AI Chatbot Glossary
What Is Live Chat?
Live chat is a real-time communication channel connecting website visitors to human agents — often combined with AI chatbots that handle initial inquiries.
Definition
A real-time communication channel that allows website visitors to chat with human agents directly. Many businesses combine live chat with AI chatbots, using the bot to handle initial inquiries and routing complex cases to live agents via human handoff.
Why Live Chat Matters for AI Chatbots
Pure live chat is expensive (per-seat) and hard to staff 24/7. The modern pattern is AI-first — AI handles 70–90% of conversations automatically and hands off only what it should — so your team focuses on the high-value, high-complexity cases where human presence genuinely matters.
Related Terms
Human Handoff
Human handoff is the process of transferring a chatbot conversation to a live agent when the bot cannot resolve an issue or the user requests human help — preserving conversation context.
AI Chatbot
An AI chatbot is a conversational interface powered by artificial intelligence that understands natural language, generates human-like responses, and assists users with tasks like answering questions, capturing leads, or processing orders.
Customer Support Automation
Customer support automation uses technology — including AI chatbots — to handle customer service inquiries without human intervention.
Omnichannel
Omnichannel is a customer engagement strategy providing a seamless experience across multiple channels — website chat, WhatsApp, email, SMS — with context preserved between them.
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