Chatbot
A conversational interface, usually for customer service or support, that answers questions in natural language. Judged on one conversation it can look cheap; judged across channels it may not be.
A chatbot is software that converses with people in natural language, most often in customer service, sales or internal support. Modern chatbots are built on language models and can handle a wide range of requests, but they are still a channel: a path customers choose, or avoid, depending on how well it has worked for them.
Why the economics are subtle
A chatbot can save money on this interaction and still make the service operation more expensive. A failed automated interaction can change the channel a customer chooses next time. So the evaluation needs two horizons: session economics (what this contact cost and resolved) and repeat-channel economics (what it did to future willingness to use automation).
Useful measures
- Containment rate, read with caution
- Return-to-automation rate
- Early handoff as channel preservation
Research cited alongside this idea reports that most customers would not try a chatbot again after a negative experience, which is why trust is part of the ROI model.
Read more in Your chatbot is borrowing from the next interaction.
Related terms
Containment rate
The share of customer interactions that stay inside automation without moving to a human agent. A common chatbot KPI that can look healthy while the channel itself weakens.
Session economics
The cost and outcome of a single customer contact with an automated channel — what this interaction cost and what it resolved. It is the narrow, current-contact half of AI service ROI.
Repeat-channel economics
The effect an automated interaction has on whether the customer will choose automation again — the future-facing half of AI customer service ROI that session metrics miss.
Return-to-automation rate
The share of customers who choose the automated channel again after an earlier automated interaction — a measure of how today's experience affects tomorrow's automation choice.
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Your chatbot is borrowing from the next interaction
AI customer service is usually measured one interaction at a time. But a failed automated interaction can change which channel a customer chooses next time. That makes future adoption part of the economics, not a separate trust metric.