Is your audience growing past your ability to respond to individual inquiries? It’s important to connect with your audience and to create systems for customer service and engagement, but large-scale interactions can be difficult without the right tools.

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That’s where AI chatbot APIs come in. These AI tools can help companies provide customers with a helpful first point of contact. 

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We’ll help you learn more about AI chatbot APIs so you can determine what AI technology may be right for your business.

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What are AI Chatbot APIs?

Chatbots engage in simulated conversations with human users, often for customer service-related purposes. Not all utilize AI technology, but many chatbots use AI’s natural language processing (NLP) due to its increased ability to understand customer inquiries and to respond appropriately. 

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AI chatbot APIs are application programming interfaces that allow developers to add artificial intelligence-powered conversational capabilities into their applications, websites, or services. 

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These APIs provide a way to access the functionality of chatbots, which are designed to simulate human-like conversations with users–without the need for extensive machine learning expertise or developer resources to build the underlying AI models from scratch.

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Who Are AI Chatbot APIs For?

AI chatbots serve a variety of functions for a broad range of organizations. In sales, chatbots can serve as shopping assistants to serve customers and close sales in real time, moving beyond simple data collection and sales promotion. They can find products and provide personalized recommendations or help customers complete their bookings or purchases within the chat itself.

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Chatbots can also fulfill important customer service roles. This is one of the most widespread use cases, allowing organizations to delegate the task of dealing with frequently asked questions and sorting through inquiries before passing more complex issues on to human customer service agents.

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Chatbots are a useful tool for increasing and streamlining audience engagement. If you’re looking for more ways to engage with your customers, AI video makers can help you reach out to your audience with individually personalized messages. In fact, Tavus is launching a video “AI chatbot” soon (more on that later).

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How Do AI Chatbot APIs Work?

Pre-AI chatbots were sort of like FAQs, only more interactive. They were programmed with a limited set of common questions and prepared answers, meaning they could not answer questions that hadn’t already been predicted.

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AI chatbots, on the other hand, use machine learning and deep learning to expand their knowledge base as they interact with users. They utilize large language models (LLMs), which use nodes and connections between words to determine the words most likely to come next in a sequence (or in response to inquiries). LLMs weigh and re-weigh the relationships between all the words they know to understand the meaning of user questions and to determine the best answers to those questions. 

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The Best AI Chatbot APIs

If an AI-powered chatbot sounds like the public-facing AI tool your organization needs, several companies offer APIs that can help you add an AI chatbot to your app or platform.

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1. Tavus

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If you’re looking for a voice or text AI chatbot, this article provides several options that may fit your needs. 

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But if you’re interested in leveraging the power of video for your customer service or marketing teams, Tavus is launching a new tool that may just help you revitalize your customers’ experiences on your site or app. 

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We’ll soon release their version of an AI chatbot utilizing video, allowing your customers to chat with a video avatar to tackle their questions and concerns. This new type of chatbot utilizes the power of our Phoenix model, which generates exceptionally realistic talking head videos with natural movements and expressions.

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Features:

• Dynamic, three-dimensional facial scenes: Tavus utilizes a novel approach to AI video generation, using neural radiance fields (NeRFs) to create videos with unprecedented realism and customization.
• Lip synch and dubbing APIs (Coming soon): Powered by Tavus’s Hummingbird model, users can edit content or dub videos in foreign languages and match voice and lip movements to maintain realism.
• Commitment to privacy and security: Tavus employs a suite of safety checks and handles these processes on behalf of the end user.
• Video campaign API (coming soon): If you’re looking for an API that allows you to create a variety of AI video tools, Tavus also offers APIs like the video campaign API, which allows developers to create personalized video campaign experiences for their customers with ease.

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Pricing

• For developers, Tavus offers the Business plan for $199/month, and developers can contact the sales team if they're interested in pricing for the Enterprise plan.

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Learn how you can utilize the power of video today.

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2. IBM Watsonx Assistant

IBM’s conversational AI platform, Watsonx Assistant, allows developers to build their own branded chatbot, or assistant, and integrate it with their device, app, or channel. The assistant connects to an organization’s customer engagement resources, smoothing the problem-solving process for customers and organizations.

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Features:

• Agent Assist: Watsonx Assistant helps automate repetitive questions and provide human agents with information to help them respond to complex inquiries more quickly.
• Integration: The API allows for seamless integration of communication channels, systems, tools, and processes.
• Visual Builder: Even if you don’t know how to code, you can use the API’s visual builder to train your chatbot with templates or questions and launch it easily.
• Voice Options: Watsonx Assistant offers clear and friendly voice generation to offer customer service over the phone.

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Price: IMB offers the Lite plan for free, the Plus plan for $140/month, and the Enterprise plan with pricing based on your team size and use case.

• Lite plan: Free
• Plus plan: $140/month
• Enterprise plan: Pricing based on team size and use case.

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3. Dialogflow

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Google’s DialogFlow API allows developers to design and integrate a conversational user interface with their own app or device. The platform can analyze text or audio input from customers and respond through text or synthetic speech. 

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DialogFlow offers two virtual service agent services, DialogFlow CX and DialogFlow ES, with different agent types, user interfaces, APIs, client libraries, and documentation.

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Features:

• Generative AI Agent: The Vertex AI Agent Builder and DialogFlow allow users to build AI agents that match their brand by connecting user webpages and documents to the AI agent for training purposes.
• Visual Flow Builder: Interactive flow visualizations allow for quick and easy work and collaboration.
• Omnichannel Implementation: Agents can be built once and integrated across platforms with a single deployment.
• End-to-End Management: Accomplish all management tasks, including analytics, experiments, and bot evaluation inside Dialogue without having to turn to other custom software.

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Price: Pricing is based on particular use cases, varying by characters, time, or count. See product details for more information.

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4. Microsoft Bot Framework

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Microsoft Bot Framework is an open-source AI toolkit that allows developers to build and connect AI chatbots that can communicate with customers in natural ways for their own platforms. This API even allows developers to connect their bots to social media channels.

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Features:

• Open and Extensible: Microsoft Bot Framework utilizes an open-source software development kit (SDK) and allows for bot application across channels and platforms.
• Azure Cognitive Services: Bots speak, listen, understand, and learn from customers through Azure Cognitive Services, which allows bots to continuously adapt and grow through machine learning and natural language experiences.
• Data Ownership: Users control their own data and can use that data to build an AI experience that enhances their brand.
• Comprehensive Toolkit: Microsoft Bot Framework offers various tools and services, including a visual designer and web chat control.

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Price: Pricing varies based on region, channel, and messaging options. 

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5. Rasa

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Rasa is an open-source AI application-building platform that offers chatbot and voice assistant services. Its API allows users to train models, manage conversations, and interpret user messages. 

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Features:

• Customer Support Automation: When connected to an organization’s customer relationship management (CRM) tool, Rasa can process and recognize customer requests and create new cases, provide conversation details, and assign those cases to appropriate support teams.
• Survey Collection Bot: Organizations can use Rasa to create chatbots that collect surveys to automate data collection and analysis.
• Event-Driven Notifications: When paired with the Slack API, Rasa can recognize and create workflows and notifications for events.
• Secure Authentication: Rasa uses API keys, which are stored in Pipeline when connected to Rasa for easy and secure authentication.

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Price: 

• Developer Edition: Free
• Growth Package: Starts at $35,000
• Enterprise: Custom pricingRasa provides free access for the Developer Edition; the Growth package starts at $35,000, while those looking for the Enterprise package should contact the sales team for pricing information.

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6. Wit.ai

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The Wit.ai API allows developers to create apps and devices that communicate with humans conversationally by processing and understanding natural language input via speech or text. The bots created with wit.ai interact on messaging platforms and learn through every interaction with humans.

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Features:

• Open to All: Wi.ai provides a free platform for users to create and test chatbot-based natural language experiences.
• Large Language Base: Since chatbots and assistants learn with every new interaction, wit.ai chatbots already have a growing base of 132 languages they understand, providing access for users around the world.
• Community Growth and Development: Valuing growth through collaboration, wit.ai provides developers with access to their community of fellow users, allowing developers to share and leverage community knowledge.
• Voice-Controlled Tasks: Wit.ai bots can understand and execute voice commands related to smart homes.

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Price: Wit.ai is free for both personal and commercial use.

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7. OpenAI API

The OpenAI API allows developers to access OpenAI’s machine learning models for nearly any English-language task. OpenAI’s Assistant API allows developers to create AI chatbots that can provide customers with personalized experiences.

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Features:

• Varied Inputs: OpenAI models can respond to text, image, and audio inputs from users.
• AI Model Fine-Tuning: Developers can train models to match their particular use cases.
• Playground: Users can explore OpenAI’s models in the Playground without knowing code.
• Complex Task Completion: Chatbots created through the Assistant API can accomplish complex, multi-step tasks.

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Price: Users pay only for what they use. Various models include ChatGPT-4, DALL-E, Whisper, and TTS.

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8. ApiAI

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Managed by DialogFlow (mentioned above), API.AI allows developers to integrate speech recognition and natural language processing, allowing for the use of voice commands and integration with dialogue scenarios for specific agents. 

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Features:

• Brand Voice Matching: Chatbots provide unique conversational experiences based on brand voice.
• Speech Recognition: API.AI chatbots can understand and respond to commands given via voice input.
• Voice Activity Detection: The presence or absence of human speech can be detected through Voice Activity Detection (VAD).

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Price: DialogFlow doesn’t list pricing information online. 

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8. BOTlibre

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Developers can use the open-access BOTlibre API to build and train AI chatbots for personal or commercial use. Their goal is to create an open and safe community of AI chatbot developers.

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Features:

• Open Access: BOTlibre provides a wide range of free, open-access features.
• Multilingual: BOTlibre’s API is language-independent, meaning it supports any language.
• Social Media Integration: BOTlibre’s chatbots can be integrated with over 12 social and chat platforms without additional development.
• Easy Bot Creation: Users can create bots with one click using BOTlibre’s library of bot templates.

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Price: 

• Basic package: $4.99/month or $49.90/year
• Premium: $19.99/month or $199.90/year
• Enterprise: $49.99/month or $499.90/year

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Chat With Customers Using the Power of AI [2024]

Chatbots provide businesses the opportunity to streamline customer service, sales, and more for both their teams and their customers. With the power of AI, many chatbots can offer the additional benefit of learning and replicating your organization’s brand voice to improve customer experience. 

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However, AI video can be another powerful tool for engaging with customers, and Tavus’s upcoming chatbot-type tool, as part of the Tavus API, could help you leverage the power of video for your chatbot needs. The Tavus API offers not only its own new type of chatbot but many other benefits, including individual personalization of pre-recorded videos, lip syncing or dubbing to reach a wider audience, and an upcoming video campaign API. 

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Whether you think chatbots or AI-personalized videos will better fulfill your organization’s needs or you plan to integrate both to broaden your reach, Tavus API can help you create thousands of videos quickly and easily.

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Ready to integrate the power of AI into your application? 

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Get started with Tavus