The pros and cons of AI chatbots for small shops
Both columns, written by someone who builds one. The right answer is not "yes" for everybody.
· 1 min read
The case for
- It answers at 2am, which is when a surprising share of shopping happens
- It answers in the customer's own language without you hiring for it
- It never gets bored of the fifteenth shipping question of the day
- It turns a question into a cart while the visitor is still reading
- It writes down demand you would otherwise never hear about
The case against
- A confidently wrong answer costs more than no answer at all
- It needs your policies written down, which is work you may never have done
- A stale catalog produces stale answers, publicly
- Some customers simply want a person, and resent the detour
- It is another thing to check, and unchecked it drifts
Who should not buy one yet
If you get five questions a week, a chat assistant is a solution to a problem you do not have — answer them yourself and spend the money on stock. If your product data is a mess, fix that first: the assistant will read it out loud.
Who should
Shops losing evening traffic, shops answering the same five questions all day, and shops selling into a language they do not staff. Those three get their money back quickly.