Should your website have an AI assistant? What it should do and what it must never do

We all remember the old website chatbots. "Hi! I'm Chatty! How can I help?" You'd ask a simple question and get three irrelevant links and a sense of despair.

Today's AI assistants are far better. They understand ordinary language and can answer from your own information. They can also get things wrong with total confidence, which brings its own problems. So here's how to get the benefits without the embarrassment.

What a good assistant does

Answers questions when you're closed. People research after work, at weekends and on their phones in the queue for coffee. If your site can answer them at that moment, they don't need to go elsewhere.

Qualifies enquiries. It can ask the sensible first questions, including what they need, when and where, so your team starts the conversation with context.

Moves people along. A well-built assistant doesn't just chat. It offers a brochure, a quote form, a callback or a booking at the right moment.

Feeds your systems. Enquiries go into your CRM, rather than vanishing into a chat log nobody reads.

Teaches you things. The questions people ask reveal what your website isn't explaining. That's valuable even if you never add another feature.

The assistants we've built, working right now

You don't have to take our word for any of this. These are all live, so you can go and try them.

On websites

• Just Creative People. We use our own medicine. Our website has an AI assistant, so visitors can describe what they have in mind and get answers straight away.
• Beehive Legal. The firm has an AI assistant on its website, and an AI voice agent that answers its out-of-hours calls.
• Bridge Solicitors. The firm handles dental negligence claims, so someone arriving there may have an upsetting story and lots of questions. The website guides them from their first question to a no-win, no-fee claim, with an AI assistant on hand around the clock.
• Cambridge Xyz. This Google Ads and agentic AI consultancy has an AI agent that answers prospects' questions, with callback forms that feed straight into the CRM.

On landing pages

• InsuranceWith. Specialist medical travel insurance comes with lots of detailed questions. The landing page has an assistant that answers cover questions around the clock, alongside quote, guide and callback forms that feed straight into the CRM.
• University of Cambridge Online. A Cambridge Advance Online course page has an assistant that answers course questions around the clock, with brochure, callback, enquiry and webinar forms feeding into the CRM.
• University of Cambridge Judge Business School. An Executive MBAs landing page has an assistant that answers programme questions, with brochure and enquiry forms feeding into the CRM.

What these have in common is that they deal with considered decisions. People want to ask questions before they're ready to talk to anyone, and an assistant is good at that stage.

Why landing pages and assistants work so well together

If lead generation is the goal, this is the combination we'd look at first. It's one of the best lead generators we build.

A landing page does one job. Someone clicks an ad or a link with one thing in mind, and the page talks about that one thing, with no menu of distractions. The trouble is that a focused page can't answer everything, and an unanswered question is often why people leave.

That's where the assistant comes in. It deals with the "but what about...?" questions on the spot, without sending anyone away to hunt around the rest of your site. When the visitor is ready, the forms are right there.

And you pay for every click on a paid campaign, so it matters what happens next. A visitor who gets their question answered at 10pm is still on your page. A visitor who has to wait until morning may well have found someone else by then.

Three things make the combination work:

• One clear offer. The page and the assistant should both be steering towards the same next step.
• More than one way to say yes. Not everybody is ready to talk. A brochure or guide suits the researcher, and a callback suits someone ready to go.
• A straight line into your CRM. Every enquiry should land where your team will see it and act on it, tagged with where it came from, so you can tell which campaigns are working.

What it must never do

Here's the cautionary tale. In Moffatt v Air Canada, an airline's chatbot gave a customer wrong information about bereavement fares. The airline argued, remarkably, that the chatbot was responsible for its own actions. A tribunal disagreed and held the airline responsible. That's a Canadian small-claims decision, not UK law, but the lesson travels well: customers will reasonably assume your assistant speaks for you.

So write down what it must never do:

• Never invent facts. If the answer isn't in the information you've supplied, it should say so and offer a person.
• Never make commitments. No promising discounts, refunds, delivery dates or guarantees, unless those come straight from your approved information.
• Never give regulated advice. A solicitor's assistant can explain how the process works. It shouldn't tell someone whether they have a case.
• Never pretend to be human. Say clearly that it's AI, and make a human easy to reach.
• Never trap anyone. If someone asks for a person, or is getting frustrated or upset, offer a route out at once.
• Never collect more than you need. Be careful with sensitive information, and make sure your privacy policy covers what the assistant does.

Do have these rules checked if you're in a regulated sector or dealing with sensitive information.

What does it cost?

ExpertSure estimates customer service chatbot platforms at £50 to £500 a month, and custom builds at £3,000 to £12,000 one-off. Those are estimates, not quotes, and prices move quickly.

The cost usually depends on how much the assistant needs to connect to, how much it's used and how much care its subject needs. Don't forget the time to prepare your information, test it and keep it up to date.

Do you actually need one?

An assistant is likely to pay off if:

• you get the same questions again and again
• your product or service takes some explaining
• people visit outside your opening hours
• enquiries are worth enough to justify the effort

It's probably not the priority if your site is confusing, slow or missing basic information. An assistant can paper over those problems for a while, but we'd fix them first. Think twice as well if you get very few visitors, since it has nobody to talk to.

How to launch without embarrassing yourself

1. Gather your real information. Services, prices you're happy to share, policies and frequently asked questions. If it's out of date, fix it before you feed it in.
2. Set the boundaries. Write the "never" list above for your own business.
3. Try to break it. Ask awkward questions, wrong questions and rude questions. Ask for a discount. Ask about competitors. Ask it about things you don't do.
4. Connect the handover. Decide where enquiries go, and who follows up and how quickly. An assistant that captures a lead nobody answers has achieved nothing.
5. Read the conversations. Review them every week at first, fix what's wrong and use what you learn to improve your website.

The bottom line

A website assistant is a bit like a new member of staff. It needs training, boundaries and supervision. Get those right and you have someone who'll happily answer the same question at 11pm for the hundredth time without a hint of a sigh.