AI Agents vs Chatbots: What Businesses Need to Know
If you're evaluating an 'AI solution' for customer service or sales, the first question is: does it actually take actions, or just generate text?
The terms 'chatbot' and 'AI agent' get used interchangeably in marketing. They are not the same thing — and the difference shows up in production.
Chatbots: scripted conversation
Pre-built decision trees, occasional generative wrapping. Cheap, predictable, brittle.
AI agents: reasoning + action
Read and write to your systems via tools (typically MCP). Decide what to do. Take action. Log everything.
// start the engagement