Chatbot and virtual assistant – Key differences

You might have heard two different buzzwords—chatbots and virtual assistants—day in and day out. Such advancements in conversational AI reduce the workload for businesses and make customers' lives easier.

These two terminologies (chatbot and virtual assistant) may seem quite similar, but when it comes to design and core functionality, they represent two different technologies.

To give you a snapshot of what these are: a chatbot is an automated program that can engage in human-like conversations with a customer, either in text or audio form.

A virtual assistant is a digital agent that can perform daily routine tasks, such as making calls, scheduling appointments, or checking bookings.

In this blog, we will explain how a chatbot differs from a virtual assistant/agent.

What is a Chatbot?

A chatbot refers to a conversational software program that interacts with customers in real-time.

This virtual chatbot uses natural language processing and machine learning capabilities to deliver human-like responses. Businesses need chatbots to welcome leads and resolve customer queries.

They can deploy chatbots on various platforms, such as websites, applications, or within messaging platforms.

A chatbot is an AI-powered program designed to simulate conversation with users. AI chatbot development services specialize in creating these programs.

Nowadays, chatbots have become more advanced, as they can understand the intent behind customer queries to generate human-like responses.

These AI-powered chatbots guide customers and lead them down the sales funnel by addressing queries about products/services. This way, businesses can increase sales and earn more revenue.

Additionally, it serves as a great digital assistant that reduces the workload from human agents, providing 24/7 support to clients as they never take breaks.

AI-powered chatbots can respond to multiple conversations, regardless of how simple or complex the query is.

Because chatbots learn from customer preferences and behavior, they gain insights from each customer's interaction and offer personalized experiences.

What is a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant act like a personal assistant used for handling day-to-day operations, such as making appointments, managing emails, scheduling meetings, setting alarms, etc.

These assistants are more advanced than chatbots. Businesses can use virtual assistants to focus on other crucial activities.

Employing virtual assistants helps organizations streamline their processes, boost employee productivity, and aid human resources.

Virtual assistants act as handy tools as they are present on mobile devices.

Such digital assistants are called multifaceted wizards because they are not limited to handling conversations; rather, they can perform a broader range of tasks.

A virtual assistant is powered by various technologies such as AI, ML, NLP, and NLU, allowing them to understand human language and gain insights from conversations.

Nowadays, intelligent virtual assistants are in high demand. These virtual assistants use the capabilities of AI and possess the functionalities of virtual assistants.

Popular examples of virtual assistants include Siri, Cortana, Alexa, Google Assistant, etc. These digital assistants make your life easy by reading your mind and predicting your next move.

How are virtual assistants different from chatbots? Here is a key distinction between chatbots and virtual assistants-

Basis of comparison

Chatbots

Virtual assistants

1.Different technologies

Chatbots operate on rule-based models meaning they are trained on predefined responses.

Virtual assistants use advanced technologies such as NLU and NLP to provide optimal responses to user queries.

2.Differences in intelligent level

They can particularly handle short conversations. A virtual chatbot deals with answering a limited set of inquiries.

Virtual assistants can handle more complex interactions as they can understand context as well as semantics of conversation.

3.Core functionality

Chatbots are specifically used to help businesses and customers in various domains such as entertainment or booking.

They are generally used for handling simple tasks.

These digital AI assistants are more suited for handling complex tasks be it acting as a personal assistant or placing calls and helping you make informed decisions.

4.Cost factor

Integrating chatbots on your website is more cost-effective.

Virtual assistants are more expensive because they require training through complex programming and advanced algorithms.

5.Deployment channel

By deploying chatbots on websites and various messaging channels, businesses can expand their reach.

Smart devices and smart speakers have already built-in virtual assistants.

6.Different interfaces

There is a conversational user interface in the chatbots.

You do not need any such interface as virtual assistants work on voice commands.

1. Different technologies

Chatbots follow the rule-based model wherein they are trained on pre-defined and scripted answers.

Unlike virtual assistants, they are not programmed to respond to complex queries. They can only respond to certain queries by picking a few words from the user conversation.

While Virtual assistants use NLU and NLP capabilities to engage in natural human-like conversations. Intelligent virtual assistants provide you with optimal results as they can be integrated with search engines such as Google, Bing, etc.

2. Differences in intelligence level

Because chatbots are programmed to address certain levels of queries, they can handle such conversations by breaking down elements into easy-to-digestible formats.

While virtual assistants are highly suitable for handling lengthy conversations.

In addition to understanding the context of human conversation, virtual assistants can even understand the semantics of conversation and make it more meaningful.

3. Core functionality

The primary use case of chatbots is that this AI-powered technology is meant for businesses.

Businesses employ chatbots on their websites or applications to delight their customers by providing the best possible user experience, helping sales and marketing teams, and engaging their customers for a long time.

Take an example of the H&M chatbot which acts like a personal stylist and assists customers by recommending outfits based on their preferences.

Virtual assistants act like human agents aka personal secretaries which are meant to ease the specific tasks of users and perform day-to-day operations.

These can be used for solving complex tasks of users whether it’s related to reading instructions or text messages aloud, involving the user in a fun convo, or providing weather-related updates.

4. Cost factor

The cost of operating chatbots for businesses is lower as compared to virtual assistants because they are cheap to build and require less effort and technology than virtual assistants.

Such AI-powered technology does not require advanced AI algorithms, as they are trained to operate on a predefined set of rules.

No doubt, these task-oriented bots are quite effective when it comes to providing customer service, answering repetitive questions, or generating leads and sales for businesses.

Virtual assistants, on the other hand, require more investment, as they are challenging to build.

Moreover, training virtual assistants demands more financial resources, given the complexities in programming.

Most businesses prefer using chatbots for their marketing and sales operations because of lower deployment and operational costs.

It might be surprising to know that chatbots are the most preferred choice for businesses, saving around $0.70 per interaction.

5. Deployment channel

Businesses can deploy chatbots on various channels such as websites, support portals, and messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

This way, they can tap into a broader audience and connect with their customers on a closer level.

While virtual assistants are already integrated into devices such as Amazon Echo and Google’s home. You can even access virtual assistants on devices such as smartphones, tablets, or smart speakers.

6. Different interfaces

Chatbots provide a conversational user interface where customers can interact with businesses through chat or messages.

While virtual assistants do not need an interface to interact with customers.

A customer can seamlessly initiate a conversation using voice commands, and a virtual assistant can perform tasks by learning from previous user inputs and giving out responses to the user.

Wrapping up

Confused about which one you should choose for your business – virtual assistant or chatbot?

To sum up, if you are looking to strengthen your sales and marketing efforts and get rid of answering tedious questions, then investing in a chatbot is a perfect alternative for you.

While, if you want to supercharge your productivity level, then all you need is a super powerful virtual assistant to help you perform your daily activities.