How the AI Website Chatbot Works
Understand how the AI chatbot works from your customer's perspective — the chat flow, FAQ fallback, order tracking, greeting messages, and when a human agent takes over.
Overview
The AI Website Chatbot is a fully automated assistant embedded in your website via the Website Chat Widget. When a visitor opens the chat, the AI agent answers their questions using your business information, FAQ items, help center articles, and even your blog content — all without human intervention.
Plan Requirements
The AI chatbot requires a Pro or Enterprise plan — see pricing for details. On Free or Starter plans, the website chat widget still works, but only shows a basic contact form and FAQ items — no AI responses.
The Chat Flow (Visitor Perspective)
Here's what happens when a customer opens your chat widget:
Step 1: Widget Opens
The visitor clicks the chat bubble in the corner of your website. The widget opens showing:
- Your AI agent name (configured in AI Agent settings) as the subtitle
- A greeting message — your custom welcome text
- FAQ suggestions — if you have FAQ items, the top 3 (prioritizing "Top Answer" items) appear as clickable suggestions directly below the greeting message with the label "Frequently asked questions:"
Step 2: Visitor Sends a Message
When the visitor types a message and sends it:
- The message is saved to the conversation in your inbox
- The AI processes the message using its knowledge base (see below)
- A typing indicator ("...") appears while the AI generates its response
- The AI response appears as a chat bubble from your agent
- After every AI response, an escalation prompt appears: "Can I help you with anything else, or would you like to speak with a team member?" with two buttons: "👤 Yes, please" (connects to a human agent) and "No, thanks" (continues the AI chat)
Step 3: Ongoing Conversation
The AI maintains context across the entire conversation. It remembers the last 10 messages, so follow-up questions work naturally:
- Visitor: "What are your shipping costs?"
- AI: "Shipping costs €4.95 for standard delivery..."
- Visitor: "And how long does that take?"
- AI: "Standard delivery takes 1-3 business days..." (understands "that" refers to shipping)
AI vs. FAQ Fallback
The widget has two modes depending on your plan and configuration:
| Mode | When Active | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| 🤖 AI Mode | Pro/Enterprise with AI enabled | AI generates intelligent, contextual responses using GPT-4o-mini. Falls back to FAQ keyword matching if AI is unavailable. |
| 📋 FAQ Mode | Free/Starter, or AI disabled | Simple keyword matching against your FAQ list. Returns up to 3 matching FAQ answers. If no match, shows a "contact us" fallback. |
FAQ Keyword Matching
Even without AI, your FAQ items can automatically answer questions:
- Each FAQ item has keywords you define
- When a visitor's message contains those keywords, the matching FAQ answer is returned
- Up to 3 matching FAQ answers are shown at once
- FAQ items marked as "Top Answer" appear as clickable suggestions at the start of the chat
Order Tracking via AI
If you have WooCommerce or Shopify connected, the AI chatbot can look up order status automatically:
How It Works
- The visitor asks about their order (e.g., "Where is my order?" or "Track my package")
- The AI detects order tracking keywords (configurable in AI Agent settings)
- The AI asks the visitor for their order number
- The visitor enters their order number
- Bugalou looks up the order in WooCommerce/Shopify and returns:
- Order status — processing, shipped, completed, etc.
- Tracking URL — link to the carrier's tracking page (MyParcel, Sendcloud, etc.)
- Shipping details — carrier name, tracking number
Setup Requirements
- Have a WooCommerce or Shopify integration connected
- Enable AI Agent and "Can handle order questions" in the behavior settings
Pre-Chat Form Interaction
When AI is enabled on the widget, the pre-chat form is automatically skipped. Visitors can start chatting immediately without entering their name or email first. This creates a frictionless experience.
When AI is disabled, the pre-chat form (if enabled) asks for the visitor's name and email before they can send their first message.
Opening Hours & Offline Behavior
Your AI chatbot works 24/7 regardless of your business opening hours. However, opening hours affect the widget's appearance:
- During business hours — widget shows "online" status, green indicator
- Outside business hours — widget shows "offline" status but AI still responds
- If AI is disabled and it's outside business hours, visitors see an offline contact form