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

I bear in mind when ChatGPT first launched. Your complete advertising and marketing group was break up on whether or not they need to use AI chatbots or not. Posts about ChatGPT would get a whole lot 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 controversy continues to be ongoing, AI chatbots are already in every single place. I’m seeing entrepreneurs counting on customized bots for social media, enterprises integrating voice assistants, and customer support groups 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 strong chatbot choices that may maintain conversations nearly 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 is best to take into account on your advertising and marketing workflow. I’ll additionally provide the actual prompts I used and the outcomes so you already know what to anticipate.

Desk of Contents

Seems like so much? Let me break it down.

Right here’s what occurs beneath the hood if 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 totally 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 information, understands how they relate to one another.
Response. The mannequin begins forming the output choices. It is a prediction system the place the mannequin predicts the subsequent most definitely phrase primarily based on earlier patterns.
Suggestions loop. As the ultimate step, the chatbot runs the response candidates by totally different security filters and quality control. 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 would possibly implement the structure otherwise. The tip aim, although? Serving to resolve enterprise (or private) issues sooner and extra reliably.

Conversational AI vs. Chatbots

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

Conversational AI refers to any expertise that may discuss 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 resolution bushes to find out one of the best plan of action.

Rule-based chatbots can solely deal with particular, anticipated inputs. I’m positive you’ve interacted with a lot of them within the pre-ChatGPT period. Ask them one thing exterior their script, they usually’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 surprising queries.

If you need the consumer to decide on between set choices with out a lot flexibility, go for rule-based chatbots to save lots of prices. Nevertheless, if you wish to ship an upgraded consumer expertise, I’d advocate selecting an AI chatbot.

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

I’ve seen AI chatbots develop into considerably extra clever during the last yr. Earlier, you needed to scrape and feed a ton of knowledge to chatbots, and even then, the outputs had 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 countless. I not too long ago related my electronic mail to my Claude account through MCP. Now, I can get a useful 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 Assist

Gross sales and Advertising

Automate gross sales prospecting and market analysis.
Personalize automated outreach to your target market at scale.
Managing your gross sales pipeline by summarizing conferences, sending follow-up reminders, and so forth.
Assist clients by each stage of the shopping for journey by offering customized and well timed info.

Writing and Enhancing

Content material technique and ideation for blogs, emails, and social media posts.
Deep analysis on particular subjects 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 energy.
Reply frequent questions on open positions or firm insurance policies.
Schedule interviews and conferences with out countless back-and-forth emails.

The examples listed here are simply the tip of the iceberg. Folks have used chatbots for remedy, journey planning, ordering meals, and a lot extra. Based on our State of AI report, 39% of entrepreneurs use chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot to create content material and arrange 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.
Scale back the price of labor and generate outputs sooner.
Conduct in depth information crunching and evaluation extra successfully.
Show you how to scale what you are promoting with out growing headcount.

Backside line? You possibly can simply customise AI chatbots to suit nearly 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. Based on HubSpot’s State of AI survey, 43% of entrepreneurs battle with AI producing inaccurate info. I’ll admit, typically I get pissed off too.

Some fashions carry out higher than others. As an 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 information to cut back the probabilities 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 knowledge,” and “in case you are unsure a couple of truth, simply say so.” Regardless, it is best to all the time 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 confer with them when wanted.
Know when to escalate to a human agent.

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

Offended? (“Why is my month-to-month fee 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.”)
Comfortable? (“I like, love, LOVE the brand new sneaker designs! Please inform me they arrive in pink!”)

One of the best chatbots I’ve used make me really feel heard and understood.

Varieties of Output

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

Think about this: a buyer asks, “How do I alter this setting in your software?” A standard chatbot would hyperlink the client 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 fashionable instruments and software program. As an example, your chatbot ought to be capable to sync along with your gross sales information, fetch the numbers, and spin up a dashboard to current them.

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

How I Examined the Finest 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 completely skilled for code technology (GitHub Copilot), it is going to naturally be higher than an all-purpose chatbot like ChatGPT. Equally, an AI chatbot skilled in your CRM information would be capable to 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 determine one of the best mixture on your stack.

With so many strong AI chatbot choices in the marketplace, it may be laborious to determine the place to begin.

That can assist you make an knowledgeable resolution, I’ve compiled an inventory of one of the best AI chatbots primarily based on their options, usability, and efficiency in testing.

Whether or not you’re searching for a chatbot to help what you are promoting or enhance private productiveness, there’s an possibility right here for everybody.

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

1. Breeze

Get Began with Breeze for Free

Organising a brand new chatbot is a really time-consuming course of for me. It’s not simply the preliminary coaching both. I have to repeatedly 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 information, comparable to purchaser intent and firm information, to offer Breeze the total image.

With a whole lot of buyer success tales, companies utilizing Breeze are seeing outcomes throughout the board. HubSpot clients are already utilizing it to:

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

How I Examined Breeze

I examined Breeze by their “product demo” web page. Actually, I used to be anticipating a video walkthrough and perhaps a fundamental chatbot with customary responses.

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

In fact, 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 acquired 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 achieved at scale with real-time information, powered by your conversations, deal historical past, and buyer expertise. The chances are countless.

One other factor I appreciated about the entire course of was how responsive the chatbot was. She requested me clever but natural-sounding inquiries to information me by 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 provide, which is exactly the form of product data you’d need from an AI chatbot.

Breeze Options I Preferred

Seamless HubSpot CRM integration.
Combines each structured (CRM) and unstructured information (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 photographs are first rate, however among the chatbots on this record do a greater job.

Breeze Pricing

Get began with fundamental AI options like content material technology totally free.
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) – Consists of 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.

Be aware: 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 Advocate Breeze

Should you’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 what you are promoting in addition to you do.

Whereas I wouldn’t advocate Breeze for media creation, you need to use it to automate your each day advertising and marketing duties. Should you’re within the technique of scaling your organization, I’d extremely advocate giving it a attempt.

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 shopper app in historical past.

Quick ahead to right this moment, ChatGPT processes over 2.5B consumer queries per day. That’s roughly 1/third of Google’s 8.5B searches per day, making it a severe 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? Properly, a variety of issues. The proper GPT prompts can assist you create brand-aligned content material, polished photographs, crunch marketing campaign numbers, and extra. I take advantage of ChatGPT Plus for analysis, Excel evaluation, and picture technology.

However that’s not all. The one GPT function 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.

As an example, if I would like the GPT agent to buy a pair of socks for me on the most cost-effective worth, the agent can examine totally different websites, check out coupon codes, after which share the outcomes with me. I’m already seeing GPT agent use instances applied throughout social media, so I can’t look ahead to a broader rollout. As of this writing, the ChatGPT agent is barely 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 undertaking administration area of interest, who wished a report on how they stack up in opposition to rivals. 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 successful options that my present consumer didn’t have.

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

ChatGPT Options I Preferred

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, information science, and lots of domains.
Picture technology. I take advantage of Sora, ChatGPT’s built-in picture technology mannequin, to generate design references and edit current photographs.
Deep analysis. I discover GPT’s deep analysis mode fairly useful for complicated analysis, particularly historic analysis.

What I Didn’t Like

Picture technology takes fairly a little bit of time and typically 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 technology, and analysis entry to new fashions.
Professional customers ($200/month) get prolonged limits on all the pieces in Plus and entry to o3-pro and the Codex agent.

3. Claude

As a author, I’m fairly a fan of Claude. Claude is a superb artistic thinker, and once I give it sufficient context, it may possibly emulate model voices very nicely. I closely depend upon Claude for content material technique, first drafts, and modifying sentences.

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

I additionally love Claude’s MCP function. Like I discussed earlier, I used it to sync my electronic mail to the AI assistant, which I’ll present you under. You can too connect with quite a lot of different instruments comparable to Asana (undertaking 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 further 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 drag info from. Additionally, conduct impartial analysis to search out another necessary information. Current this in a tabular format, with headline, brief blurb, and if you happen to assume any may be made in social media content material items.”

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

I particularly appreciated how the knowledge was offered — organized and straightforward to scan. And that’s one thing I discover in different Claude options too. As an example, right here’s how I used Claude to iterate on a touchdown web page for my purchasers.

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

Claude Options I Preferred

Writing high quality. Out of all AI chatbots I’ve tried, Claude produces probably the most on-brand and pure content material.
Tasks. I take advantage of 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 referred to as Clio to anonymize consumer conversations for coaching.

What I Didn’t Like

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

Claude Pricing

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

4. Grok

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

Whereas different chatbots have restricted entry to social media (anti-scraping legal guidelines), Grok can faucet into X’s reside area to observe developments and analyze different accounts. I steadily use Grok’s “clarify this put up” function — it’s a useful approach to get context on issues I’m clueless about with out leaving the platform. You can too 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 research 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” function. DeepSearch is right for any activity that wants heavy analysis and evaluation.

For this check, I requested Grok to research the deal with of a well-liked X influencer within the AI area of interest. Based mostly on its evaluation, I additionally prompted it to develop a content material technique for an influencer who desires to attain related success.

Upon working the immediate, Grok walked me by 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 the most effective I’ve seen from AI instruments, matching the standard {of professional} audits. The evaluation gave me all the pieces I wanted to know: latest + viral posts, engagement charges, posting frequency, presence on different platforms, viewers frequency, and extra.

I particularly appreciated the neat comparative desk on the finish of the audit. Good base to construct out a content material technique from. I’d give your entire expertise a strong 8/10.

Grok Options I Preferred

Grok is beneficial for high-quality social media audits, evaluation, and real-time sentiment gauging.
Native X options like “Clarify this put up,” replies by tags, and information 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 group but, so third-party integrations are restricted.
No video technology capabilities.
Actual-time information may 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) – Quicker 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 attempting to study a brand new coding framework.

Typically, my code wouldn’t work due to a tiny error proper beneath 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 customers, Github Copilot helps builders code as much as 55% sooner. 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, comparable to VS Code, Visible Studio, JetBrains and so forth., so you need to use 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 recreation with an AI enjoying in opposition to me. Whereas I requested for a tic-tac-toe recreation, Copilot accurately recognized that I used to be describing the mechanics of a ping pong recreation. 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 Preferred

Prompt multi-language code technology for quite a lot of use instances, from video games to dashboards.
Suggests the best approach to implement or visualise the code.
Reveals logical considering and doesn’t comply with directions blindly.

What I Didn’t Like

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

Github Copilot Pricing

Get began totally free. 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 good assistant. As a consequence of its native integrations throughout Google merchandise like Workspace and Pixel telephones, I can apply it to the go. I at the moment 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 truth: Gemini with Deepthink now has a gold medal on the Worldwide 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 encounter, and Gemini undoubtedly delivered on this one.

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

The White Home was immediately recognizable, and the person’s options and actions had been additionally fairly pure. You’d 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 last verdict on Gemini? I’d say go for it if you happen to use Google’s ecosystem closely. You’ll be sooner and extra productive throughout your each day apps.

Gemini Options I Preferred

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 photographs 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 totally free.
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 high 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 highest 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 had been corresponding to ChatGPT, whereas being 90% cheaper. Let’s see if that also holds true.

How I Examined DeepSeek

After I examined DeepSeek, I targeted on research-heavy duties. I began with a code technology immediate to create a kind, 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 check and distinction different AI chatbots. Given DeepSeek has a censorship problem, I used to be curious to see what it could say about its rivals.

I appreciated how DeepSeek first thought of 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. Should you’re searching for a quick and environment friendly mannequin for non-sensitive analysis information duties, DeepSeek appears to be a very good guess.

DeepSeek Options I Preferred

Open-source mannequin licensed beneath MIT. It helps industrial use instances plus modifications to the bottom mannequin.
Most cost-efficient mannequin on this record; as much as 1/thirtieth cheaper than related 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 a variety of totally different fashions in a single software? Perplexity provides 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 change between the newest fashions like GPT 4.1, Claude 4.0 Sonnet, Gemini 2.5 Professional, and extra.

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

How I Examined Perplexity

I first examined Perplexity for pattern evaluation. Extra particularly, the highest B2B SaaS developments for 2025.

Whereas I fairly like how the knowledge is offered and segregated in several tabs, the developments themselves had been fundamental. I’ve gotten higher outcomes with GPT-4-o on a immediate like this. Nevertheless, I did just like the follow-up query options.

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

Inside minutes, I had a completely useful working web site, with charts that drew up correlations between probably 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 Preferred

Analysis utilizing high fashions like Claude 4.1, GPT-4 and so forth.
Citations and sources on all information and statistics, making it straightforward 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 fashionable 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 help.

9. HubSpot Chatbot Builder

Free Chatbot Builder Software program

If you need a chatbot builder skilled in your CRM information, look no additional than HubSpot’s chatbot builder. With HubSpot Chatbot builder, you’ll be able to design customized sequences for particular clients, ship customized messages, and lighten the load on your help crew.

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

Be aware: Whereas HubSpot’s chat builder software program is a rule-based chatbot, you’ll be able to customise it by 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 need to use this bot to deal with the majority of your buyer questions and pre-qualify by asking focused questions. This helps your gross sales crew save time on preliminary screening and put their vitality the place it issues.

One of the best half? Every lead can 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.

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

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

HubSpot Chatbot Builder Options I Preferred

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

What I Didn’t Like

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

HubSpot Chatbot Builder Pricing

10. Intercom Fin AI agent

Intercom is a frontrunner within the buyer help house, and its AI chatbot, Fin is not any exception. Fin AI agent makes use of a mixture of high AI fashions, comparable to GPT-4 and Claude, to ship a really conversational AI chatbot.

I first got here throughout this software by Anthropic’s case research, 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, comparable to your web site, Zendesk, conversations, paperwork, and extra. You possibly can then prepare the AI bot rigorously by batch-testing reside conversations, ranking its solutions, testing totally different audiences, and extra.

Whereas this setup would possibly want extra time and assets, it is going to assist your customer support crew develop into extra environment friendly in the long term. You can too arrange duties, customized directions, and extra.

How I Examined Intercom Fin AI Agent

Whereas I wasn’t capable of totally 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, “probably the most distinctive use case [for our chatbots] is buying and extracting details about what SKUs/stock can be found so clients can primarily buy through the chatbot, so each step of the best way is guided; this nearly seems 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 appears like.

Intercom Fin AI Agent Options I Preferred

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, reside chat, social, and extra.

What I Didn’t Like

Vendor lock-in – You could migrate your whole 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, fundamental 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 monthly.

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 help content material. If it may possibly’t reply a query, it palms off the dialog to a human agent.

I spoke to companies which have built-in Tidio Lyro, they usually had been typically blissful about Tidio’s efficiency. Nevertheless, I observed that corporations that didn’t have in depth documentation or help noticed increased escalation charges to human brokers.

How I Examined Tidio Lyro

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

Right here, I can prepare Tidio on my frequent gross sales, leads, and help flows to automate repetitive conversations. Lyro may even advocate 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 aim, we found [Tidio’s] true energy lies in routinely qualifying leads and sending them to the suitable Shopify specialist.”

Right here’s how their Tidio-powered chatbot appears:

Lyro Options I Preferred

Learns out of your firm information and help paperwork to reply buyer questions.
Quick response occasions with affordable accuracy.
Constructed-in human hand-off system.

What I Didn’t Like

It might take too lengthy to load typically.
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) – Consists of customized on-brand messages, knowledge-based responses, and human handoff. 50 Lyra AI conversations included.

12. Drift

Drift has develop into fairly fashionable since its February 2024 acquisition by Salesloft. It focuses on supporting B2B gross sales groups by AI, by straight integrating into Salesloft’s Income Orchestration Platform. I take into account it the last 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 habits, answering questions, reserving conferences, and qualifying leads. However now, with new options like Drift Interact, 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 Website Concierge function acts like a digital host, greeting guests, answering their questions, and pointing them in the correct 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 habits 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 Preferred

Educated on 100 million B2B conversations to detect gross sales intent precisely and path to the correct crew member.
AI-driven purchaser qualification to establish prospects most definitely to transform primarily based on habits patterns.
Devoted chat experiences for campaigns.
Personalizes messages primarily based on customer’s firm, business, 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 Brokers

I’ve been utilizing Zendesk for a few years now to handle help tickets for my purchasers. 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 help 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 appears like:

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

Supply

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

Then, it prompted me to pick the model I need to prepare 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 Preferred

Enterprise-grade ticket administration answer.
Workforce administration, useful resource allocation, and AI-powered contact facilities multi function software.
Sturdy observe report in help.

What I Didn’t Like

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

Zendesk Pricing

Assist Group ($19/agent/month, billed yearly) – Fundamental electronic mail primarily based ticketing, Fb/X help, automations, and analytics.
Suite Group ($55/agent/month, billed yearly) – Unlocks entry to AI brokers, reside chat and cellphone help.
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 setting, 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 help brokers skilled in your information. 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 had been its AI agent testing playground and the power to configure actions. With actions, your chatbot can deal with real-world duties comparable to setting conferences, triggering notifications, looking the online, and extra.

How I Examined Chatbase

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

On this check setting, I might simply check out totally different fashions, tones, and actions till I discover the correct tone and depth for my bot.

You can too set system prompts to behave as sure roles (gross sales brokers, language tutor, and so forth.) and customized directions. As an 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 Preferred

Simply construct chatbots skilled in your buyer information with their no-code interface.
Check setting to fine-tune agent responses and experiment with totally different fashions.
Stable 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 Discovered About AI Chatbots From This Experiment

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

If I needed to decide my favourite chatbots from this record, 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 pals who would swear by ChatGPT’s customized GPTs.

My recommendation? Use my checks as a reference, choose the highest chatbots on 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 would possibly make me change.

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