# What is Chatbot?

> A conversational interface that answers customer questions, usually from fixed docs.

Canonical: https://www.decimal.app/glossary/chatbot · Last reviewed: 2026-09-23

A support chatbot answers customers in a chat window. Older bots follow decision trees; newer ones use language models to answer from the help center and past tickets.

## Why it matters

Chatbots handle how-to questions well. They struggle when the answer depends on the customer's own data or a bug nobody has written up, which is where technical support spends most of its time.

## Best practices

1. Make escalation easy. A clear path to a human beats a bot that loops.
2. Ground answers in sources. Show the doc or ticket each answer came from.
3. Know its ceiling. Track which question types the bot can't close and route them to something that can investigate.

## How Decimal helps

Decimal goes past the chatbot ceiling by investigating each question against your code, logs, and account data before it replies.

## Related terms

- [AI Agent](https://www.decimal.app/glossary/ai-agent): Software that plans, uses tools, and acts toward a goal instead of answering one prompt.
- [Deflection Rate](https://www.decimal.app/glossary/deflection-rate): The share of customer questions resolved without a human support agent.
- [Hallucination](https://www.decimal.app/glossary/hallucination): When an AI model states something confident and wrong.
- [Knowledge Base](https://www.decimal.app/glossary/knowledge-base): A library of help articles customers and agents use to answer questions.

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