Definition
Chatbot
A chatbot is a software program that simulates conversation with users, ranging from simple scripted flows to AI-powered systems that understand natural language.
Older chatbots followed rigid, scripted decision trees that broke as soon as a user phrased something unexpectedly. Modern AI-powered chatbots, built on large language models, can understand varied phrasing and hold more natural conversations — though the best ones are still constrained to answer only from a verified knowledge base (see RAG), rather than generating unchecked responses.
