Top 9 conversational AI platforms 2024: free & paid
Explore the top 9 conversational AI platforms with their key features and pricing to choose the right one for your business
In a sea of AI-powered tools and constantly evolving technology, conversational AIs are a must-have for business professionals and owners. Why? Because they help you reduce costs, increase revenue, and boost customer satisfaction. And if you don’t leverage these tools, your competitors will. With the rise of online commerce, having an affordable and always-available AI agent can make you significantly more competitive in the market.
But which of these platforms is right for you? In this article, we go over the top 9 conversational AI platforms out there. We’ll cover their key features and pricing so that you can choose the right one for your business.
What is a conversational AI platform?
A conversational AI platform is a sophisticated software that enables human-like interactions between computers and humans. These platforms can understand, process, and effectively respond to human language in a natural manner. From customer service bots on websites to voice-activated assistants, conversational AIs can take many forms.
In this article, we’re going over two types of conversational AI platforms: out-of-the-box solutions and customizable frameworks.
Let’s get started.
Top 9 conversational AI platforms
We’ll start with out-of-the-box solutions. These are platforms that are designed for ease of use and speed. They come pre-equipped with all the features you might need. This includes ready-made templates, drag-and-drop builders, and intuitive interfaces that allow even non-technical users to create and deploy chatbots quickly.
1. Chatfuel
Chatfuel is the biggest no-code platform used for creating and managing chatbots for Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, or your website. It is used by small and large brands alike and has all the features you might need in a chatbot. As a bonus, it now also has the ability to automate sales, customer engagement, customer service, and more.
Chatfuel’s key features:
No coding is required. With their no-code chatbot builder, anyone can create a chatbot.
Conversational AI capabilities. Since Chatfuel integrates directly with ChatGPT, it can train chatbots to learn about your company and communicate effectively with customers. This allows them to get immediate and human-like support for their sales or customer service questions.
Integration options. Chatfuel can be easily integrated with website platforms, popular CRMs (Customer relationship management), Google Sheets, and many more.
Pre-built templates. To save time, you can just duplicate Chatfuel’s templates and have your chatbot live in less than 30 minutes.
Chatfuel’s pricing:
Free 7-day trial (no credit card required), then plans start at only $14.39/month.
2. LivePerson
LivePerson is a provider of AI and messaging solutions that enable businesses to engage with customers at scale. It’s designed to provide meaningful, personalized interactions via chat and messaging.
LivePerson’s key features:
Intent understanding. LivePerson uses advanced AI to understand customer intent in real time and guide conversations accordingly.
Messaging channels. Integrates with messaging channels, including SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, and more.
Automation and agent assistance. Offers powerful automation capabilities while allowing for a simple transfer process to human agents when needed.
Analytics. The platform provides deep insights into conversation data to optimize customer experience and results.
LivePerson’s pricing:
Pay-as-you-go pricing based on usage volume.
3. Drift
Drift is a conversational marketing and sales platform that combines chatbots and messaging to help businesses connect with customers in real time.
Drift’s key features:
Conversational marketing. Leverages AI to provide real-time, personalized conversations and convert leads faster.
Sales productivity. Makes communication between sales teams and potential buyers more efficient by scheduling meetings and providing relevant information instantly.
Customizable chatbots. Offers the ability to customize chatbots to fit brand voice and objectives.
Integration. Drift can be integrated with many sales and marketing tools.
Drift’s pricing:
Plans start at $2500 per month, with custom pricing for enterprise teams.
4. Haptik
Haptik is one of the largest conversational AI platforms in the world, powering both chatbots and virtual assistants for small and large brands alike. They use AI to power customer support, marketing, and sales.
Haptik’s key features:
Multi-lingual support. Their chatbots can understand and converse in multiple languages.
Analytics. Haptik’s analytics dashboard offers detailed insights into customer interactions so that user experience can be continuously improved.
Channel integration. Haptik works with your website, WhatsApp, Instagram, and more.
Wide industry application. From customer support to lead generation and feedback collection, their platform is versatile for many use cases.
Haptik’s pricing:
They offer custom pricing based on the specific needs of your business.
5. Yellow.ai
Yellow.ai empowers businesses to provide customers with human-like interactions for customer support, sales, and marketing. Their agents adapt and respond based on user interactions, providing a more pleasant and natural experience.
Yellow.ai’s key features:
Omnichannel presence. You can engage with your customers across websites, WhatsApp, Facebook, and more.
Rich analytics. Deep dive into customer behavior and preferences to tailor conversations and offerings.
Automation with human input. Balances automated responses with options for escalation to human agents as needed.
Yellow.ai’s pricing:
They offer a free tier with custom usage-based pricing for paid enterprise plans.
Now, let’s jump into customizable frameworks. These platforms can be used to build on top of instead of simply deploying them. They’re made for businesses with unique needs and the technical expertise to develop and integrate them.
6. Amazon Lex
Amazon Lex is an Amazon Web Service (AWS service) for building conversational interfaces using voice and text. Unlike Chatfuel, this is very much a code-heavy platform. But with Lex, you can create chatbots that understand natural language and respond in the same manner.
Lex’s key features:
Natural language understanding. Lex has the capability of converting speech to text, understanding natural language, and recognizing the intent of the text.
Easy integration. It integrates with AWS Lambda, which is useful from a programming perspective.
Multi-platform deployment. It offers one-click deployment across multiple platforms, including mobile, web, and other chat services.
Cost-effective. You pay only for what you use, with no upfront costs or minimum fees.
Amazon Lex’s pricing:
Amazon offers a free trial of up to 10,000 text requests and 5,000 speech requests, after which pricing is $0.004 per speech request and $0.00075 per text request.
7. Oracle Digital Assistant
Oracle Digital Assistant is a complete AI platform suitable for text, chat, and voice interfaces. It’s a powerful and robust platform for creating sophisticated digital assistants. It allows businesses to create interactive conversational AIs to engage customers, employees, and more.
Oracle Digital Assistant’s key features:
Enterprise grade. Like all other Oracle solutions, the Digital Assistant has a robust administrative and development capability suitable for complex enterprise systems.
Pre-built skills. It comes with pre-built and customizable skills for ERP, HCM, and CX, making it easier to deploy.
Multi-channel capabilities. It can be deployed on the web, mobile, and other messaging platforms.
Advanced dialog management. The digital assistant can control the flow of the conversation based on user inputs, context, and other data.
Oracle Digital Assistant’s pricing:
Pricing starts from $5.8/hour, with various other pricing options based on your needs.
8. Google Dialogflow
Google Dialogflow allows you to build chatbots and voice apps that can be integrated across a multitude of platforms. Like Amazon Lex and Oracle, this is a more complex and code-heavy platform meant to build more complex applications.
Google Dialogflow’s key features:
Rich natural language capabilities Google Dialogflow is capable of recognizing user intent and extracting information from conversations.
Cross-platform compatibility. It can be integrated with websites, mobile apps, and popular messaging platforms like Slack.
Voice support. Voice interaction is possible for building bots and integrating with Google Assistant.
Google Dialogflow’s pricing:
New customers get a free $300 to test Dialogflow, after which they pay on a per-usage basis.
9. IBM Watson Assistant
IBM Watson is a complex and robust platform designed to build and deploy AI-powered conversational interfaces into any application, device, or channel.
IBM Watson Assistant’s key features:
Pre-trained content. The platform offers pre-trained industry-specific content and intents to jumpstart your development.
Advanced integration. The IBM Watson Assistant can be integrated with existing business systems and third-party APIs.
Voice and text capabilities. Enabled both voice integrations and text-based chatbots.
Data privacy and security. As IBM tends to work with larger enterprises, they ensure data privacy with extensive security features and compliance with industry standards.
IBM Watson Assistant’s pricing:
Plans range from free tier to $140/month or custom pricing for enterprise solutions.
Choosing the right conversational AI platform
It’s clear that conversational AI platforms are invaluable in today’s market, providing businesses with the tools to enhance customer engagement and drive sales. From no-code, quick deployment solutions like Chatfuel and LivePerson to highly customizable and robust solutions like IBM Watson and Google Dialogflow, each platform offers unique benefits for different business needs.
Your job is to match these platforms with your needs. With various conversational AI solutions and chatbot platforms, you can find a suitable option with or without live chat and other features. Make an informed choice that not only solves your challenges but also makes you more competitive versus the competition.