In November 2022, OpenAI made ChatGPT available to the public, and the chatbot, based on a large language model, took over the world. It also ushered in a new era of both conversational AI and generative AI, with each company working and tinkering with machine learning algorithms, working overtime just to launch their product to the market.
This gave rise to a mass of AI-powered tools, some of which are aimed at the general population, while others are aimed at professional applications. But chatbots remain among the most popular examples of artificial intelligence, precisely due to their ability to understand context and provide context-related answers to specific inquiries.
This made them invaluable to nearly everyone with an internet connection, with some using AI chatbots for work, while others use them to study and learn new things, and there are those who use them purely for entertainment purposes. Apparently, chatbots have access to the world’s largest collection of jokes.
Regardless of why you’re using AI chatbots, choosing the best possible option on the market offers its perks, but choosing the right one tends to be a bit difficult when the market is saturated. The aim of this guide is to introduce you to some of the best AI chatbot solutions in 2025.
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A Brief History of Chatbots
Most people refer to ChatGPT as the original chatbot, but that’s not actually true. The first chatbot ever made was ELIZA; it was developed at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the mid-1960s. It was one of the first examples of natural language processing in computing and one of the most significant milestones in the development of artificial intelligence technologies.
ELIZA was followed by PARRY, which was developed in the early 1970s and was the first AI chatbot capable of contextual understanding. It was designed to simulate a paranoid schizophrenic, and it even successfully convinced a group of psychiatrists that it was real 52% of the time. What’s even more interesting is that it communicated with ELIZA via the ARPANET (early internet) and proved to be a superior program.
ChatGPT isn’t without its merits; it represents a significant advancement in the development of artificial intelligence technologies, primarily due to more advanced contextual understanding capabilities and human-like responses.
The Best AI Chatbots
In this section, we’ll discuss some of the best AI chatbots on the current market, including their additional features, pricing plans, and everything else you might want to know when deciding on which AI chat robot to use. Let’s start with the most famous one.
ChatGPT
Following its release in late 2022, ChatGPT took the world by storm in 2023 and put AI not just in the public focus but in newspaper and online news outlet headlines; long-form articles associated with ChatGPT have become a weekly occurrence.
The chatbot is really user-friendly: simply sign up using your personal email, and you’ll gain access to OpenAI’s most basic ChatGPT model, GPT-3.5. It’s a very fast model capable of contextualizing customer queries and multilingual human-like conversations, and it’s really great for most use cases.
You just type in your query at the chat box located at the bottom of the page, and the AI will provide you with an output. It will also create an entry in the left-hand-side menu, allowing you to keep your conversations regarding different topics separate.
However, it’s known to output factually incorrect information, which is inherent in its design, primarily due to the massive amount of data that’s been used in its training. Regardless, its release made ChatGPT an industry leader, at least for the time being. Even Microsoft partnered with them for their AI solutions, equipping GPT with real-time analysis through the Bing Search Engine.
As impressive as the GPT-3.5 model is, it can’t really compare to OpenAI’s GPT-4 model, which sacrifices speed for improved cognition and user experience. It’s trained on a much larger dataset, it’s even more accurate in its output, and it can interpret different data inputs, not just text.
This makes it a fantastic content creation AI tool that’s not only based on text. For example, you can easily paste an image, and it will understand its contents. Additionally, OpenAI integrated DALL-E into ChatGPT, enabling its latest model to have text-to-image generations. It’s worth mentioning that the GPT-4 model and DALL-E can’t be accessed by free users but only by ChatGPT Plus subscribers, who have to shell out $20 per month for access.
On top of everything above, ChatGPT has its own iOS and Android mobile apps and provides automation integrations with some of the biggest workflow services on the current market, such as Leadmate.
Google Gemini
Google isn’t really a novice when it comes to AI development, and the company developed one of the most advanced AI assistants in the world (the Google Assistant) which is currently powering more than 10,000 different devices across 1,000 different brands.
However, the company hit a major bump on the road during the development of Google Bard, which caused it to abandon its LaMDA model and shift its focus to PaLM 2. While it can’t really compare to ChatGPT and Claude, at least not yet, Bard has its selling points.
One of its key features is that it can output Google Image Search results in the chat window, keep track of your conversation history, and allow you to edit your prompts and share your conversations with others via a link generator.
Another selling point is its integration with Google services, including email accounts, Hotels, Flights, and even YouTube. This has numerous benefits, as it allows users to search and filter through their email more effectively, check real-time information about ongoing flights, and check hotel prices.
Claude
Claude is yet another fantastic AI chatbot, and while it might not be as advanced as ChatGPT, it has the longest contextual memory. In other words, it can ingest much more text, derive contextual information, and provide a contextual response.
For comparison, while ChatGPT has a contextual memory of some 12,000 words (give or take, depending on the word processor), Claude offers more than five times as much, going as high as 75,000 words of contextual memory; some sources claim that this number goes as high as 200,000 words.
Thanks to its large contextual memory, it can provide more extensive summarization, especially if you’re dealing with lengthy documents. However, it tends to provide more concise and precise responses compared to ChatGPT, especially the GPT-4, which apparently likes bulleted and numbered listicles, which only reinforces its selling point.
It’s a really good ChatGPT alternative that’s also capable of processing several languages, translating, forecasting, and document comparison. The latter is particularly useful for writers dealing with multiple revisions of their works and documents.
Just like the best chatbot (we’re referring to GPT), Claude is also available for enterprise use, with the company offering a 2× reduction in AI hallucinations. The Pro plan is somewhat pricier compared to ChatGPT, sitting at $24/month.
Microsoft Copilot
As previously mentioned, Microsoft invested heavily in OpenAi. Following their investment, the company pulled the plug on Cortana, its AI-powered virtual assistant that shipped out with Windows products, only to replace it with a new AI: GPT-4.
Microsoft implemented GPT-4 into its Bing Search Engine and subsequently into its Copilot feature, which is now accessible to everyone using Microsoft’s Edge internet browser, which surprisingly works really well.
Copilot is now capable of content generation, contextual internet search (with lined citations), plenty of contextual understanding and memory, and conversational memory, much like ChatGPT.
Microsoft also integrated OpenAI’s DALL-E image generator, allowing users to generate images straight in their internet browser software or by summoning the Windows Copilot, which now ships integrated into Windows 11 OS.
One of the best selling points for Microsoft’s Copilot is the fact that it brings GPT-4 and DALL-E integrations completely for free to Windows 11 users.
Llama 3
Meta, the famously rebranded Facebook social media company, also entered an AI race, but in a rather interesting way. Instead of making a commercial chatbot and hiding it behind a subscription, Meta decided to launch its own AI modern with a near-open-source framework.
This allows users to use the chatbot and tweak its functions for free or until they hit a revenue limit that’s exorbitantly high for regular users. It’s actually implemented to prevent the competitors from using Meta’s LLM.
However, typical users can’t really peek into the development of this AI model, which is why it isn’t entirely regarded as open-source software. The integration with different platforms is mostly reserved for developers, but regular users can still test the AI chatbot and see how it responds to user inquiries.
Llama 3’s output feels more direct and somewhat rougher than that of other chatbots. The standard model is deployment-ready for tweaking and specialization per user’s need, and the implementation offers a typical chatbot experience with somewhat limited capabilities.
However, its licensing framework is what’s really making it stick out, especially for developers adjacent to Meta who might be looking to implement an AI solution into their particular application.
Pi
Pi is an AI chatbot model that’s engaging, entertaining, and rather supportive. It’s not really tuned for longer conversations, and it loves asking questions rather than answering them, which makes it “cute,” for lack of a better word.
It’s not really meant for any productivity work either, but considering that it’s entirely free and quite fun to use, we’d say that it’s the perfect AI model for someone who has never come in touch with AI chatbots or generative AI.
If you provide it with your name and phone number, PI will occasionally message you to check in and catch up, though this feature is region-locked at the moment.
Poe
Poe is a revolutionary AI chatbot, consistently demonstrating its prowess in various arenas. Poe’s proficiency lies in its ability to understand and respond intelligently to user queries, making it an invaluable asset to businesses.
This AI chatbot has been engineered with advanced machine learning technology, enabling it to learn from every interaction, thereby enhancing its knowledge base and response accuracy over time. It has the capability to handle unlimited chats simultaneously, which makes it efficient and cost-effective compared to human agents who can manage only a limited number of interactions at a time. This functionality ensures that no customer is left waiting, hence improving customer experience.
Furthermore, Poe excels in data analysis by gathering and analyzing large volumes of data from customer interactions. This provides businesses with valuable insights for decision making and strategy planning. According to studies, businesses using Poe have reported a 40% increase in customer engagement rates and a 30% boost in lead generation.
It can be seamlessly integrated with other platforms like CRM systems used by the business, ensuring smooth data flow and operational efficiency.
Poe is more than just an AI chatbot; it’s a smart investment for businesses seeking to improve their customer service while gaining crucial market insights.
Perplexity
Perplexity, an advanced AI chatbot, is revolutionizing the digital landscape with its impeccable capabilities and robust features. The bot’s sophisticated technology can manage unlimited chats simultaneously, providing immediate automated responses to common queries and enhancing customer satisfaction. Known for its lead generation prowess, Perplexity can ask pertinent questions to website visitors, helping businesses generate valuable leads.
This AI chatbot is also a potent tool for data analysis. It can gather and analyze vast amounts of data from customer interactions, providing businesses with valuable insights for decision making. Alongside this, Perplexity offers booking appointment features and traffic direction capabilities.
In terms of integration capabilities, Perplexity stands out. It can be seamlessly integrated with other platforms used by the business, ensuring a smooth data flow and improved operational efficiency. Moreover, due to its advanced features and ongoing training capabilities, it delivers superior value compared to other free chatbots available.
In 2024 alone, Perplexity’s predictive models and machine learning functionalities have become standard features in chatbots, offering personalized experiences that anticipate customer needs. Its advanced capabilities have led to higher costs but also a higher return on investment due to improved efficiency and better customer engagement. This underscores that while the initial expenses might seem high, the long-term benefits of using Perplexity outweigh them significantly.
Summary
AI chatbots are great pieces of cloud-based software with a plethora of different applications. You can ask them to write you a story, tell you a joke, help you out with homework, or provide you with cooking instructions.
However, their applications aren’t limited to personal and non-commercial use alone; more and more businesses are integrating chatbots and other AI models into their daily operations, as artificial intelligence technologies help with not only productivity but also customer experience, thanks to the immense contextual understanding they now feature.
