Capterra Glossary
Bot
A bot, short for robot, is a software application that automates repetitive tasks and aims to imitate or replace the activity human beings perform. Since bots are automated programs, they can perform tasks faster than humans. While some bots help humans by completing repetitive tasks for them, others are malicious and operate as a form of malware. Bots typically operate over a computer network, communicating with each other using internet-based services such as instant messaging on social apps. Bots are powered by algorithmic sets that help facilitate the various tasks they are programmed to complete, such as mimicking human behaviors. There are various types of internet bots including shopping bots, monitoring bots, chatbots, social bots, transactional bots, web crawling bots, knowbots, and web scraping bots.
What Small and Midsize Businesses Need to Know About Bot
Chatbots are often used by SMBs to provide visitors a seamless shopping or customer experience on their company website. Chatbots can also be used to convert leads into sales. They can forward customer requests to an appropriate service agent or team and even make suitable product recommendations to assist prospects in their purchase.
Related Terms
- Synchronous
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Intranet
- Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR)
- Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- Managed Service Provider (MSP)
- Haptics
- WAN (Wide-Area Network)
- Service-oriented Architecture (SOA)
- Augmented Reality (AR)
- Chief Information Officer (CIO)
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Service-Level Agreement (SLA)
- Scalability
- Data Center
- Authorization
- Multitenancy