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5 Best AI Chatbots In 2025
AI chatbots have gotten a ton of attention in recent months following the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT.
The technology, based on a large language model (LLM), has the ability to write code and essays and can pass high-level exams like those used in law, business, and medical schools. ChatGPT's owner, OpenAI, has partnered with Microsoft (MSFT -6.18%). The tech giant first formed a strategic partnership with OpenAI back in 2019 and has invested $13 billion in OpenAI, a sign of its confidence in the new AI chatbot.
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However, ChatGPT is far from the only artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot on the market, and its launch sparked a parade of competitors, some of whom seemed to be waiting for such a moment to unveil their own LLMs.
In this article, we'll discuss what an AI chatbot is, review some AI chatbot stocks you can invest in, and explore whether you should invest in AI chatbot technology today. If you're wondering about the best AI chatbots, keep reading.
What are AI chatbots? What are AI chatbots?A chatbot is an AI-based computer program that uses natural language processing to communicate with humans using texts. Chatbots are a common tool for customer service, internet search, and other routine tasks for internet users. Business also use AI chatbots internally to help automate workflows and other tasks.
Their utility has evolved in recent years as artificial intelligence has improved, and large language models have been trained to process complex questions and understand nuance. You can even make your own AI chatbot using the Python coding language.
As AI chatbots have improved, the market potential for the technology has increased, as can be seen in OpenAI's recent valuation at a reported $157 billion, with investors including Microsoft and Nvidia (NVDA 0.77%) participating in the $6.6 billion funding round.
With OpenAI demonstrating the capability of AI chatbots, investor interest in the technology has soared. Keep reading to see how you can get exposure to AI stocks in the chatbot space.
Five best AI chatbots to buy in 2025 Data source: YCharts and company websites. Market caps current as of Dec. 4, 2024. Company Ticker Market Cap Description Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) $3.25 trillion Diversified global tech leader. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), (NASDAQ:GOOGL) $2.14 trillion Global search leader and digital advertising giant. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) $2.29 trillion Leader in e-commerce and cloud computing. Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) $29.9 billion Chinese internet search and autonomous vehicle company. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) $1.55 trillion Social media giant. 1. Microsoft 1. MicrosoftThrough its partnership with OpenAI and ChatGPT, Microsoft appears to have jumped out to an early lead in the AI chatbot race.
The company is working quickly to integrate ChatGPT into a wide range of its products. That includes Azure, its cloud infrastructure service, the new Bing, and its Edge browser. It's also reportedly working on adding ChatGPT features to its Office suite, which includes products like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
However, Microsoft's biggest move in AI chatbots may be the launch of its own Copilot, a digital assistant available across Microsoft's applications.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said on multiple occasions that he sees AI as a platform shift, and the company has doubled down on its relationship with OpenAI after investing $13 billion in the startup over the years.
After his company missed out on the shift to mobile, Nadella is committed to not making the same mistake twice. Expect Microsoft to continue to spend aggressively on ChatGPT and other AI tools.
If you're looking to invest in ChatGPT, Microsoft gives you the most direct way to do so.
2. Alphabet 2. AlphabetAlphabet has been investing in artificial intelligence for years. It acquired DeepMind, an AI research lab, in 2014, and it's spent billions on its autonomous vehicle division, Waymo.
After the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, Alphabet moved quickly to counter what seemed to be the most serious threat to Google Search yet, calling a "Code Red" meeting and bringing back founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page to formulate a strategy.
After some missteps, Google launched Gemini in December 2023. Gemini is available through Google's search bar.
It's unclear how Alphabet will monetize Gemini. Currently, it seems like a way for it to protect its monopoly on search, but it could help monetize traffic that doesn't generate ads.
3. Amazon 3. AmazonAmazon hasn't found success with its own chatbot. The company has launched Amazon Q, a generative AI assistant, and Rufus, a shopping assistant.
However, Amazon is also a major investor in Anthropic, the maker of the chatbot Claude, which is considered by some to be the closest challenger to ChatGPT. In November 2024, Amazon said it would invest $4 billion in Anthropic after investing $4 billion in the company earlier in the year.
As part of that investment, Anthropic will use Amazon's Trainium and Inferentia chips to train its AI models.
Amazon has also invested in Bedrock, a managed cloud service in AWS that builds AI applications like chatbots.
4. Baidu 4. BaiduBaidu is often known as the Chinese Google, and the company's move into AI chat shows that it has more than search in common with Alphabet.
In February 2023, Baidu joined the fray in AI chat, announcing that it would also launch its own chatbot that will serve as a complement to its search engine.
Known as ERNIE bot, the chatbot was released in March 2023. As of April 2024, the company said it had attracted 200 million users.
Baidu first began developing its language model in 2019, and the technology has advanced significantly since.
ERNIE was launched as a standalone application first but eventually will merge with its search engine, choosing chatbot-generated results rather than just links.
The company is also investing aggressively in other AI technologies like self-driving cars and semiconductors and sees artificial intelligence as a valuable growth market.
SemiconductorA semiconductor is a basic element or compound substance that conducts electricity in certain situations.
5. Meta Platforms 5. Meta PlatformsMeta Platforms has invested significant resources in artificial intelligence as well, but most of that funding has gone toward recommendation AI, the algorithms that determine the content served to users on Facebook and Instagram.
More recently, the company launched LLaMa, an open-source large language model. Though LLaMa is not a chatbot, it powers Meta's chatbot, Meta AI, which is available across Meta's properties, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. Thanks to Meta's billions of users, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said earlier in 2024 that Meta AI was on track to be the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year.
Zuckerberg sees conversational and generational AI as a huge potential market, and the company plans to continue investing in chatbots and related areas.
Related investing topics Should you invest? Should you invest in AI chatbot technology?AI chatbot technology is still in its early stages, but it seems clear from the billions being spent on the technology by the world's biggest tech companies that this will be a significant computing platform.
There's a wide range of applications for a product like ChatGPT. Its potential to disrupt internet search, a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars, shows the value of AI chat.
While picking a winner is difficult at this point, as several chatbots have already come out, it makes sense to get exposure to the technology, considering its potential. Like any emerging technology, investing in AI chatbots carries some risk, but many of the stocks above are already trading at reasonable valuations. If you're interested in investing in chatbot stocks, another option is to invest in an AI exchange-traded fund (ETF).
AI Chatbot FAQWhat is the smartest AI Chatbot?
Defining the smartest chatbot is a subjective issue since there are different criteria for measuring artificial intelligence. Some chatbots may be more capable than others, but there may also be others that are less inaccurate than others.
Additionally, a chatbot like the IBM Watson Assistant is competing in a different market from the search-focused bots.
However, based on overall measures and its ability to perform a broad range of tasks, ChatGPT seems to be the smartest chatbot on the market currently.
What is the fastest AI chatbot?
Determining the fastest AI chatbot is similarly difficult since speed depends on the question being asked. Some chatbots may be fast but not necessarily accurate, while others could come up with less useful answers than other chatbots.
It's worth noting that ChatGPT is the fastest-growing app of all time based on its user base, which reached 100 million just two months after the chatbot was launched.
Is there an AI I can talk to?
Several AI chatbots now have "voice mode," allowing users to talk to them, including ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Character AI.
We're likely to see more AI voice chatbots as voice assistants like Siri and Alexa are expected to add AI capabilities.
Additionally, the capabilities of voice chat assistants are likely to improve significantly as artificial intelligence gets better.
Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jeremy Bowman has positions in Amazon and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Baidu, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Why Chatbots Haven't (and Won't) Live Up To The Hype
In the early 2010s, technology forecasters and business analysts painted a compelling picture of the future of customer service: chatbots would dramatically cut labor costs and transform how consumers interacted with brands. Fast forward to today, and the reality has yet to live up to the hype.
While chatbots have found their place in the customer service ecosystem, they haven't achieved the dominance and ubiquity that many predicted. Instead, voice communication remains the preferred channel for customer service interactions, challenging long-held assumptions about technological adoption and consumer behavior.
The Promise vs. Reality of Chatbot AdoptionWhen chatbots first emerged as a customer service solution, organizations saw the potential for 24/7 availability, instant responses and significant cost savings compared to maintaining large teams of human agents. The tech was especially appealing to businesses looking to scale their customer service operations while simultaneously controlling expenses.
However, implementing chatbots has revealed a vital truth about technology adoption: acceptance of edge consumer tech must be earned by providing real value to users, not imposed as a corporate strategy. This lesson has become increasingly obvious as different demographic groups have shown varying levels of acceptance and resistance to chatbots, demonstrating a clear generational split in user acceptance.
Younger consumers, particularly millennials and Gen Z, are more willing to engage with chatbots for basic customer service needs. Having grown up in a digital-first world, these users are generally more comfortable with text-based communication and automated systems. Despite Gen Z's openness to using multiple digital channels, recent PolyAI research found that nearly nine out of ten (86%) Gen Zers actually prefer the phone as their primary channel for contacting customer service.
However, older generations generally resist chatbot adoption. This isn't merely a matter of technological literacy — it reflects deeper preferences about human interaction and problem-solving approaches. Many older consumers view chatbots as an unnecessary barrier between them and the human help they seek instead of a helpful tool.
The "Why" Behind Customer Service PreferencesWhen examining why voice remains the dominant channel for customer service, we must consider the psychological aspects of seeking help when frustrated or confused. There's a fundamental human need to feel heard and understood when facing a problem, and voice communication satisfies this need more effectively than text-based interactions. In fact, 70% of customers still choose the phone as their preferred first contact with support.
Consider the typical scenario of a customer who has a product/service issue and needs assistance. They're already frustrated or anxious about their problem, and they want to explain the situation quickly and completely. They want immediate feedback, as well as empathy and active listening, to feel like they're being understood. Voice communication naturally facilitates all these needs.
While chatbots were promoted as a more efficient solution, they often create friction in the customer service process. The assumption that typing out a problem is more convenient than speaking it frequently proves to be false. When facing a complex issue, most customers find it far more natural and efficient to explain their problem verbally rather than struggling to type out detailed explanations.
The Future of Customer Service: A Hybrid ApproachAs we look into 2025 and beyond, the evidence suggests that voice will remain the cornerstone of effective customer service. However, this doesn't mean chatbots have no role to play. The most successful customer service strategies will likely employ a hybrid approach that provides chatbot interactions for specific use cases such as:
Voice communication, on the other hand, will be prioritized for:
The persistence of voice as the preferred customer service channel teaches us an important lesson about technology adoption: true innovation must align with human nature rather than trying to reshape it. While chatbots and other digital solutions will continue to evolve and improve, they are likely to remain complementary tools rather than replacements for voice communication.
The future of customer service lies in creating seamless experiences that respect customers' natural preferences while strategically implementing automation where it truly adds value. As we move forward, organizations that recognize and embrace this reality — maintaining strong voice-based service capabilities while thoughtfully integrating digital solutions — will be best positioned to deliver the kind of customer service that builds lasting relationships and brand loyalty.
Nikola Mrkšić is the CEO and Co-founder of PolyAI, a leading provider of enterprise-ready voice assistants built for customer support. Mrkšić has a Ph.D. In Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing from University of Cambridge, and served on the initial team that developed Apple's Siri.
What Is A Chatbot?
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