A chatbot only helps if it answers the way your business actually works. A generic bot can greet a visitor. It cannot know your products, your policies or when a question should go to a person. Those choices belong in the brief, before anyone starts building a custom AI chatbot.
Start with the questions you already answer
Collect the questions customers ask by phone, on WhatsApp and by email. Group them. The ones that repeat — opening hours, pricing, booking, order status, where you work — are what the chatbot should handle first. Rare questions, complaints and anything involving a contract or personal data should go straight to your team.
Decide where it will live
A chat widget on the website is the usual starting point. Many businesses in Qatar also need the same answers on WhatsApp, or spoken by an AI voice assistant on the phone line. Choose the channels your customers already use. One approved set of answers, used in more than one place, keeps the reply consistent.
Write the rules, not just the answers
A useful brief covers more than a list of frequently asked questions.
- The tone of voice: formal or plain, and whether replies should be short enough for WhatsApp.
- What the bot may say about price, availability and timing — and what it must never promise.
- Which questions always reach a person, with the conversation history attached.
- What a finished conversation looks like: a booked call, a completed form, or a message to the right department.
Ground it in information you approve
A custom AI chatbot should answer from your pages, price lists, product details and policies. When that material changes, your team should be able to update it without opening a new project. If the bot is not sure, it should say so and hand the conversation over, rather than invent an answer.
Plan the handover before you launch
The useful bots are the ones that know their limit. When a visitor asks for a person, or the question sits outside the approved answers, someone on your team should receive the conversation with the history intact. That turns the bot into a faster front door, not a dead end.
What to bring to the first meeting
You do not need a technical specification. Bring examples of real enquiries, the answers you want given, the systems to connect — your website, CRM or booking tool — and the languages you serve. From there the scope of a custom AI chatbot, and of an AI voice assistant if you need one, is straightforward to agree.
If you want this built around your own requirements, see our AI voice and chatbots service or send us the questions your customers ask most.
