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What a customer service chatbot is and what it cannot do

What a chatbot is, how a menu one differs from an AI one, what it can and cannot do, what the law requires and how to choose one.

Héctor Redondo, CEO and founder of BAI Business CEO and founder of BAI Business

Published on Reviewed on 5 min Customer service and bookings

Contents
  1. The two types
  2. What it can do well
  3. What it cannot (and should not) do
  4. What the law requires
  5. How to choose one without surprises
  6. What we have built at BAI
  7. What to do now
  8. How we checked this
  9. Sources

> Declaration of interest: BAI Business offers an AI receptionist and publishes this article. It is signed by Héctor Redondo, CEO and founder of BAI Business.

Today I want to talk about what a customer service chatbot is and, above all, what it cannot do, which is what almost nobody tells you.

A chatbot is a program that talks to your customers in writing (WhatsApp, Instagram, your website) and replies on your behalf. There are two kinds: the menu one (press 1 for opening hours, 2 for prices) and the one that uses artificial intelligence and understands normal sentences. Well done, it answers at any hour, replies to the usual questions and hands you what it does not know. Badly done, it makes up answers and leaves the customer worse off than with no chatbot.

The two types

Menu chatbot AI chatbot
How it understands Closed options Free-form sentences
Reliability High, but rigid Flexible, can get things wrong
How it is set up With a question tree With your information (hours, prices, services)
Risk Frustrating if the question is not on the menu Making things up if it is not limited

What it can do well

  • Answer the usual questions: opening hours, where you are, prices, whether there is parking.
  • Respond outside opening hours, without anyone being on call.
  • Book into the free slots in your diary.
  • Ask for the details you need for a quote.
  • Hand the conversation to a person when it does not know something.

Imagine a hair salon that receives a WhatsApp message at eleven at night: "Do you have a slot on Saturday morning for a cut and colour?". The chatbot looks at the diary, offers two slots and leaves the appointment booked. The next morning, the owner does not find an unanswered question but an appointment already made. (An invented example, not a real customer.)

What it cannot (and should not) do

  • Resolve a conflict with an angry customer. That is for a person.
  • Give medical, legal or tax advice as if it had studied it.
  • Answer what it does not know. A good chatbot admits it and alerts you. If it makes things up, do not use it.
  • Decide delicate matters: refunds outside policy, discounts, exceptions.
  • Hide. The customer has the right to know they are talking to a machine.

What the law requires

The European Artificial Intelligence Regulation requires AI systems intended to interact directly with people to inform them that they are interacting with an AI, unless it is obvious from the context to a reasonably well-informed person (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50, paragraph 1). Article 113 sets the general application of the Regulation on 2 August 2026. My advice: say so from the first message, even if you think it is obvious, and check the calendar in force when you read this. In addition, personal data the chatbot collects is governed by data protection rules: ask the customer's permission before saving anything.

How to choose one without surprises

Ask five things:

  1. Does it say it is an AI from the start?
  2. Does it only answer with the information I give it, or does it improvise?
  3. What does it do when it does not know something: stay silent, make something up or alert me?
  4. Does it ask permission before saving data or booking?
  5. Can I switch it off in a moment if something goes wrong?

What we have built at BAI

I use BAI's receptionist. According to what we publish on the website, it answers on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, the web, the phone and email with the information and prices you give it, books into your free slots and quotes with your rules. It says it is an artificial intelligence, only answers with what you give it, does not make up what it does not know (it hands the conversation to you and your team receives the alert), asks permission before saving data or booking, and can be switched off with a switch. It recognises the customer's language among eleven, Spanish included.

The five criteria above work for judging any chatbot, ours included.

What to do now

Write down the ten questions your customers ask you most. If the chatbot you are looking at cannot answer those ten well, it is no good. If you want to see ours, it is explained in the WhatsApp chatbot and AI receptionist. To understand when AI is right and when a rule is enough, see artificial intelligence or automation.

How we checked this

I read the articles of the AI Regulation in its published text on EUR-Lex on 11 October 2026. What I say about BAI comes from the published pages of our website. I wrote it with the help of artificial intelligence from the cited sources and from what we use at BAI; I sign it myself.

Sources

Customer service and bookings

receptionist that quotes

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