [number of days], [condition of item], [who pays return shipping], [how long a refund takes].
Hours and contact: [support hours], [email], [phone, if any].
Never promise: discounts, refunds outside the policy, delivery dates we cannot confirm.
Hand over to a person when: the customer is upset, asks for a refund outside the policy, or the answer is not in this sheet.
Your FAQ page can come straight from this sheet. If the refund rules are not written down yet, settle them first, then use refund request response emails for the human replies.
Options and what they cost
All prices are in US dollars, as of October 2026, from each vendor's pricing page.
- Tidio Lyro: monthly bundles from $39 for 50 AI conversations, or $32.50 a month billed annually. Every account gets its first 50 Lyro conversations free, once. Tidio says Lyro can also work with other help desks.
- Help Scout AI Answers: $0.75 per resolution, with a monthly spending cap you set. Free for the first three months from when you create your account.
- Intercom Fin: $0.99 per outcome, charged once per conversation. Included with Intercom's plans, or sold on its own for other help desks with a minimum monthly commitment.
- Zendesk AI agents: each plan includes 5 or 10 automated resolutions per agent per month. Extra ones cost $1.50 with a commitment, or $2.00 pay-as-you-go.
- Freshdesk Freddy AI Agent: the first 500 sessions are included on paid plans. More cost $49 per 100 sessions.
Per-answer pricing means you pay only when the bot helps. Bundles are easier to budget. In both cases, your cost depends on how many questions your content can really answer.
For a wider look at the tools themselves, see Intercom alternatives and Tidio vs Intercom.
How to tell if it is working
Check these each week:
- Hand-over rate. How often customers asked for a person. A sudden rise can mean a missing article.
- Wrong answers. Read 20 conversations. Fix the article behind each mistake.
- Repeat contacts. Customers who come back with the same question were not really helped.
- Feedback. A one-question survey after the chat helps. Customer feedback survey questions has examples.
When a customer was let down by the bot, a quick, human reply helps. How to respond to a customer complaint shows how.