A chatbot is a program you communicate with in everyday language. The new AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot are chatbots built on large language models – and they can do far more than answer set questions.
There are two generations of chatbots, and they are often confused. The old generation followed a script: the customer chose between fixed options and got fixed answers. The new generation understands freely phrased language, remembers the conversation and can write, analyse and suggest – and that is the one that has changed working life.
For the organisation, the difference is not technical but practical: the old chatbot was a self-service channel; the new one is a colleague-like conversation partner. That places new demands on what you may use it for and what it may know.
In practice
Most people today meet chatbots as everyday AI assistants: an open window where you think out loud, get drafts back and keep working. This is where most organisations' AI use actually begins – long before the strategy is in place.
How to explain it to management
»Our employees are already talking to chatbots every day. The question is not whether, but by which rules.«
If the chatbot is to carry out the task itself in several steps, it is on its way to becoming an AI agent.