Glossary
AI Chatbot for Business — plain English explanation
Software that answers client questions automatically on your website or WhatsApp, 24 hours a day.
What it is
An AI chatbot for business is a software system that holds text conversations with clients and potential clients automatically, without a human on the other side. Unlike older rule-based chatbots that could only follow rigid decision trees, modern AI chatbots use large language models to understand questions in natural language and generate accurate, contextual responses. They can answer questions about services, pricing, availability, and location; they can take bookings; they can collect lead information; and they can escalate to a human when the question is beyond their scope.
Why it matters for small businesses
For a small business owner, an AI chatbot solves a specific and expensive problem: enquiries that arrive outside business hours. Research on website traffic shows the highest browsing activity between 9pm and midnight — precisely when most businesses are closed and unavailable. A visitor who has a question at 10pm and gets no response either gives up or finds a competitor who does respond. An AI chatbot responds instantly, answers the question, and often converts the lead into a booking before the business owner wakes up the next morning.
How Genju implements it
Genju's AI Chatbot is powered by the Claude API and trained on the business's Knowledge Base — so it knows your services, prices, policies, and availability. It sits on your Genju website as a chat widget and on WhatsApp as an automated responder. It never claims to be human — it identifies itself as the business's automated assistant. When it cannot answer a question, it flags the conversation for human follow-up. All conversations appear in the Unified Inbox.
In practice
A boutique hotel in Gozo receives website enquiries at all hours from tourists planning trips. Before the AI chatbot: questions after 6pm went unanswered until morning, by which time many guests had booked elsewhere. After activating Genju's chatbot: it answers availability questions, explains room types, handles booking enquiries, and takes a name and email for follow-up — all through the night. Morning check: 4 new leads collected overnight.