How To Build A Chatbot From Scratch?

Let’s go back to the year 1950! A computer scientist, Alan Turing, had a thought, “what if machines can think?” Well, this thought was too ahead of its time. After that, he started working to find out the answer to that question.

In 1966, Joseph Weizenbaum, a German computer scientist, took Alan’s work forward and created a program called “ELIZA” (the first-ever chatbot in the history) with the aim to delude users by making them believe that they are conversing with real humans.

Image Source: Wikipediaia

After that, chatbot development has evolved to a great extent. Modern businesses have discovered various uses for chatbots, from 24*7 customer support, higher user engagement to the increased lead conversion process.

Let’s take a look at some statistics showing the growing popularity of chatbots;

Looking at the flourishing market size and business benefits, many businesses, from startups to large enterprises, are willing to develop their own chatbots.

But the problem is, many of them don’t know how to build chatbots. Thus, the questions that strike their mind once they decide to build a chatbot are;

Hoe to develop a chatbot from scratch?

How much does it cost to build a chatbot?

Then, let’s find out the answers to all your questions. Here’s the chatbot development process that you can follow to build your own chatbot.

How to build a chatbot from scratch?

#1. Identify the opportunities for an AI chatbot
#2. Define Goals
#3. Design a Chatbot Conversation
#4. Build a Chatbot Using Frameworks
#5. Or, Build a Chatbot Using Code-Based Frameworks

1. Identify the opportunities for an AI chatbot
Prior to the chatbot development, you need to understand the opportunities for an AI chatbot first. Businesses need to think about which kind of work can be augmented or automated by AI solutions when they consider how best to apply new Bot technologies.
Artificial Intelligence solutions can be considered based following measures for a specific type of work activity;

- Data Complexity

- Work Complexity
Based on the result of this analysis businesses can identify the following activity models like Efficiency Expert and Effectiveness Innovation.

2. Define Goals
It becomes vital to define the goals and values desired from the beginning of the project. The reason is once you know the features required to achieve the desired outcome, the implementation can be done within your standard time or budget.
When programmers understand the motive of developing the Chatbot, they will be more able to develop and design the conversation with your AI chatbot. Therefore when you choose chatbot development services, make sure to define your goal and communicate those goals.

3. Designing a Chatbot Conversation

Designing the chatbot conversation that will be the potential communication with your customer is a critical activity of the chat development process.

There are two segments of chatbot interactions; structured and unstructured interactions.

Let’s talk about structured type first. It is more focused on the logical flow of information, consisting of forms, choices, and menus. In contrast, unstructured flow is focused on freestyle plain text, which contains conversations with friends, colleagues, or family.

You need to consider the topics related to the purpose catered by your Chatbot while developing the script for messages.

This reason is that interpreting user answers is essential for designers to develop scripts for a conversational UI that allows customers to communicate naturally.

4. Building a Chatbot Using Frameworks

And last but not least is finally building AI Chatbot. You can build Chatbot as per your requirements using various available frameworks for developing Chatbot.

5. Or, Build a Chatbot Using Code-Based Frameworks

If you want a customized chatbot for your business, then you can build a chatbot with code-based frameworks. There are various code-based frameworks available such as Microsoft Bot, API.ai, Wit.ai, AMAZON Lex, Rasa NLU. Dialog Flow etc. These kinds of chatbots can easily solve complicated purposes and serve customers by better decoding their unstructured conversation.

To build such Chatbots, you can hire chatbot developers from the chatbot development company. To build this kind of chatbots, developers need to have expertise in AI, machine learning, and programming languages. Therefore, hiring chatbot developers would be a wise decision.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a Chatbot?

The approximate cost to build a chatbot ranges between $25,000 to $30,000 based on the development work goes into building a chatbot.
This cost of developing a chatbot consists of design, development, and integration of the entire chatbot app development cycle.
Now, as you have the idea of the average cost of developing the chatbot, let’s break it down into detailed cost structure;

Absolutely Free:

How? Then you can develop a chatbot in-house with the functionalities of your chatbot to interact with the users.

$0/mo-$49/mo for Software:

You can use visual chatbot building software to build a robust and powerful chatbot to increase engagement and generate new business.
There are a number of chatbot building software available in the market like Chatfuel, Mobile Monkey, Bostify, Dialog Flow, etc. that you can use for chatbot development with their monthly rates.

$500-$5000/month:
You can go to a chatbot development company for building and maintaining your chatbots.

With this kind of agency, you can leverage various services like multilingual chatbot development, integration with ERP systems, chatbot Testing, chatbot Consulting, enhancement, and support along with custom chatbot development.

Hope this article will be helpful to you.