I examined the highest 14 AI chatbots for entrepreneurs [data, prompts, use cases]

I keep in mind when ChatGPT first launched. Your entire advertising and marketing neighborhood was break up on whether or not they need to use AI chatbots or not. Posts about ChatGPT would get lots of of feedback, with one facet debating the comfort of AI and the opposite arguing that AI can by no means match human creativity.

Whereas the talk continues to be ongoing, AI chatbots are already in every single place. I’m seeing entrepreneurs counting on custom bots for social media, enterprises integrating voice assistants, and customer service teams scaling operations with AI.

As somebody who has labored in each automation and advertising and marketing, I’d say the shift to AI chatbots is right here. And it’s right here to remain.

Entrepreneurs now have tons of stable chatbot choices that may maintain conversations virtually as naturally as a human.

On this put up, I’ll stroll you thru the highest 14 chatbots for entrepreneurs, how I examined them, and which of them it’s best to think about in your advertising and marketing workflow. I’ll additionally provide the actual prompts I used and the outcomes so you realize what to anticipate.

Desk of Contents

Seems like lots? Let me break it down.

Right here’s what occurs below the hood whenever you ship a immediate to an AI chatbot:

• Enter processing. Your immediate is damaged down into tokens (phrases, phrases, and even elements of a phrase).
• Context mapping. The mannequin tries to construct relationships between phrases and their positions. This helps the mannequin differentiate between “Sarah caught the bear” versus “The bear caught Sarah” — two very completely different issues to have.
• Self-attention. Now, it’s time to really perceive intent. The mannequin identifies the important thing entities in your message and, primarily based on earlier coaching knowledge, understands how they relate to one another.
• Response. The mannequin begins forming the output choices. This can be a prediction system the place the mannequin predicts the subsequent most probably phrase primarily based on earlier patterns.
• Suggestions loop. As the ultimate step, the chatbot runs the response candidates via completely different security filters and qc. Every response is scored, and one of the best one is delivered because the output.

All of this occurs within the seconds/minutes you wait after sending the immediate. Whereas I’ve described how a typical AI chatbot works, every mannequin may implement the structure otherwise. The top objective, although? Serving to clear up enterprise (or private) issues quicker and extra reliably.

Conversational AI vs. Chatbots

Chatbots and conversational AI are intently associated, however differ of their scope and capabilities.

Conversational AI refers to any know-how that may speak to people, perceive sentiment, and reply questions. It may be a chatbot, AI agent, or different AI-generated utility.

AI chatbots are a subset of conversational AI, however not all chatbots use conversational AI. Some chatbots are purely rule-based, which depend on easy guidelines and determination bushes to find out one of the best plan of action.

Rule-based chatbots can solely deal with particular, anticipated inputs. I’m certain you’ve interacted with a lot of them within the pre-ChatGPT period. Ask them one thing outdoors their script, and so they’ll both provide you with a imprecise reply or redirect you to a human.

In distinction, AI chatbots perceive context and nuance, and are extra able to dealing with sudden queries.

In order for you the consumer to decide on between set choices with out a lot flexibility, go for rule-based chatbots to avoid wasting prices. Nevertheless, if you wish to ship an upgraded consumer expertise, I’d suggest selecting an AI chatbot.

Why use AI chatbots? 4 Use Instances and Advantages of Chatbots for Entrepreneurs

I’ve seen AI chatbots grow to be considerably extra clever over the past 12 months. Earlier, you needed to scrape and feed a ton of information to chatbots, and even then, the outputs have been usable. Chatbots couldn’t even connect with the web natively.

Nevertheless, with newer fashions and integration applied sciences like AI brokers and MCP servers, the chances are limitless. I not too long ago linked my electronic mail to my Claude account through MCP. Now, I can get a helpful abstract of my day’s conferences and e-newsletter highlights with only a immediate.

Listed here are another methods companies can use AI chatbots.

Buyer Help

Gross sales and Advertising

• Automate gross sales prospecting and market analysis.
• Personalize automated outreach to your audience at scale.
• Managing your sales pipeline by summarizing meetings, sending follow-up reminders, etc.
• Support customers through every stage of the buying journey by providing personalized and timely information.

Writing and Editing

• Content strategy and ideation for blogs, emails, and social media posts.
• Deep analysis on particular matters to create article outlines.
• Model-tailored first drafts for emails and social copy.
• Tweaking copy for sure audiences, platforms, and codecs.

Recruitment and HR

• Shortlist potential candidates primarily based on resume power.
• Reply frequent questions on open positions or firm insurance policies.
• Schedule interviews and conferences with out limitless back-and-forth emails.

The examples listed below are simply the tip of the iceberg. Folks have used chatbots for therapy, travel planning, ordering meals, and a lot extra. In keeping with our State of AI report, 39% of entrepreneurs use chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot to create content material and set up analysis.

Thus, AI chatbots can:

• Save time, cut back worker burnout, and allow them to concentrate on strategic duties as a substitute of grunt work.
• Cut back the price of labor and generate outputs quicker.
• Conduct intensive knowledge crunching and evaluation extra successfully.
• Aid you scale your corporation with out growing headcount.

Backside line? You possibly can simply customise AI chatbots to suit virtually any organizational want.

What makes an AI chatbot good?

Listed here are some options I search for when experimenting with AI chatbots.

Accuracy and Reliability

AI chatbots are infamous for hallucinations, i.e, confidently making up deceptive claims. In keeping with HubSpot’s State of AI survey, 43% of entrepreneurs battle with AI producing inaccurate info. I’ll admit, generally I get annoyed too.

Some fashions carry out higher than others. For example, reasoning fashions like OpenAI o3 and DeepSeek R1 cut back hallucination by displaying you the steps they took to reach on the conclusion. Fashions which might be skilled on domain-specific datasets are much more correct in answering specialised questions.

Professional tip: Introduce guardrails to your immediate and coaching knowledge to scale back the possibilities of hallucinations. I typically embody particular directions like “don’t make up claims,” “give supply hyperlinks and point out the web page variety of the data,” and “in case you are unsure a few reality, simply say so.” Regardless, it’s best to at all times double-check what AI spits out.

Emotional Intelligence

Keep in mind: We’re utilizing chatbots to simplify consumer expertise.

So, a very good AI chatbot ought to:

• Have the ability to perceive consumer intent (and never get caught with typos).
• Keep in mind dialog context, or on the very least, doc previous interactions and check with them when wanted.
• Know when to escalate to a human agent.

It also needs to be capable of assess the tone and total feeling of the shopper’s inquiry. Is the shopper:

• Indignant? (“Why is my month-to-month cost growing?!”)
• Unhappy? (“Please don’t discontinue your lavender chai latte chocolate! It’s my favourite taste. I used to drink it with my dad earlier than he handed.”)
• Glad? (“I really like, love, LOVE the brand new sneaker designs! Please inform me they arrive in pink!”)

The very best chatbots I’ve used make me really feel heard and understood.

Kinds of Output

As an alternative of simply textual content responses, can your chatbot deal with pictures and movies? With AI-generated content material on the rise, this characteristic is a large plus for chatbots.

Think about this: a buyer asks, “How do I modify this setting in your software?” A traditional chatbot would hyperlink the shopper to the documentation or present a text-based information. Nevertheless, a multimodal chatbot skilled in your product can ship annotated screenshots or perhaps a video walkthrough.

Much less confusion, higher consumer expertise.

Integrations

As we transfer to an agentic period, I like to recommend selecting a chatbot that’s suitable throughout different widespread instruments and software program. For example, your chatbot ought to be capable of sync together with your gross sales knowledge, fetch the numbers, and spin up a dashboard to current them.

HubSpot’s CRM is constructed for this linked workflow with seamless integrations throughout your tech stack, corresponding to Claude, Zapier, and 1700+ enterprise apps.

How I Examined the Greatest AI-Powered Chatbots

Most AI-powered chatbots have roughly the identical worth prop, i.e., answering consumer questions like a human would. Nevertheless, I’ve discovered that some fashions excel at particular industries or duties.

If a mannequin is solely skilled for code era (GitHub Copilot), it’ll naturally be higher than an all-purpose chatbot like ChatGPT. Equally, an AI chatbot trained on your CRM knowledge would be capable of deal with product queries extra precisely.

Thus, I took a nuanced strategy to testing these chatbots. I examined every software with prompts that showcase its core strengths. I additionally added in some easy duties right here and there to assist resolve one of the best mixture in your stack.

The 14 Greatest AI Chatbots

1. Breeze
2. ChatGPT
3. Claude
4. Grok
5. Github Copilot
6. Gemini
7. DeepSeek
8. Perplexity
9. HubSpot Chatbot Builder
10. Intercom Fin AI Agent
11. Tidio Lyro
12. Drift
13. Zendesk AI Brokers
14. Chatbase

With so many stable AI chatbot choices available on the market, it may be onerous to resolve the place to begin.

That will help you make an knowledgeable determination, I’ve compiled a listing of one of the best AI chatbots primarily based on their options, usability, and efficiency in testing.

Whether or not you’re on the lookout for a chatbot to assist your corporation or enhance private productiveness, there’s an possibility right here for everybody.

Observe: I’ve divided this listing into two elements. The primary eight chatbots are centered on inner enterprise and private productiveness use circumstances like producing concepts, content material creation and extra. Later, I’ll focus on consumer-facing chatbots.

1. Breeze

Get Started with Breeze for Free

Establishing a brand new chatbot is a really time-consuming course of for me. It’s not simply the preliminary coaching both. I must constantly replace it with new buyer conversations and product options to get brand-aligned outputs.

Breeze, HubSpot’s AI chatbot, helps you skip all of those setup steps.

Breeze lives inside your CRM, so it has full context about your buyer journey, product options, gross sales pipeline, and extra. It additionally integrates unstructured communication like emails and calls to exterior knowledge, corresponding to purchaser intent and firm information, to offer Breeze the complete image.

With hundreds of customer success stories, companies utilizing Breeze are seeing outcomes throughout the board. HubSpot prospects are already utilizing it to:

Breeze delivers what entrepreneurs and companies need: extra certified leads, quicker gross sales cycles, buyer retention, and satisfaction.

How I Examined Breeze

I examined Breeze via their “product demo” web page. Truthfully, I used to be anticipating a video walkthrough and perhaps a primary chatbot with normal responses.

Nevertheless, I used to be pleasantly shocked. The demo walked me via virtually each little bit of the chatbot’s AI capabilities, starting from an AI avatar (Fiona) to clever demo suggestions.

After all, this expertise set a really excessive bar for the software. So, I got down to give it the primary activity: writing a follow-up electronic mail for prospects.

The e-mail I bought again was fairly good, regardless of the restricted background info. I might straight ship it with some minor tweaks and personalization.

Now, think about this executed at scale with real-time knowledge, powered by your conversations, deal historical past, and buyer expertise. The probabilities are limitless.

One other factor I favored about the entire course of was how responsive the chatbot was. She requested me clever but natural-sounding inquiries to information me via the gross sales course of. If there was a lull within the dialog, she gently nudged me with informal questions.

All of this confirmed how nicely the chatbot knew HubSpot’s supply, which is exactly the type of product information you’d need from an AI chatbot.

Breeze Options I Favored

• Seamless HubSpot CRM integration.
• Combines each structured (CRM) and unstructured knowledge (electronic mail) to energy their intelligence software program.
• Specialised brokers for each advertising and marketing use case: content material, social media, prospecting, and customer support.

What I Didn’t Like

• The free demo didn’t let me check any superior options.
• HubSpot-generated pictures are first rate, however a number of the chatbots on this listing do a greater job.

Breeze Pricing

• Get began with primary AI options like content material era free of charge.
• HubSpot Starter ($15/seat/month, billed yearly) – Starter advertising and marketing, gross sales, service, content material, and operations software program, with easy automation and Breeze intelligence.
• Skilled Buyer Platform ($1,300/month, consists of 5 seats) – Contains buyer agent performance & 3,000 month-to-month HubSpot credit.
• Enterprise Buyer Platform ($4,700/month, consists of 7 seats) – Superior Breeze options + 5,000 month-to-month HubSpot Credit.

Observe: You possibly can unlock Breeze Intelligence solely within the HubSpot Starter pack and Breeze Buyer agent within the Skilled plan. Credit can be utilized throughout HubSpot merchandise, together with Breeze.

Why I Suggest Breeze

For those who’re a HubSpot consumer, Breeze serves as a pure extension of your current tech stack. It’s the primary AI assistant that is aware of your corporation in addition to you do.

Whereas I wouldn’t suggest Breeze for media creation, you should utilize it to automate your each day advertising and marketing duties. For those who’re within the technique of scaling your organization, I’d extremely suggest giving it a strive.

TL;DR: It’s a breeze to combine HubSpot Breeze to your advertising and marketing workflows.

2. ChatGPT

Launched in 2022 by OpenAI, ChatGPT made headlines because the fastest-growing client app in historical past.

Quick ahead to right this moment, ChatGPT processes over 2.5B user queries per day. That’s roughly 1/third of Google’s 8.5B searches per day, making it a critical contender to conventional search. I’d give it a pair extra years earlier than utilizing an AI chatbot like ChatGPT turns into muscle reminiscence for customers.

So, what precisely are entrepreneurs asking ChatGPT? Nicely, loads of issues. The fitting GPT prompts may help you create brand-aligned content material, polished pictures, crunch marketing campaign numbers, and extra. I exploit ChatGPT Plus for analysis, Excel evaluation, and picture era.

However that’s not all. The one GPT characteristic I’m most excited to check (however don’t have entry to but) is the ChatGPT agent. Whereas chatbots usually wait to be prompted, brokers can independently take and act on selections.

For example, if I need the GPT agent to buy a pair of socks for me on the most cost-effective worth, the agent can evaluate completely different websites, check out coupon codes, after which share the outcomes with me. I’m already seeing GPT agent use cases applied throughout social media, so I can’t await a broader rollout. As of this writing, the ChatGPT agent is simply out there to Professional customers.

How I Examined ChatGPT

Let’s begin with a easy immediate. I used to be working with a consumer within the venture administration area of interest, who wished a report on how they stack up in opposition to opponents. So, I made a decision to make use of ChatGPT to enhance my analysis. For every competitor, I prompted it to attract up a SWOT evaluation and establish profitable options that my present consumer didn’t have.

The SWOT evaluation was fairly useful. Subsequent, I wished to check GPT for picture era. Right here, I went barely goofy, asking GPT to generate a cat picture with an indication. ChatGPT did an incredible job of adhering to my uncommon request.

ChatGPT Options I Favored

• ChatGPT agent. Automate complicated, multi-step workflows.
• Customized GPT. Construct a specialised chatbot with customized directions, or use one from their library of GPTs skilled on social media, authorized, knowledge science, and lots of domains.
• Picture era. I exploit Sora, ChatGPT’s built-in picture era mannequin, to generate design references and edit current pictures.
• Deep analysis. I discover GPT’s deep analysis mode fairly useful for complicated analysis, particularly historic analysis.

What I Didn’t Like

• Picture era takes fairly a little bit of time and generally doesn’t work very nicely for human options and textual content.
• ChatGPT agent throws errors whereas navigating web sites if it doesn’t load rapidly sufficient.

ChatGPT Pricing

• Free customers get entry to GPT 4.1 with limitless utilization and restricted utilization of superior fashions.
• Plus customers ($20/month) embody ChatGPT brokers, Sora video era, and analysis entry to new fashions.
• Professional customers ($200/month) get prolonged limits on every little thing in Plus and entry to o3-pro and the Codex agent.

3. Claude

As a author, I’m fairly keen on Claude. Claude is a superb artistic thinker, and after I give it sufficient context, it could emulate model voices very nicely. I closely rely on Claude for content material technique, first drafts, and modifying sentences.

For every new consumer, I usually arrange a brand new venture and supply it with paperwork like model tips, podcasts, and so forth, as context. That is just like the CustomGPT characteristic by ChatGPT. Nevertheless, since Claude has a bigger context window, the mannequin produces higher outputs.

I additionally love Claude’s MCP characteristic. Like I discussed earlier, I used it to sync my electronic mail to the AI assistant, which I’ll present you under. You may also connect with quite a lot of different instruments corresponding to Asana (venture administration), Canva (graphic design), and extra.

P.S.: HubSpot not too long ago launched a MCP connector for Claude, which I’m tremendous enthusiastic about.

How I Examined Claude

Let’s begin with the analysis check. I often like to begin my week by studying up on trending AI information so I can consider content material concepts round them. So, I prompted Claude to offer me a summarized model, pulling info from my e-newsletter subscriptions plus extra internet analysis by itself.

Right here’s the immediate I ran: “Are you able to give me a abstract of the AI information highlights from the final week? Entry my e-newsletter subscriptions through my electronic mail to tug info from. Additionally, conduct impartial analysis to search out some other necessary information. Current this in a tabular format, with headline, quick blurb, and in the event you assume any might be made in social media content material items.”

Nicely, shade me impressed. Whereas the primary merchandise was from July seventeenth (outdoors the request timeframe), Claude did a good job of collating current AI information. The content material concepts weren’t too nice, however I’ve gotten a lot better outcomes after I give Claude context about my consumer and objectives.

I particularly favored how the data was offered — organized and simple to scan. And that’s one thing I discover in different Claude options too. For example, right here’s how I used Claude to iterate on a touchdown web page for my shoppers.

It was useful to see how my copy seems to be in a design mockup. I can spot points, tweak my copy and optimize for manufacturing quicker.

Claude Options I Favored

• Writing high quality. Out of all AI chatbots I’ve tried, Claude produces essentially the most on-brand and pure content material.
• Tasks. I exploit initiatives for organizing conversations and paperwork.
• Integrations. Claude is now rolling out MCP connectors for many main apps.
• Emphasis on privateness. Anthropic, Claude’s father or mother firm, makes use of a proprietary algorithm known as Clio to anonymize user conversations for coaching.

What I Didn’t Like

• Claude has strict utilization limits. For those who’re utilizing superior options like artifacts, analysis, and so forth., you’re going to hit your restrict quick.
• No picture or video era options.

Claude Pricing

• Free tier – Restricted entry to prime fashions.
• Professional tier – ($17/month/consumer, billed yearly) – Unlocks greater message limits, initiatives, Claude Code, integrations, and extra.
• Max tier – (from $100/month/consumer, billed yearly) – 5-20x greater utilization than Professional, early and precedence entry to new options.

4. Grok

Have you ever ever doomscrolled for hours within the identify of “content material analysis”? I do know I’ve. So, when X rolled out its native AI chatbot, Grok, I knew I needed to strive it.

Whereas different chatbots have restricted entry to social media (anti-scraping legal guidelines), Grok can faucet into X’s dwell discipline to watch tendencies and analyze different accounts. I regularly use Grok’s “clarify this put up” characteristic — it’s a helpful strategy to get context on issues I’m clueless about with out leaving the platform. You may also tag @grok in tweets to fact-check the accuracy of data.

How I Examined Grok

For the primary a part of the check, I requested Grok to investigate the highest tweets about AI brokers prior to now month. The output was a high-level overview of the important thing themes in trending posts. I might simply confirm the supply and authenticity of the tweets by following the linked handles.

Subsequent, I turned on the “DeepSearch” characteristic. DeepSearch is right for any activity that wants heavy analysis and evaluation.

For this check, I requested Grok to investigate the deal with of a well-liked X influencer within the AI area of interest. Primarily based on its evaluation, I additionally prompted it to develop a content material technique for an influencer who needs to attain comparable success.

Upon working the immediate, Grok walked me via its actual technique of the way it tackled my request. This was a pleasant contact and gave me concepts for my very own analysis course of.

Grok’s social audit was among the finest I’ve seen from AI instruments, matching the standard {of professional} audits. The evaluation gave me every little thing I wanted to know: current + viral posts, engagement charges, posting frequency, presence on different platforms, viewers frequency, and extra.

I particularly favored the neat comparative desk on the finish of the audit. Excellent base to construct out a content material technique from. I’d give your complete expertise a stable 8/10.

Grok Options I Favored

• Grok is helpful for high-quality social media audits, evaluation, and real-time sentiment gauging.
• Native X options like “Clarify this put up,” replies via tags, and knowledge evaluation make Grok helpful for heavy X customers.
• Grok is designed to have a refreshing humorousness (a by-product of being skilled on social media, I suppose).

What I Didn’t Like

• Grok doesn’t have a thriving developer neighborhood but, so third-party integrations are restricted.
• No video era capabilities.
• Actual-time knowledge can even result in misinformation.

Grok Pricing

• Free entry to Grok 3 for all X customers.
• X Premium ($7/month, billed yearly) – Unlocks superior Grok limits, boosted X efficiency,and so forth.
• X Premium+ ($32.92/month, billed yearly) – Sooner entry to newer options and ad-free expertise.
• SuperGrok Heavy ($300/month) – Entry to Grok’s most superior fashions.

5. Github Copilot

At my earlier job as a software program engineer, I spent hours making an attempt to study a brand new coding framework.

Generally, my code wouldn’t work due to a tiny error proper below my nostril. I’d hunt Stack Overflow’s scattered threads for solutions, stress-testing them until I discover the one which works.

Github CoPilot would have been a lifesaver again then. With over 20M users, Github Copilot helps developers code up to 55% faster. You possibly can generate code recordsdata on Copilot, create mockups, and debug your code on the extension or platform.

Copilot syncs with all main code editors, corresponding to VS Code, Visible Studio, JetBrains and so forth., so you should utilize an extension to entry it inside your favourite IDEs.

How I Examined Github Copilot

I began with a reasonably easy ask: Construct me a tic-tac-toe sport with an AI taking part in in opposition to me. Whereas I requested for a tic-tac-toe sport, Copilot appropriately recognized that I used to be describing the mechanics of a ping pong sport. Copilot: 1, Lipsa: 0.

Copilot generated three recordsdata: HTML for the canvas, CSS for styling, and JavaScript for the sport mechanics. I ported the recordsdata over to a web based code editor, CodePen, and the sport labored fairly nicely.

Github Copilot Options I Favored

• On the spot multi-language code era for quite a lot of use circumstances, from video games to dashboards.
• Suggests the best strategy to implement or visualise the code.
• Exhibits logical pondering and doesn’t observe directions blindly.

What I Didn’t Like

• Copilot often produces incorrect or unoptimized code.
• GitHub Copilot can not generate pictures or visible mockups of generated code.

Github Copilot Pricing

• Get began free of charge. 50 chat requests + 2,000 code completions.
• Professional ($10/month) – Limitless agent mode & code completions.
• Professional+ ($39/month) – Entry to premium AI fashions and GitHub Spark, a prompt-based app builder.

6. Gemini

Gemini is a superb assistant. As a consequence of its native integrations throughout Google merchandise like Workspace and Pixel telephones, I can apply it to the go. I presently use Gemini for duties like creating calendar duties with one immediate, drafting Gmail replies, Google Meet summaries/notes, and extra.

Gemini fashions are additionally fairly highly effective for superior reasoning, arithmetic, and complicated duties. Enjoyable reality: Gemini with Deepthink now has a gold medal at the International Math Olympiad.

How I Examined Gemini

Whereas I used to be looking for one thing to check Gemini with, I used to be pleasantly shocked to see a Gemini-powered abstract throughout my paperwork on Google Drive. They are saying one of the best experiments are those you come across, and Gemini undoubtedly delivered on this one.

Subsequent, I wished to check Gemini’s video era capabilities with Veo-3. My immediate was not one of the best, however the mannequin produced an incredible 5-second video.

The White Home was immediately recognizable, and the person’s options and actions have been additionally fairly pure. You’ll undoubtedly want a number of iterations for extra complicated movies with layers and scenes. Nevertheless, this could provide you with a good glimpse of what the mannequin can obtain.

So, my remaining verdict on Gemini? I’d say go for it in the event you use Google’s ecosystem closely. You’ll be quicker and extra productive throughout your each day apps.

Gemini Options I Favored

• Native integration throughout all Google merchandise.
• Superior doc evaluation and analysis capabilities.
• You possibly can generate textual content, audio, and video in a single interface.

What I Didn’t Like

• Gemini takes some time to generate each pictures and movies.
• Since Veo-3 isn’t natively out there in my nation, I had to make use of a VPN to entry it.

Gemini Pricing

• Get began free of charge.
• Gemini Superior ($19.99/month) – Unlocks entry to Veo-3, AI-powered docs, 2 TB of storage, and NotebookLM plus.

7. DeepSeek

As China’s prime LLM mannequin, DeepSeek is broadly considered a ChatGPT competitor. Shortly after its launch in Jan 2025, DeepSeek’s AI assistant app surpassed ChatGPT as the top free app on the Apple App Retailer (US).

Whereas the preliminary momentum was short-lived, DeepSeek’s fashions have a very good worth prop: low-cost AI + good reasoning capabilities. At launch, DeepSeek’s capabilities have been corresponding to ChatGPT, whereas being 90% cheaper. Let’s see if that also holds true.

How I Examined DeepSeek

Once I examined DeepSeek, I centered on research-heavy duties. I began with a code era immediate to create a type, join it to a sheet, after which auto-filter responses primarily based on particular standards.

The mannequin took about ~30 seconds to generate code I might use. I exported the code to my Apps Script file, and it labored and not using a hitch.

Now, let’s check DeepSeek’s analysis capabilities utilizing DeepThink R1. My immediate was to match and distinction different AI chatbots. Given DeepSeek has a censorship challenge, I used to be curious to see what it might say about its opponents.

I favored how DeepSeek first thought-about the viewers earlier than diving into particular person instruments. That’s precisely how I’d strategy researching an article.

The output was well-formatted, with the important thing takeaways in a structured desk. For those who’re on the lookout for a quick and environment friendly mannequin for non-sensitive analysis knowledge duties, DeepSeek appears to be a very good wager.

DeepSeek Options I Favored

• Open-source mannequin licensed below MIT. It helps industrial use circumstances plus modifications to the bottom mannequin.
• Most cost-efficient mannequin on this listing; as much as 1/thirtieth cheaper than comparable OpenAI fashions.
• Excels at deep reasoning duties.

What I Didn’t Like

DeepSeek Pricing

• DeepSeek chat is free.
• API-based entry for DeepSeek Chat (per 1M tokens) – $0.07 (enter), $1.10 (output).
• API-based entry for DeepSeek Reasoner (per 1M tokens) – $0.14 (enter), $2.19 (output).

DeepSeek additionally runs discounted charges (as much as 50%) for durations of downtime (UTC 16:30-00:30, on the time of writing).

8. Perplexity

Need to entry and check loads of completely different fashions in a single software? Perplexity gives precisely that. The free model of Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine utilizing a mix of Claude and OpenAI’s GPT mannequin within the backend. With my Professional subscription, I can swap between the newest fashions like GPT 4.1, Claude 4.0 Sonnet, Gemini 2.5 Professional, and extra.

All of this makes Perplexity an incredible analysis assistant. I primarily use it to identify tendencies and analysis on the go. One in all my favourite features of the software is the newsfeed under; it does an incredible job of recommending articles I’d really need to learn.

How I Examined Perplexity

I first examined Perplexity for development evaluation. Extra particularly, the highest B2B SaaS tendencies for 2025.

Whereas I fairly like how the data is offered and segregated in numerous tabs, the tendencies themselves have been primary. I’ve gotten higher outcomes with GPT-4-o on a immediate like this. Nevertheless, I did just like the follow-up query ideas.

Subsequent up: Let’s construct out a dashboard on the financial impression of U.S. tariffs utilizing Perplexity Labs, a professional characteristic.

Inside minutes, I had a completely purposeful working web site, with charts that drew up correlations between essentially the most essential variables. The extent of element was spectacular. I might entry all the particular person charts straight from the “Property” tab or create a shareable hyperlink for others.

Perplexity Options I Favored

• Analysis utilizing prime fashions like Claude 4.1, GPT-4 and so forth.
• Citations and sources on all knowledge and statistics, making it simple to cross-verify info.
• AI-generated analysis feed for customized suggestions.
• Nice visualization capabilities with Perplexity Professional.

What I Didn’t Like

• Superior options like Perplexity labs have a slight studying curve.
• Integrations to widespread apps like Excel haven’t been constructed out but.

Perplexity Pricing

• Free tier – Use the Sonar mannequin for limitless fast searches and 5 professional searches per day.
• Scholar Professional tier ($4.99/month) – Unlock Perplexity Labs, analysis, premium AI fashions, and API credit.
• Max tier ($200/month) – Early entry to Comet browser and limitless Perplexity Labs + Analysis.
• Enterprise Professional ($33.33/consumer/month, billed yearly) – Limitless professional searches, collaborators, and devoted enterprise assist.

9. HubSpot Chatbot Builder

Free Chatbot Builder Software

In order for you a chatbot builder skilled in your CRM knowledge, look no additional than HubSpot’s chatbot builder. With HubSpot Chatbot builder, you’ll be able to design customized sequences for particular prospects, ship customized messages, and lighten the load in your assist workforce.

Having seen assist groups burn out from repetitive questions, I used to be curious to see how a lot HubSpot’s Chatbot builder takes off their plate.

Observe: Whereas HubSpot’s chat builder software program is a rule-based chatbot, you’ll be able to customise it via code snippets and use highly effective third-party AI bots like Dialogflow.

How I Examined HubSpot Chatbot Builder

I discovered HubSpot’s Chatbot Builder fairly intuitive. The drag-and-drop interface made it easy to construct out specialised chatbots. Right here’s an instance of a lead-qualifying bot.

You should utilize this bot to deal with the majority of your buyer questions and pre-qualify by asking focused questions. This helps your gross sales workforce save time on preliminary screening and put their vitality the place it issues.

The very best half? Every lead will probably be documented in your CRM seamlessly. If a lead already exists inside your CRM, the bot will ship customized messages primarily based on their final interplay.

For example, if I final adopted up with a lead per week again, it’ll reference that interplay and naturally proceed the dialog. Extra alternatives, fewer leads slipping via the cracks.

So, whereas this software isn’t strictly AI-powered, you should utilize it to construct out customized chatbots for easy use circumstances rapidly.

HubSpot Chatbot Builder Options I Favored

• Seamless drag and drop interface to create chatbots rapidly with out coding.
• Built-in with HubSpot’s CRM to retailer buyer knowledge and set off electronic mail campaigns.
• No studying curve, simple templates, and intuitive expertise.

What I Didn’t Like

• Rule-based chatbots aren’t very customizable.
• Can’t deal with complicated use circumstances.

HubSpot Chatbot Builder Pricing

10. Intercom Fin AI agent

Intercom is a frontrunner within the buyer assist area, and its AI chatbot, Fin is not any exception. Fin AI agent makes use of a mixture of prime AI fashions, corresponding to GPT-4 and Claude, to ship a really conversational AI chatbot.

I first got here throughout this software via Anthropic’s case study, the place Fin AI agent delivers common decision charges of 51% throughout their buyer base. These numbers are fairly spectacular, so I made a decision to dig deeper.

Fin AI agent means that you can sync content material from quite a lot of sources, corresponding to your web site, Zendesk, conversations, paperwork, and extra. You possibly can then practice the AI bot rigorously by batch-testing dwell conversations, score its solutions, testing completely different audiences, and extra.

Whereas this setup may want extra time and assets, it’ll assist your customer support workforce grow to be extra environment friendly in the long term. You may also arrange duties, customized directions, and extra.

How I Examined Intercom Fin AI Agent

Whereas I wasn’t in a position to absolutely check Fin AI agent due to its enterprise set-up, I spoke to Amrita Bhasin from Sotira, an AI retail firm. She makes use of Intercom for web site signups and buyer qualification.

She informed me that, “essentially the most distinctive use case [for our chatbots] is buying and extracting details about what SKUs/stock can be found so prospects can primarily buy through the chatbot, so each step of the way in which is guided; this virtually looks like in retailer customized buying for patrons. “

I additionally signed up for the Fin AI agent trial to point out you what the backend ticketing system seems to be like.

Intercom Fin AI Agent Options I Favored

• Straightforward-to-use interface and a clear ticket administration system.
• Built-in batch testing capabilities and reply scores.
• One-click deployment throughout electronic mail, voice, dwell chat, social, and extra.

What I Didn’t Like

• Vendor lock-in – You have to migrate your total stack to Intercom and recreate any alternate workflows from scratch.
• Intercom’s options can really feel barely overwhelming for smaller groups.

Intercom Fin AI Agent Pricing

• Important ($29/seat/month, billed yearly) – Fin AI agent, Messenger, primary inbox and ticketing system.
• Superior ($85/seat/month, billed yearly) – Superior automation like workflows, workforce allocation and 20 Lite seats.
• Skilled ($132/seat/month) – SLAs, HIPAA compliance, and extra.

Fin AI agent has an outcome-based pricing ($0.99 per decision) with a minimal of fifty resolutions per thirty days.

11. Tidio Lyro

Tidio Lyro is a conversational AI chatbot constructed for small and medium companies. Lyro’s worth prop is straightforward: Reply buyer queries immediately primarily based in your assist content material. If it could’t reply a query, it palms off the dialog to a human agent.

I spoke to companies which have built-in Tidio Lyro, and so they have been typically completely happy about Tidio’s efficiency. Nevertheless, I observed that corporations that didn’t have intensive documentation or assist noticed greater escalation charges to human brokers.

How I Examined Tidio Lyro

Signing up for Tidio Lyro’s AI agent was an easy course of. After signing up, I stuffed out some onboarding questions and was then redirected to a fast integration tutorial.

Right here, I can practice Tidio on my frequent gross sales, leads, and assist flows to automate repetitive conversations. Lyro may even suggest merchandise to bottom-of-the-funnel consumers when acceptable.

Oleh Stupak from Mgroup, who makes use of Tidio for lead qualification, informed me: “Though dealing with FAQs was the unique objective, we found [Tidio’s] true energy lies in robotically qualifying leads and sending them to the suitable Shopify specialist.”

Right here’s how their Tidio-powered chatbot seems to be:

Lyro Options I Favored

• Learns out of your firm knowledge and assist paperwork to reply buyer questions.
• Quick response occasions with cheap accuracy.
• Constructed-in human hand-off system.

What I Didn’t Like

• It may take too lengthy to load generally.
• Pricing is multi-tiered and a bit complicated.
• Closely dependent in your documentation.

Lyro Pricing

• Flows (Begins at $24.17/mo) – Unlocks entry to clever response dealing with. 2,000 guests cap.
• Lyro AI Agent (Begins at $32.50/month) – Contains customized on-brand messages, knowledge-based responses, and human handoff. 50 Lyra AI conversations included.

12. Drift

Drift has grow to be fairly widespread since its February 2024 acquisition by Salesloft. It makes a speciality of supporting B2B gross sales groups via AI, by straight integrating into Salesloft’s Income Orchestration Platform. I think about it the final word one-two punch for managing the customer journey — from the primary interplay to closing the deal.

Drift nonetheless shines at what it does greatest: participating web site guests primarily based on their conduct, answering questions, reserving conferences, and qualifying leads. However now, with new options like Drift Engage, Fastlane, and Bionic Chatbots, it is a lot better at delivering quick, customized buyer experiences.

How I Examined Drift

I explored how companies are utilizing Drift in motion. For instance, the Web site Concierge characteristic acts like a digital host, greeting guests, answering their questions, and pointing them in the fitting path, all in actual time.

One factor that caught my consideration was how Drift Interact helps gross sales groups tailor conversations primarily based on guests’ shopping conduct and former chats. It’s like having an AI-powered assistant in your web site, able to qualify leads or ebook conferences on the spot.

Drift Options I Favored

• Educated on 100 million B2B conversations to detect gross sales intent precisely and path to the fitting workforce member.
• AI-driven purchaser qualification to establish prospects most probably to transform primarily based on conduct patterns.
• Devoted chat experiences for campaigns.
• Personalizes messages primarily based on customer’s firm, trade, and engagement historical past.

What I Didn’t Like

• Excessive entry barrier, making Drift appropriate to solely well-funded organizations.
• Has a big studying curve, which requires technical experience.

Drift Pricing

13. Zendesk AI Agents

I’ve been utilizing Zendesk for a few years now to handle assist tickets for my shoppers. Having moved from the chaotic ticketing system of Discord, I discover Zendesk to be fairly environment friendly at organizing and managing conversations.

Integrating Zendesk’s AI chatbot into my workflow was an apparent subsequent step. Zendesk has years of actual assist conversations (19 billion of them!) to coach the mannequin on, so its solutions are extra human-like.

How I Examined Zendesk AI Brokers

Right here’s what Zendesk’s ticketing system seems to be like:

You get a helpful dashboard the place you’ll be able to invite workforce members, set auto responses, and reply to tickets straight. Zendesk’s built-in assistant, Copilot, robotically categorizes the ticket intent, language, and sentiment. I can even use Copilot’s AI generated responses to answer to tickets.

Source

Now, let’s go to the AI brokers half. Zendesk brokers might be activated through the Admin management panel in settings. I clicked on Create AI agent, and set the identify and tone for my agent.

Then, it prompted me to pick the model I need to practice the AI on. Keep in mind, for this to work successfully, you want a repository of helpdesk content material your AI agent can fetch responses from.

Zendesk Options I Favored

• Enterprise-grade ticket administration resolution.
• Workforce administration, useful resource allocation, and AI-powered contact facilities multi function software.
• Sturdy observe document in assist.

What I Didn’t Like

• Zendesk’s brokers have pre-set tones, and there’s not a lot room for personalization.

Zendesk Pricing

• Help Group ($19/agent/month, billed yearly) – Fundamental electronic mail primarily based ticketing, Fb/X assist, automations, and analytics.
• Suite Group ($55/agent/month, billed yearly) – Unlocks entry to AI brokers, dwell chat and telephone assist.
• Suite Skilled ($115/agent/month, billed yearly) – 5+ assist facilities, authorized compliances like HIPAA, clever escalations and extra.
• Suite Enterprise ($169/agent/month, billed yearly) – 300+ assist facilities, sandbox surroundings, audit logs, and extra.

You even have outcome-based pricing for brokers as an add-on with $1.50+ per profitable decision (quantity reductions out there).

14. Chatbase

Chatbase is an AI chatbot builder designed to spin up buyer assist brokers skilled in your knowledge. This software is just like Tidio Lyro and Zendesk, with a built-in human hand-off system.

Two issues that stood out to me on this software have been its AI agent testing playground and the flexibility to configure actions. With actions, your chatbot can deal with real-world duties corresponding to setting conferences, triggering notifications, looking the net, and extra.

How I Examined Chatbase

First, I created a brand new AI agent by configuring my workspace and offering it with coaching knowledge. Then, I navigated to the Playground to check it.

On this check surroundings, I might simply check out completely different fashions, tones, and actions till I discover the fitting tone and depth for my bot.

You may also set system prompts to behave as sure roles (gross sales brokers, language tutor, and so forth.) and customized directions. For example, within the picture above, I requested it to behave as a gross sales agent. Whereas it pulled info from my documentation, the reply wasn’t very customized to my query.

Chatbase Options I Favored

• Simply construct chatbots skilled in your buyer knowledge with their no-code interface.
• Check surroundings to fine-tune agent responses and experiment with completely different fashions.
• Strong analytics dashboard.

What I Didn’t Like

• Solutions are closely reliant in your offered documentation and lack personalization.
• Whereas AI actions are a helpful idea, the plan limits are fairly restrictive.

Chatbase Pricing

• Free Plan – 100 message credit/month, one AI agent (bot deleted after 14 days of inactivity).
• Interest Plan ($40/month) – 2,000 message credit, one AI agent, 5 actions/agent.
• Commonplace Plan ($150/month) – 12,000 message credit, two AI brokers, 10 actions/agent.
• Professional Plan ($500/month) – 40,000 message credit, three AI brokers, 15 actions/agent.

What I Realized About AI Chatbots From This Experiment

I’ve come a great distance from getting annoyed at customer support chatbots to embracing them as a strong enterprise software. Don’t get me unsuitable — I nonetheless get annoyed with the chatbot responses generally. Nevertheless, it’s onerous to not be impressed after I can generate good content material concepts, draft content material, and even create first rate graphics in minutes.

If I needed to choose my favourite chatbots from this listing, it’d be Breeze (for end-to-end enterprise automation), Claude (for private use), and Tidio (for constructing customer-facing chatbots). Nevertheless, I do know many associates who would swear by ChatGPT’s customized GPTs.

My recommendation? Use my exams as a reference, choose the highest chatbots in your stack, and take a look at them. Every enterprise has distinctive wants, and whereas I’ve determined my favorites after intense testing, newer options may make me swap.

Editor’s observe: This put up was initially revealed in March 2019 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.