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Mario Santini
Mario Santini

Posted on • Edited on

Are the chatbot fading away?

Once upon a time, there were chatbots. When they first appeared, they were a new and fancy interface for users, offering a novel way to interact with software.

They were so useful that they spread rapidly. Even developers began to specialize in chatbot programming.

However, with the unveiling of ChatGPT and the emergence of new AI-powered services, chatbots seem to have lost their allure. When you return to them after working with GPT or other AI tools, you feel a noticeable gap.

It's a bit disheartening because chatbots are still very useful in many contexts.

As someone with limited experience in this field, I wonder if a new generation of these little friends, now powered with AI, is on the horizon.

What are your thoughts about it?

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M M Muraduzzaman • Edited

Actually, chatbots and ChatGPT serve different purposes in terms of usage. ChatGPT is a revolutionary tool designed to handle a wide range of tasks for users across various sectors. On the other hand, chatbots are primarily used in specific business contexts, such as customer support and marketing automation.

With chatbots, you can even integrate the OpenAI API to make them more functional, enabling them to handle more complex customer inquiries. These chatbots can be deployed across platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, or even on websites, making them valuable tools for businesses to communicate instantly with their customers.

Whereas ChatGPT operates more as a general-purpose AI, capable of performing a vast array of tasks beyond customer support, chatbots are more specialized for real-time business interactions. One exciting advancement with ChatGPT is its ability to fetch data from the web, which is a major step forward for AI and could potentially pose a challenge to traditional search engines like Google.

As a chatbot developer since 2015, I’ve worked on building Facebook and Instagram chatbots, and now we’ve developed a WhatsApp chatbot marketing software called BotSailor that supports various platforms.

I also use ChatGPT Premium frequently for my day-to-day tasks, especially when solving coding issues. Previously, I relied on Google and StackOverflow for solutions, but it often took time to find the exact problem and solution. Now, I use ChatGPT for all types of technical problems, and it quickly provides accurate solutions.

Interestingly, even when I compare products or seek information, I use ChatGPT first, and once I’m satisfied, I proceed to their websites and sometimes engage with their chatbots. What’s important to note is that while chatbots often handle the initial conversation, many times, a human will take over the chat, especially for more complex or personalized queries.