In practice, many stores call everything a "chatbot" — but AI sales agents operate at a different level. The difference is depth of context and ability to advance the purchase journey.
Traditional chatbot
Fixed flows, decision trees, predefined answers. Works for order status and business hours. Breaks when the customer leaves the script.
Sales agent
Understands natural language, checks inventory, compares products, suggests add-ons, and sends personalized checkout links. Can resume conversations on WhatsApp with unified history.
When to use each
Use chatbots for triage and low-risk FAQ. Use sales agents when the conversation can generate revenue — cart recovery, high-ticket PDP questions, post-click campaign follow-up.