The short answer
An AI chatbot for your website answers visitors' questions from your own pages, day and night, in their own language. For a small business it costs about EUR 40-400 a month as a subscription, or a one-time setup fee plus a few euros a month in use on your own account. It pays off if you get the same questions every week.
What it is
A chat window on your website where visitors type a question and get an answer in seconds, in their own language, at any time of day. A good one answers from your website and documents, like your prices, opening hours, what's included and how to order, and sends people who are ready to buy to you.
It's different from the old chat bots that offered three buttons and a menu. The new ones understand normal questions, like "do you deliver to Tromsø before Christmas?", and answer in normal sentences.
What it's good at
- The same questions, again and again. Prices, opening hours, delivery, what's included. If your team answers these every week, a chat can take most of them.
- Answers outside opening hours. Many visitors browse in the evening. They get an answer then, not the next morning.
- Visitors in other languages. It replies in the language the visitor writes in.
- Finding the right page. On a bigger site, it can point people straight to the page they need.
What it's not good at
- Things that aren't written down. If the answer isn't on your website or in the documents you give it, a good chat says it doesn't know and points to you. A bad one guesses.
- Complaints and difficult cases. These need a person. A good setup hands them over.
- Replacing your phone. It takes the simple questions, so you have more time for the real conversations.
Three ways to get one
| How it works | Typical cost | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly chat service | Sign up, paste in a piece of code, pay every month | About EUR 40-400 a month, often per number of chats |
| Built into your website platform | Some platforms, like Wix or Shopify, offer an AI chat add-on | Varies, usually monthly |
| Set up once, on your own account | Someone sets it up for you, you pay the AI company directly for use | One-time fee, plus a few euros a month in use |
A monthly service is quick to start, but you pay for as long as you use it. Over three years, EUR 100 a month is EUR 3 600.
What I offer
My own product, Ask Raven, is the third kind. I set it up once for €1 490, or €2 490 for the version that also takes visitors' details and gives rough prices. After that you own it. It runs on your own AI account with a monthly limit you choose, which for a typical small business is a few euros a month. There's no monthly fee to me.
You can try it right now: Munin, the raven in the corner of this page, is an Ask Raven.
How to tell a good one from a bad one
Test any chat, mine included, with these five questions:
- Ask something that isn't on the website. Does it admit it doesn't know, or does it make something up?
- Ask about a price. Is it the current price, from your own price list?
- Write in another language. Does it answer in that language?
- Say you want to buy. Does it help you get in touch, or just keep chatting?
- Change something on the website. How long until the chat knows?
What about privacy?
Visitors' questions are sent to an AI company to be answered. Choose a service that doesn't use the questions to train its AI, add a sentence about the chat to your privacy page, and don't ask visitors for more personal details than you need. More in Is it safe to put company data into ChatGPT?
Questions people ask
How much does an AI chatbot for a website cost?
Subscription services cost about EUR 40-400 a month. A chat set up once on your own account, like Ask Raven, costs a one-time fee from €1 490 plus a few euros a month in use.
Will an AI chatbot make things up?
A good one is told to answer only from your website and documents, and to say so when it doesn't know. Test it with a question your site doesn't answer before you go live.
Does an AI chat work on WordPress, Wix or Shopify?
Almost always. Most website chats need one small piece of code, which works on WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Shopify and most other platforms.
Is it worth it for you?
If you get the same questions every week by email or phone, probably yes. If you get three enquiries a month and all of them are complicated, probably not yet. Count the repeat questions for two weeks and decide from that.
For a chat for your staff rather than your customers, look at Team Raven.
Want help with this?
This is what I do for small businesses. See Ask Raven website chat, or start with the 90-minute audit.