AI chatbot for website: how to create a bot that answers 24/7

A client messages a salon at 11 p.m.: “How much is a haircut, and do you have a slot tomorrow?” Without an AI chatbot for website and messengers, there is no answer until morning — and by morning the client has booked with whoever replied first. That is how requests get lost in the evening, on weekends and while a manager is on a call. And during the day, managers answer the same questions about prices and the address a hundred times over.

An AI chatbot (“AI chat bot” in your account) is an AI assistant that chats with clients following your instruction: in seconds, around the clock and with no shifts. It holds a natural conversation without button flows, collects the name and phone number and creates the lead itself — the client card in the CRM of the same system. The bot hands difficult questions over to a person. You don't need to know anything about prompts: the assistant asks three questions and writes the instruction for you.

Watch the two-and-a-half-minute video, and below you'll find the step-by-step setup.

Why businesses need an AI chatbot

• A clinic, salon or car service: the bot picks the right service and books the client into a free slot through the Yclients or Google Calendar integration. The day before, it reminds the client of the visit by itself — fewer no-shows.
• An online school: the Telegram bot tells people about the program and the price and signs them up for a free lesson. The lead appears in the CRM at the right funnel step, and the manager calls a client who is already warm.
• Real estate: the bot finds out the budget, area and timing and writes the answers into the card. The agent gets a hot client who doesn't need to be asked everything again.
• An online store: the bot answers questions about stock, delivery and payment, understands photos from the client and takes them all the way to an order. Routine questions no longer eat up the sellers' time.

How an AI chatbot differs from a button bot

• No button flows. You don't need to draw a scenario tree: the bot understands free text and photos and answers in its own words following your instruction.
• Runs the CRM itself. The lead with the phone number, the client's answers and the chat history appears in the CRM of the same system — no integrations or third-party services.
• Writes from your MAX number. Through MAX direct, the bot replies from your work number and can message the client first. A regular messenger bot waits until the client writes.
• One instruction for chat and calls. You can move it to a voice bot with one button. And you train the bot simply by correcting its replies in plain words.

How it works

One bot answers in several channels at once. “AI Chat on site” works in your website widget without a token. “Telegram” and “MAX” are connected with a token — the bot's secret key. “MAX direct” is your personal MAX number, connected with a QR code. How to connect each channel is covered in the article Telegram bot for business.

The bot answers following its instruction — the AI chatbot prompt: role, speaking style, rules, facts and the conversation plan. Triggers send files and message clients who went quiet. Target actions create the lead in the CRM — that is how chatbot CRM integration works.

How to create an AI chatbot: step by step

1. 1
   “Add bot”

   Click the button under the bot list. Choose “Empty bot” or a ready-made template for your niche.
2. 2
   Hint

   Read the “How to properly fill in this step” window and click “Continue”.
3. 3
   Three questions

   Answer in simple words: “What does your company do and what are your advantages?”, “Whom and why will we be replying to?” and “Goal”. In the first step, choose the language the bot will reply in.
4. 4
   Generation

   Wait one to two minutes. The AI writes the instruction and the conversation plan, and the bot saves itself with “AI Chat on site” turned on in the current project.
5. 5
   “The bot is ready!”

   Choose “Chat widget on the site” to message the bot in the widget demo preview, or “AI training” to test it right in your account.
6. 6
   Name

   Type the bot's name in the field at the top of the editor and click “Save changes”.
7. 7
   Channels and CRM

   On the “Settings” tab, connect Telegram, MAX or MAX direct. On the “Target action” tab, set up lead creation so that contacts get into the CRM.

How to launch the bot so it brings in requests

The instruction is ready in a few minutes, but the goal is requests, not nice answers. Here is the path to them:

1. Teach the bot to answer all your clients' questions: write to it in “Training AI” and correct unsuccessful replies (details are in the article how to train an AI chatbot). A couple of days is usually enough, a week at most.
2. Keep in mind: in tests you can't predict about a tenth of how real people write. The bot learns like a child — through practice.
3. That's why, after launch, read the live chats in “Dialogs” and correct unsuccessful replies right there.
4. Repeat until the bot confidently handles about 95% of client questions.

Bot menu, copies and backups

The gear in the bot row opens all actions: “Training AI”, “Dialogs”, “Broadcast”, “Write first”, “Edit”, “Copy”, “Backups” and “Delete”. In the “Status” column, each channel has its own icon: a checkmark means it works, a red sign means an error, and “no platforms” means the bot is silent.

• “Copy” creates a copy of the bot in your own or another project — what to set up again in it is described below.
• “Create a voice bot” at the bottom of the “Settings” tab moves the instruction into a voice bot for calls.
• “Backups” keeps the last 5 versions of the bot. You can bring a version back with the “Restore” button.

Changes in the editor are saved only with the “Save changes” button on the bottom bar.

Copying a chat bot or a project: what to set up again

A chat bot copy gets the instruction, plan, knowledge base, triggers and target actions. Everything tied to channels and access is reset: one token cannot work in two bots, and someone else's passwords must not travel with the copy.

• How to copy. The gear → “Copy” → the project number → “Copy”. In your own project the copy appears right away, with “Copy” added to its name. To another account's project, a request is sent: its owner sees the “Bot copy request” window on entering the section and clicks “Confirm”.
• Channels. Telegram and MAX tokens are not copied, all platform checkboxes are cleared, and the “Sites where the chat works” are reset. The copy stays silent until you turn on a channel, enter a token and save the bot.
• Access. Logins and passwords in target actions are erased: enter your own and sign in again.
• Copying a project. “Copy project” in the account header carries over only the settings: leads, phone numbers and integrations do not get into the copy.
• Moving to a voice bot. “Create a voice bot” at the bottom of the “Settings” tab carries over the six instruction blocks. A voice bot's “Sales role” and “Speaking style” hold up to 1,400 characters, so the window flags a longer block. How to launch such a bot for calls is covered in “AI voice bot for business”.

How much does an AI chatbot for website cost

The chatbot is included in the “CRM + Telephony + Automation” plan and higher — a subscription fee from $0.40 per day. AI replies are charged to the balance by tokens — the amount of text the AI has read and written. On average, one dialog with a client costs $0.02–0.03. Testing in manual “Training AI” is free. New users get a trial period and $1 on the balance after activation: enough for several dozen dialogs.

Read also: Telegram bot for business: connect MAX, website chat and Avito, AI chatbot prompt: how to write instructions and add a knowledge base, How to train an AI chatbot without prompts when it answers wrong