Let’s talk about something that’s been bothering me lately:
Would you build a completely new tool to schedule and manage your sales calls?
What about managing your customer records? Would you buy a reliable CMS that a lot of businesses in your industry trust or would you get a dev agency / your in-house tech team to build a brand new CMS for you?
I hope you realise that these are rhetorical questions. Every successful business owner would choose reliable, off-the-shelf tools like Calendly & Hubspot for these needs. These tools solve one problem and they solve it really well!
And yet when it comes to AI chatbots, everywhere I look, I see business owners and engineering teams convincing themselves that building their own AI chatbot is somehow the best way forward. As though building your own RAG-based chatbot will somehow be cheaper AND it will magically solve all your customer-support problems!
It won’t. In fact, it might just make things worse.
What’s the point of AI chatbot providers?
There are companies like BeyondChats who have spent their entire existence building and managing amazing customer support AI chatbots! This is not because the founders have nothing better to do with their time. It’s because building good chatbots that actually help businesses is HARD. Extremely hard!
Think about it this way:
Building chatbots is like creating art. Anyone can draw, but only a handful of artists who have spent their lifetime mastering their skillsets are able to make something that’s truly desired by everyone! The same is true with building AI chatbots.
The “It Looks Easy” Trap
I get it. I really do. You think:
“LLM (ChatGPT APIs) + Vector DB for RAG (like Pinecone) = AI Chatbot!”
Throw in some open-source tools, maybe a few tweaks here and there, and boom — you think you’re good to go, right?
Wrong. So, so wrong. Let me explain.
One of BeyondChats’ clients runs a chain of hospitals. A million+ traffic comes to their website every single month. Now, instead of going for an experienced AI chatbot provider like BeyondChats, they thought building their own chatbot would be an easy fix. Open source tools and youtube video tutorials have made it so easy to code and build software, right?! WRONG!
Fast forward a few months, and their “simple” chatbot project had turned into a constant headache. And I’m talking about the kind of headache that makes you wish you could hit “undo” on the whole thing.
It was during this time that we had sent an outreach email to them. They had already burnt their fingers building AI chatbots and were not very confident if spending more money on a chatbot provider would be a good idea or not. But luckily, they decided to give us a shot.
It’s been 9+ months and they are not only glad they put their trust in us, but their rate of returning users has increased 2.5 times! This has directly translated into more patient appointments being booked for their hospitals! Patients who talked to BeyondChats chatbot also ended up being less anxious during clinic visits, thanks to the positive reinforcement and easy access to correct information that our chatbot provided them!
Building chatbots is all about building trust. Building relationships. And we all know it takes time and care and consistent effort to build trustworthy relationships. You can’t “code” how to build trust into an AI over a weekend.
Anyway, let’s assume you did decide to build your own AI chatbot. What would it take?
The Hidden Costs of Building Your Own Chatbot
Tech costs
- Infrastructure (Server setup for hosting Real-time chats at scale is HARD!)
- Ongoing maintenance (bug fixes, keeping up with new AI models, user support)
- Security (user info, company documents, chats data need to be kept safe)
- Compliance (staying within regional and international regulations)
Team Costs
- Data scientists and AI engineers (Good LLM engineers are HARD to find!)
- Developers and DevOps engineers (real-time chats require very different infra)
- Support staff (To keep AI hallucinations in check and to improve chatbot performance)
- Compliance and security experts (to protect confidential data and for cybersecurity)
And don’t forget about time. Every hour you spend trying to get the chatbot to work could’ve been spent running your business, talking to more customers, and offering better service.
The Security Risk You’re Ignoring
Here’s the scary part: if you’re building your own chatbot, you might not be thinking about the massive security risks. Who’s watching your chatbot’s access to your customers’ personal data? Do you have the right protections in place to avoid data leaks or a breach?
The security issues are real. I spoke with a dev agency who found out the hard way that their chatbot was accidentally leaking names and emails of every user through the chats — whoops! That’s a big problem when it comes to brand image and user trust. Not only that, but if you have sensitive data floating around unprotected, you’re exposing your business to all kinds of legal and financial risks!
The Maintenance Nightmare
Let’s be clear: a chatbot isn’t a one-and-done project. After you “build” it, you have to maintain it. Constantly.
- AI chatbots hallucinate. You have to constantly evaluate chats and update your chatbot logic to keep hallucinations to a minimum.
- AI models keep changing. Older models are getting deprecated every few months and being replaced newer, more powerful models. But these newer models may introduce different biases, and your chatbot logic usually requires rigorous testing and updation with every version update of the underlying LLM.
- Even little changes like adding new data or tweaking the prompt a little bit can lead to drastic impacts on the question-answering ability of your chatbot. User queries that the chatbot could handle flawlessly before may now lead to absolutely incorrect responses being generated by the AI.
And this doesn’t even touch on the constant cycle of:
- Daily Tasks: Monitoring chatbot performance, fixing bugs, and checking for errors.
- Weekly Tasks: Security audits, updates, and optimisations.
- Monthly Tasks: Larger updates, performance reviews, and user feedback analysis.
Let’s Be Real: Most chatbots do more harm than good.
Here’s the deal: if you choose to use a subpar or DIY chatbot, you’re not just making things harder for your business in the long run; you’re actually making things miserable for your customers every single time they interact with you.
There’s nothing worse than trying to get help from a chatbot that can’t understand your question or, worse, gives you the wrong information. Imagine a customer ready to schedule a consultation call with your business, only for the chatbot to be stuck on sharing some generic information — and then getting stuck in a loop of irrelevant conversation endlessly. Or worse, a chatbot “hallucinated” a service that doesn’t even exist for your business! That’s a sure way to lose users’ trust — and it’s going to cost you big time in the long run.
The Smart Choice: Partner with the Experts
It’s time to get real: buying a reliable chatbot solution is the smartest thing you can do for your business. Here’s why:
- Security & Compliance: A chatbot company will already have the right security in place, ensuring that your company’s and your customer’s private data remains private.
- Scalability: Chatbots need to respond in real-time. As your website traffic grows, your scaling costs and your need for delivering fast, accurate responses are something only professional chatbot companies can reliably ensure.
- Performance: You don’t have to worry about bugs, errors, or broken systems when you are .
- Customisations: Most requirements that you would need, other businesses would need too. A professional AI chatbot company like BeyondChats already includes most such features so you don’t have to re-invent the wheel!
Most importantly, it’s proven. These chatbot companies have already tested, optimized, and proven that their chatbots convert visitors into customers, providing an outstanding user experience that boosts trust, engagement, and ultimately, your revenue.
Isn’t that what you wanted all along?
When Should You Build?
There are exactly three cases where building your own chatbot might make sense:
- You have unique security or regulatory requirements. But let’s face it, a good chatbot provider would already have strict, industry-leading security & compliance measures in place.
- You’re developing AI chatbots as your main product, and you have the right team focused on building a chatbot.
- You have unlimited money, time, and resources (if that’s you, please give me a call).
But for everyone else? Don’t even think about it.
What You Should Do Instead?
- Focus on your company’s core value — don’t start building every shiny new thing that starts trending. Focus on what your business excels at, and partner with professionals for the rest.
- Choose a trusted AI chatbot provider — look for one with proven case studies, solid security credentials, and great after-sale servicing. Talk to existing customers before making the decision. Have you tried our free BeyondChats chatbot builder yet? It takes less than 2 minutes to setup!
In five years, no one will care if you built or bought your chatbot. They’ll only care if it made their experience better, easier, and more trustworthy.
The Bottom Line
Stop trying to build your own chatbot. It’s not worth the time, effort, or cost. It’s a recipe for frustration and, worse, a poor experience for your customers.
Instead, invest in a chatbot solution that works. It’ll build trust with your visitors, convert them into customers, and ultimately help grow your business.
Because trust me — your customers, your team, and your business need high-quality customer support. Every single time they interact with your brand. Customers care about good experiences, not about whether you built it or bought it.
