AI chatbots for businesses: it answers, then hands over.
An AI chatbot for businesses is an assistant that answers customers by chat or by voice, using the company's own documents. It captures contact details and hands the conversation to a person when needed.
The assistant does the first screening. The relationship with the customer stays with the company.
- Website chatbot
- WhatsApp Business chatbot
- Voicebot and AI switchboard
AI virtual assistant: what it does for the business
Six functions, all under control: every conversation can be reviewed.
Answers from your documents
Price lists, product sheets, manuals, FAQs. Every answer comes from there. If the information is not written down, the assistant says so instead of making it up.
Captures contact details
Name, phone, town, what they need and when. The conversation summary goes to the CRM or by email.
Hands over to a person
Quotes, complaints, sensitive cases: the assistant recognises them and passes them to the right person, without making the customer repeat everything.
Screens politely
Off-target requests get a courteous reply and the right pointer, without taking up the office's time.
In the customer's language
Italian, English and the other languages your customers speak, in the same tone.
You can see it work
Conversations can be read. Unanswered questions become the list of what to add to the documents.
AI chatbots for businesses: how we build them
We start with one channel, usually the website, and with the questions that come in today by phone and email. The pilot takes a few weeks. It is the same method as our processes.
Chatbots for websites, WhatsApp Business and voice
The channel changes, the rules stay: same documents, same handover to a person. Channels are added one at a time.
Website chatbot
This is the pilot channel. It goes on the pages where customers have the most questions and leaves a summary for whoever needs to call back.
WhatsApp Business chatbot
A later channel. Access to WhatsApp Business needs Meta's approval, so the timing depends on Meta.
Voicebot and AI switchboard
A later channel. Voice over the phone needs SIP telephony.
What the client keeps
- An assistant working on the chosen channel.
- Organised documents for the assistant to answer from.
- Written, shared rules for handing over to a person.
- Readable conversations and the list of questions still to cover.
- The "you are talking to an AI" notice switched on, as the AI Act requires.
A secure chatbot: what it can and cannot do
A chatbot talks to anyone who lands on the website. Someone will try to make it say what it should not, reveal its instructions or use it to reach company data. A filter is not enough: anti-manipulation filters can be bypassed. Security depends on how the assistant is built.
It reads, it does not act
The assistant answers from documents the company has approved. It has no access to email, business systems or payments, and nothing a visitor types can give it new permissions.
What comes from outside is data
Messages, attachments and web pages are read as material to analyse, not as orders. A text that says "ignore your instructions" is still just text.
No secrets in the instructions
Keys, passwords and confidential price lists are not in the assistant's instructions: even if someone got it to repeat them, there would be nothing to steal.
It makes no commitments
Prices, discounts, lead times and terms are confirmed by a person. The assistant says so and passes the conversation to someone who can decide.
Clean answers
Answers are shown as plain text; links and addresses only from a list agreed with the company. So a manipulated answer cannot send the visitor elsewhere or leak data.
Acting needs a person
If the assistant one day needs to do something (book an appointment, open a case), it does so with minimal permissions and, for anything going out to third parties, after a person signs it off.
Usage caps
Limits per visitor and per day, plus a spending budget: abuse does not turn into a big bill.
Little data, kept briefly
The assistant only asks for what is needed to call the customer back, logs keep no more than necessary, and the company decides with AIR how long to keep them. Visitors know they are talking to an AI (AI Act, Article 50).
We attack it first
Before it goes live we try to break it with known attacks, and we repeat the test at regular intervals.
Frequently asked questions about AI chatbots for businesses
What is an AI chatbot for businesses?
An AI chatbot for businesses is an assistant that answers customers by chat or by voice, using the company's own documents. It captures contact details and hands the conversation to a person when needed. For the basics, see our guide what is an AI chatbot.
What does AIR do for a website chatbot?
We start from the questions the company actually receives. We organise the documents the assistant can answer from, and set the tone, the details to collect and the rules for handing over to a person. Then we test it with the hard questions before any customer sees it.
How long does it take to get a chatbot running?
The pilot starts on one channel, usually the website, and is ready in a few weeks. The timing depends on the documents available and the systems to connect. WhatsApp and voice come later, once the first channel works.
Can the chatbot work on WhatsApp Business?
Yes, as a channel after the pilot. Access to WhatsApp Business needs Meta's approval, so the timing depends on Meta. The assistant's rules stay the same as on the website.
Chatbot or voicebot: which is better?
It depends on where requests come in: people who write on the website use chat, people who phone use voice. A phone voicebot needs SIP telephony, which is why it comes after the chat pilot.
What happens if the chatbot cannot answer?
It says so and hands the conversation to a person, with a summary of what was asked. Unanswered questions go on a list: they show which documents to add.
Do customers know they are talking to an AI?
Yes. The assistant says so at the start, as required by Article 50 of the AI Act on chatbot transparency, which applies from 2 August 2026. Anyone who prefers a person gets one.
Where does conversation data go?
The company decides with AIR what to keep and for how long. The assistant only asks for the details needed to call the customer back.
Does the chatbot connect to the company's systems?
Yes: CRM, calendar for appointments, email. We start with a single connection, usually the summary sent to whoever needs to call back.
Can an AI chatbot be tricked?
People can try, and someone always does. That is why the assistant has no access to anything it does not need, makes no commitments and only shows approved text and links: even if someone tricks it, they get no data and no actions.
Further reading: what is an AI chatbot.