Definition
A software interface that simulates conversation with users. Modern chatbots are powered by LLMs for natural-language understanding rather than scripted decision trees.
Why it matters
A chatbot on a website or in a messaging app lets a business answer questions and capture leads at the moment a visitor is interested, instead of losing them to a contact form they'll fill out later or never. The older scripted versions earned a bad reputation by trapping people in menus that never fit their question, which is why the shift to language-model-powered bots matters — they can actually understand what was asked. The risk for an owner is letting it operate unsupervised on anything sensitive, since a bot that quotes the wrong price or promises something you can't deliver creates a problem you then have to walk back.