7 Best Chatbots for Customer Service in 2025
Key Takeaways
- AI-driven chatbots for customer service now understand tone, context, and intent more naturally.
- Level AI’s Virtual Agent resolves tasks, not just answers questions.
- Modern bots learn from every interaction to improve continuously, and offer consistent support across all channels from text to voice.
- Our Virtual Agent uses deep analytics from Level AI, like iCSAT and AutoQA, for performance insights.
Customer service chatbots are designed to give customers quick answers and instant support. At their best, they go beyond simply answering questions and do things to resolve real issues, freeing up time for human agents to focus on complex or high-value conversations.
But many traditional chatbots fail in this because they're built on outdated, rule-based systems that rely on rigid decision trees and keyword triggers. Most people know what this looks like in practice. You can’t ask things in colloquial speech, like “Can I swap this for another size?” but instead must choose between pre-set menu options like “Track an order” or “Start a return.”
However, the adoption of generative AI and natural language understanding is making these types of chatbots obsolete. Modern chatbots can interpret intent even when it’s phrased in less common ways. They can also pick up on tone and urgency and respond in a way that feels like you're talking to a human being.
So what does a high-performing chatbot actually look like? Let’s take a closer look at some of the best in the space, starting with our own advanced system, AI Virtual Agent, which engages in natural conversation, resolves issues autonomously, and improves continuously through real-time learning.
In this article, we'll cover:
Key Features to Look for in a Customer Service Chatbot
It Feels Like Talking to a Human, Not a Script
One of the biggest frustrations with legacy chatbots is that as soon as there’s an interruption, a topic shift, or a request expressed colloquially, they sometimes break down. Interactions with such bots often feel scripted and repetitive, leaving customers frustrated.
This can result in prolonged customer interactions, unresolved issues, and premature escalations. Modern customer service chatbots that use true AI rather than keyword matching or other preset paths can accurately interpret intent, pick up on tone, and handle interruptions and mid-conversation shifts without losing context.
For instance, if a customer says, “I ordered this last week and still don't have it; what’s going on?" a legacy chatbot might not see this as a shipping inquiry because the phrasing doesn't match specific keywords like “delivery” or “tracking.”
An AI-driven system that correctly understands natural language, on the other hand, would pick up on the context, intent, and urgency, allowing it to retrieve the order, provide shipping details, and escalate to an agent if and when immediate action is required.
The System Learns From Every Interaction to Get Smarter Over Time
Traditional chatbots are inflexible. If a query doesn’t match the script, the conversation breaks. And every improvement requires a manual update from a developer, which means they don't learn on their own.
With AI-powered chatbots, each conversation becomes a learning opportunity. Such contact center automation tools recognize patterns, refine their responses, and identify areas where knowledge is lacking.
For instance, if dozens of customers ask variations of “Can I change the delivery address after placing my order?”, the bot not only answers but also flags this as a recurring query.
That insight can be used to update workflows, expand the knowledge base, or even inform policy changes. Plus, the most advanced AI chatbots will create a feedback loop that automatically tracks resolution rates, escalation frequency, and customer sentiment, and then use those signals to strengthen future interactions.
Over time, the system provides more accurate responses and better anticipates customer needs.
The Chatbot Offers Full Coverage Across All Customer Interactions
Customer service doesn’t live in a single channel anymore. People expect the same level of support whether they’re interacting in a web chat, sending an email, or speaking directly on the phone.
Legacy chatbots struggle with this because they're often built on siloed systems. Different vendors typically handle different channels, which means the bot handling web chat doesn’t share training data or customer history with the one handling voice or email.
This creates inconsistent customer experiences across your customer support channels, which forces customers to repeat themselves every time they switch channels. For example, a voice bot might sound overly formal while the chat assistant feels casual or off-brand during interactions.
On top of that, many solutions lack deep integration with the broader tech stack. Without native connections to CRMs like Salesforce, Zendesk, or HubSpot, or to ticketing systems and knowledge bases, these bots can’t access real-time business data. This limits not only what they can resolve, but also risks hallucinations that can compromise trust.
Modern systems connect chat, voice, and messaging into a single system that shares context, training data, and customer history across channels. This ensures that conversations feel empathetic and consistent, no matter how or where the customer chooses to engage.
Top 7 Chatbots for Customer Service
1. Level AI Virtual Agent
Level AI’s Virtual Agent combines natural, human-like conversations with the ability to provide deep insights into every interaction and take real action.
Not only does it offer complete coverage across text and voice channels, but it also continuously improves and reduces the load on human agents.
Our AI customer service agent:
- Holds natural conversations that capture intent, emotional tone, and context.
- Resolves issues autonomously by securely connecting to CRMs, ecommerce platforms, and helpdesks to update orders, generate tickets, and send follow-ups.
- Decides when to escalate to human agents without needing preprogrammed rules.
- Analyzes 100% of interactions to identify resolution rates, escalation trends, and customer sentiment.
- Launches in days with minimal engineering support, fully customized to your brand, and at half the cost of traditional chatbot solutions.
- Offers scalability with enterprise-grade security, multilingual support, and compliance (SOC2, HIPAA, GDPR) across both chat and voice channels.
Conversations That Feel Human
Customers never speak according to a script. Typically, they change their minds mid-sentence, bring up unrelated questions, or express frustration in ways that don’t fit neatly into a menu of options.
To move past the rigidity of rule-based bots, Virtual Agent utilizes DialogIQ to understand tone, context, and interruptions so the conversation flows smoothly even when customers give vague inputs or abruptly change topics mid-conversation.
It detects human emotions, based on Level AI’s sentiment analysis tools that recognize the widest range of emotions of any software in the industry, including:
- Anger
- Annoyance
- Disapproval
- Disappointment
- Worry
- Admiration
- Happiness
- Gratitude
With this nuanced detection and understanding of human emotion, our Virtual Agent continuously learns and adapts its responses in real-time, leading to effective conversations, faster resolutions, and a better overall user experience.
For example, it uses calming language when a customer is angry about a billing error, empathy when they’re worried about a late delivery, or genuine enthusiasm when they show admiration for the outcome of their resolution.
This ability to handle conversations fluidly and empathetically translates directly into measurable results. Organizations using DialogIQ see up to a 30% increase in CSAT and a 50% reduction in abandonment rates.
Repetitive Customer Issues Resolved: No Agent Required
Most chatbot software is designed to just answer questions rather than actively resolve issues.
They can answer FAQs like “What’s your return policy?” but won’t actually process a return. This may delay issue resolutions and push more customers to a human agent to finish the job.
AI Virtual Agent’s AgentIQ gives it the ability to actually do things, instead of just offering answers. Using natural language understanding and semantic intelligence, Virtual Agent understands a request, breaks it into steps, connects to the right systems, and sees the task through from start to finish.
AgentIQ also integrates directly with existing tools in your workflow, like Salesforce, Zendesk, and HubSpot.
Once connected, the chatbot can:
- Update customer records in real time
- Modify or cancel orders instantly
- Create, assign, and track support tickets
- Look up account details securely
- Send proactive notifications or follow-up emails
For example, when a customer asks, “Can you switch my subscription to annual billing and send me a receipt?” the agent can autonomously reply to the customer, authenticate the account, update the billing cycle in the CRM, generate a receipt, and follow up with an email confirmation.
Setting up these integrations and automations is also extremely simple with no technical expertise or coding knowledge required. Teams can define “skills” for specific tasks, set triggers that activate those skills, and connect knowledge sources, such as policy documents, to improve accuracy.
Our system includes additional guardrails and fallback logic to ensure the bot stays on track, while customization options allow it to match brand tone and style.
After setup, the system detects common, low-effort customer requests and handles them on its own (while passing on more complex queries to human agents). This takes repetitive tasks off your agents’ plates, reducing mental strain and freeing them to concentrate on cases that require deeper problem-solving.
Because it can resolve end-to-end issues, AI Virtual Agent achieves 3x better containment rates while reducing escalation and speeding up response times to customer queries.
Actionable Insights From Every Customer Interaction
Traditional chatbots often lack built-in tracking for key performance metrics, such as CSAT, resolution rates, abandonment rates, or the overall quality of service provided by the bot.
This is because traditional bots are often built with a narrow purpose in mind, like question-answering. Also, developers usually prioritize designing rule-based dialog trees over analytics, so performance tracking isn’t seen as essential.
AI Virtual Agent incorporates Level AI’s customer intelligence and QA automation capabilities at its core, providing a complete view of performance across every channel. Its quality review analyzes and continuously monitors the accuracy, response quality, and outcomes of all interactions across your organization.
Specifically, Virtual Agent uses:
- AutoQA to score chatbot responses automatically against predefined criteria and give a clear view of accuracy, clarity, and tone throughout the customer journey.
- Voice of the Customer (VoC) Insights to identify subtle patterns in customer intent and sentiment expressed during support interactions, so CX and support teams can act as necessary. Metrics like CSAT or trends concerning recent complaints are gathered entirely without surveys.
- iCSAT, a proprietary score that combines sentiment, effort, and resolution data to reveal customer feelings towards your product, service, or organization. It also uncovers insights into how well the agent performed during an interaction against certain rubrics.
All this gives teams a clear view of how Virtual Agent is performing so they can improve service over time.
Because it understands both the quality and outcome of every exchange, Virtual Agent can handle certain everyday requests on its own. When it detects either a complex query at the start or if a customer isn't satisfied or is losing patience, the bot understands to escalate the case to a human agent.
In doing so, it passes along the entire conversation history as context so that customers don't have to repeat themselves, making the handoff smoother.
During setup, the system analyzes your historical conversations to identify frequently occurring, low-effort requests from the start. The setup process itself is automated, requires minimal engineering resources, and can be completed in a matter of days.
Overall, Level AI’s Virtual Agent achieves 55% lower setup and maintenance costs compared to other solutions.
By connecting discovery, automation, and quality monitoring into a single loop and analyzing every interaction for accuracy, outcomes, and customer sentiment, Virtual Agent can cycle those findings back to improve both AI and human performance.
Ready to see how Level AI’s Virtual Agent can work for you? Schedule a free demo today to learn more.
2. Intercom Fin
Fin is Intercom’s chatbot that uses conversational AI to answer customer queries across channels. It integrates with help desks, CRMs, and knowledge bases to generate complete answers.
Key features include:
- Responses powered by Intercom’s knowledge base and third-party integrations
- Contextual routing to live agents when automation can’t resolve the query
- Supports messaging, email, and web chat in multiple languages
- Analytics and reporting on containment rate and customer satisfaction
- Automation workflows for ticket creation, tagging, and follow-up
Pricing is usage-based, starting at about $0.99 per resolution with a minimum package of 50 resolutions per month.
3. Tidio
Tidio is a customer service chatbot commonly used by SMBs and e-commerce businesses. It offers live chat functionalities and AI-powered automation to deflect repetitive customer inquiries, save on operational costs, and support customer engagement.
Tidio is easy to set up and integrates with major e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.
Notable Tidio features include:
- Self-service answers to FAQs, order status questions, and product inquiries
- Built-in live chat with automated routing to human agents
- Prebuilt chatbot templates for e-commerce and support workflows
- Integrations with Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce, and other platforms
- Basic analytics for chatbot performance and customer satisfaction
Tidio offers a free plan with limited chatbot capacity, with paid plans starting around $29 per month.
4. Zendesk AI Agents
Zendesk AI Agents extend the Zendesk support suite with AI-driven automation across messaging, email, and web channels. They can resolve common issues, pull customer data from connected systems, and escalate to live agents with full context.
Zendesk AI Agents is primarily built for larger service operations that need reliable automation paired with analytics.
Key features include:
- Natural language processing (NLP) to generate answers pulled from internal knowledge bases
- Multi-language support for global teams
- Scripted flows and self-service combined with natural language responses
- API-based integrations with CRMs, billing, and ticketing tools
- Journey mapping and advanced reporting on performance
Zendesk AI Agents are available as part of Zendesk’s standard service plans, with pricing starting around $50 per agent per month.
5. Ada
Ada is an automation-first customer service platform built for enterprises that want to improve containment. The chatbot is customizable, with low-code tools for designing conversation flows and connecting to backend systems.
Ada offers various features, including:
- Low-code builder for building conversation paths and workflows
- Integrations with CRMs, payment systems, and order management tools
- Omnichannel coverage across web, mobile apps, social messaging, and voice
- Reporting dashboards with insights into containment, escalation, and CSAT
Ada’s pricing is quote-based and tailored to enterprise-scale deployments.
6. HubSpot
HubSpot’s Breeze chatbot is part of its Service Hub product, designed primarily for small and mid-sized businesses using HubSpot’s software.
It can automate lead capture, FAQ deflection, and basic support workflows, while connecting directly with HubSpot’s CRM.
HubSpot features include:
- Customizable chatbot builder with drag-and-drop design
- Integration with HubSpot CRM for personalized responses
- Automates appointment booking, FAQ handling, and lead routing for self-service
- Handoff to live chat agents through HubSpot’s inbox
- Reporting on conversations, response times, and resolution rates
HubSpot Service Hub starts at $20 per seat per month, with advanced chatbot functionality included in higher-tier plans.
7. Gorgias
Gorgias is a customer service platform for e-commerce brands, with AI chatbots that specialize in deflecting order-related customer questions.
It can integrate with Shopify, Magento, or BigCommerce, so retailers can seamlessly reduce ticket load while boosting agent productivity.
Key Gorgias features include:
- Direct integration with Shopify and other e-commerce platforms to pull real-time order details
- Hybrid automation with smooth one-click escalation to human agents when needed
- Centralized support inbox covering chat, email, SMS, and social channels
- Macros, rules, and tagging to streamline repetitive workflows and improve agent efficiency, saving on operational costs.
Pricing starts at $10 per month for smaller stores, with higher tiers scaling based on ticket volume and advanced feature usage.
Improve Customer Service with an AI-Powered Chatbot
Level AI’s Virtual Agent isn’t just another chatbot. It understands intent, adapts to customer tone, and resolves complex issues across chat and voice, all while working hand-in-hand with your human agents.
Automating routine tasks and analyzing every interaction helps you boost resolution rates, lower escalation volumes, and deliver a more consistent user experience across every channel.
Schedule a free demo with our team to see how Level AI can help you optimize your support operation to provide a faster, smarter, and more empathetic customer experience.
