Let’s assume a company has:

• 20 customer service agents
• National presence
• Moderate ticket volume

Is a chatbot viable?

The Honest Answer: Yes — But Only If Done Properly.

First: What Problem Are You Solving?

AI chatbot makes sense if:

• 40–60% of queries are repetitive
• FAQs are clearly defined
• You want 24/7 response
• Agents are overloaded with simple queries

It makes no sense if:

• Queries are complex and relationship-driven
• Your service requires emotional handling
• Ticket volume is low

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💰 What Does It Actually Cost?

Let’s break it down realistically.

1. Development Cost

If outsourced:

• ₹3 lakh to ₹15 lakh (depending on complexity, integrations, CRM linkage)

If in-house:

• You need:
  • AI/NLP engineer
  • Backend developer
  • UI developer
  • Testing team
    This is rarely economical for smaller businesses.

2. Training the Bot

The real work is here:

• Preparing 200–500 FAQ variations
• Mapping intent
• Training with historical tickets
• Testing edge cases

This phase alone can take:

• 4–8 weeks

3. Pilot Phase (Very Important)

Smart companies:

• Launch chatbot only for 20–30% traffic
• Track containment rate (how many queries solved without human)
• Track escalation rate
• Measure customer satisfaction

Pilot reduces:

• Brand damage
• Customer frustration
• Reputational risk

Skipping pilot = risky.

4. Ongoing Maintenance

People forget this.

Chatbots are not “set and forget.”

You need:

• Monthly review of unanswered queries
• Retraining with new products/services
• Monitoring hallucinations (if LLM-based)
• Security audits

Maintenance cost:

• ₹30,000 – ₹1 lakh/month (depending on scale)

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🏗 Can It Be Built In-House?

If you already have a tech team, maybe.

But building from scratch?
Rarely advisable.

Better approach:

• Use platforms like Dialogflow
• Or Microsoft Bot Framework
• Or Rasa (open-source)

Are Open Source Options Available?

Yes.

Rasa is open-source and widely used.

But:
Open source ≠ plug-and-play.

You still need:

• Hosting
• NLP training
• Integration
• Maintenance

Free software. Not free implementation.

Best Way to Implement Chatbot (Step-by-Step)

1. Identify top 50 repetitive queries.
2. Build bot only for those.
3. Add clear “Talk to Human” button.
4. Monitor for 30 days.
5. Expand gradually.

Never start with:
“Let’s automate everything.”

Start with:
“Let’s automate the simple 30%.”

That’s intelligent AI use.