A chat bot is basically a program used to perform an online chat session via text-to-voice, or voice-to-voice, rather than giving direct human contact with an agent. The chat bot system can be used for things such as real-time negotiation between two businesspeople, real-time translation of information from one computer system to another, and even allowing people within your organization to connect with one another through a chat bot. In this article we are going to take a quick look at what a chat bot does and some of the advantages that it can provide to both businesses and individuals.

How does the chat bot work? Generally, you sign up for a free chat bot account and then log into it using your username and password. The bot connects to an instant messaging system such as MSN, Yahoo, Skype for Internet chat, or AIM. It generally uses artificial intelligence to detect conversations in the same language as you and then begins to speak naturally, and by itself, respond to the conversations as if you were a real person. This allows the bot to be able to understand what is being said and respond accordingly.

Can chat Bots replace real life employees? If you have a website where you want to attract new customers or increase traffic to your website, then chat bots can help you achieve both of these goals. Think about it: if you had an employee that was chatting back and forth across a different country from where you business is actually located, that chat back could be quite annoying for the customer or subscriber. You also have to worry about potential outages, long-distance charges, and that the chat bot isn’t under any legal constraints because he’s talking to a third party, which could get him in trouble. By using chat bots, you can prevent all of these potential problems.

Can I use a chat bot in my e-mail messages? Yes, you can use a chat bot for any type of e-mail messaging. If you are sending out information via regular mail, then you can set up a HTML chat bot for each individual e-mail account, which will allow you to have a HTML-formatted form for each message you are sending out. Each of the forms can be pre-filled with the recipient’s name and other relevant information and then submitted by the user on that account. When the form is submitted, it will display an autoresponder message that collects the data from the chat bot and then sends it out to the user’s e-mails. The HTML chat bot can also be used for online support tickets, which will automatically pop-up a ticket in the specified area of your website, and then automatically mark it open, so that the customer can click on it and then follow the instructions.

Can I teach chat bots to talk? Indeed you can! Many developers have already taken the first steps and are teaching chat bots to talk using special software that allows you to feed the chat bot with recorded dialogues and sentences. It can then respond to the user with whatever it wants to say. This is similar to teaching a child how to talk.

Does this mean I won’t have a real person to interact with in my chat bot chat rooms? No, not at all – because these chat bots are strictly virtual, and chat rooms still have real people in them. The chat bot will just act as a third party. For example, when one of your friends inputs some information in a form, the chat bot will record that and send it out to your friend’s chat room. Then the chat bot will update its memory each time your friend inputs that information, and it’ll remember what your friend types and says.

Does this mean that a chatbot can do all the things that a real person can? Of course it can! And today’s fourth generation chatbot technology is capable of doing many more things than was possible even four years ago. There are now voice activation features, and video chat bot functions. And today’s chatbot can even send instant emails (although they won’t actually do that unless you’re logged into your account), it can send instant text messages, and it can even log you in (which is always a big plus, especially if your computer is secured).

So is a chat bot for you? Absolutely – especially if you’re a website owner. If you want to attract more visitors, keep your website fresh and current with unique content, and don’t mind doing a bit of maintenance yourself, chat bots are the way to go. They can also help increase your traffic and sales if you’re willing to teach your chat bot some commands. And who knows, your chat bot could even turn into a business itself!