Build a custom AI chatbot using your data and rules

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Control what your customizable AI chatbot knows, says, and does

Build a chatbot around your workflow, with context and flexibility a general-purpose AI can't offer.

Keep replies grounded in your documents

General-purpose AI doesn’t know the specifics of your business. A wrong price, return condition, or product detail can leave your team fixing the mistake later and give customers another reason to lose trust.

The good news is that you don’t need to teach your chatbot from scratch. The right information already exists in your pricing, policies, contracts, and other internal files. Upload them to your custom AI bot, so it can search the files and pull the right details into every reply.

This helps your customers get answers from the same information your team relies on while you stay in charge of what informs each reply.

Serve each market from its own sources

Prices, stock, and exchange rates change constantly, so a chatbot's knowledge goes stale fast. Web search fills the gap, but only if you and your market trust the source.

Luckily, you can set your chatbot to look for up-to-date information online using only the sources you approve. This gives you more control over the data it uses to generate replies and helps keep them accurate and on-policy.

Add a country code, region, city, or time zone, so customers get location-specific answers. Better yet, you can serve multiple markets without updating every detail by hand.

Make your personalized AI chatbot sound like your brand

Accuracy is one half of a good reply. Brand voice is the other. Set both in your prompt: how concise replies should be, what your chatbot can claim and recommend, and how it should respond to situations like customer complaints.

Define the tone, do's and don'ts, reply format, and examples it should follow. Add variables to personalize replies with contact or order details. For consistency at scale, save the prompt globally and reuse it across AI elements.

The result is replies that sound like your brand while staying within what your team would actually say and promise.

Match the model to the job

Not every chatbot conversation calls for the same level of AI. Simple questions run fine on a fast, low-cost model, while complex support cases need more context and deeper reasoning. In SendPulse, you can assign a different model to each AI agent in the same flow and choose from 30+ options by OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, and Google Gemini. You can also add your own fine-tuned model for needs that standard AI can’t meet.

Adjust the conversation context size, maximum number of tokens in replies, and temperature for each model. With GPT-5 models, you can also choose a reasoning level behind chatbot replies.

In practice, that means you control the model's memory, the length and tone of its replies, and how much thinking goes into each one.

Give your custom chatbot a goal to work toward

A chatbot can answer questions and collect the details you need. But if the conversation ends there, someone on your team still has to move the lead forward by hand.

With a custom AI bot, you can give each conversation a clear goal and let the AI Agent work toward it. Your chatbot can keep the chat going until it reaches the goal you set, save captured details as variables, pass them along, and branch your flow based on what happens next.

From here, you can automatically guide customers toward an upsell, booking, or any other outcome with far less manual work for your team.

Be ready to step in from anywhere

Reply in the mobile app when AI hands a conversation off to you, with the full chat history in front of you.

Learning hub

Explore what goes into a custom AI chatbot and how to tailor one to your rules and goals.

What is a custom AI chatbot?

A custom AI chatbot runs on your business information instead of working as it comes out of the box. You add your own search sources, such as your catalog, pricing, and support policies, and write the instructions it follows in every reply.

Unlike generic chatbots that rely mainly on public information and preset behavior, custom chatbots know your products, respect your policies, and match your tone.

Why use a custom AI chatbot instead of a generic one?

A customized chatbot draws from the information your business uses, which helps keep its replies aligned with your documents, policies, and current data.

You set the tone, rules, and reply style, so your chatbot communicates the way your brand does. When location matters, you can set the country or region your chatbot searches from, so customers get answers that apply to them.

What do you need to create your own chatbot online?

To build your own chatbot online, choose whether it will run in a messaging app or live chat, then use a no-code builder and an AI agent to handle conversations.

Add your own data, like product information, policies, or pricing, so that your chatbot stays on track. To connect an AI model, use an API key from the provider of your choice.

How do you build and train a custom chatbot?

To build a custom chatbot, connect your messaging channel or live chat, choose an AI model, and add the instructions that define how your chatbot should interact with customers.

Upload your files, turn on web search, and adjust the context size or other settings to match how your conversations run. Set clear goals for the AI Agent, test the chatbot with real scenarios, and refine the setup.

Once your chatbot works the way you want, let it create deals in your CRM so that every conversation lands in your pipeline.

Set up your сustom AI bot with SendPulse

Learn how to configure an AI agent, add your own knowledge sources, tune model settings, and test your setup.

Make AI conversations easier to manage

Automate more of the everyday conversations while keeping customer interactions flexible and AI usage under control.

Chat in every app

Run your custom chatbots on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and live chat.

Create flows with no coding

Drag ready-made elements into place and add an AI agent anywhere in your flow.

Reply right away

Back up your auto-replies with an AI model to give your customers a useful answer, not a canned one or a wait.

Handle voice messages

Transcribe voice messages with Whisper so that your chatbot can answer them like any text message. Available with OpenAI models on Pro plans and above.

Translate chats automatically

Translate incoming messages into your language and your replies into the subscriber’s language. Available with paid plans.

Keep AI costs predictable

Set a request limit per contact for any timeframe. The default is 100 requests per day.

More about custom AI chatbots

How to set up Chatbot Gamification using SendPulse

Create chatbots with gamified quiz elements using SendPulse's chatbot builder to attract new customers and collect contact data automatically.

Chatbot vs Live Chat: Which to Choose

Compare chatbots vs live chats across their strengths, limitations, and ideal use cases.

How an AI Chatbot Automated 70% of Candidate Screening [Case Study]

Find out how AI automation streamlined early-stage candidate screening and reduced manual HR workload.

Fully Reloaded Case Study: How an AI WhatsApp Chatbot Automated 70% of Support Requests

Find out how an AI WhatsApp chatbot helped Fully Reloaded achieve significant improvements across its customer support operations.

How to Use ChatGPT on WhatsApp for Your Business

Learn how to use ChatGPT on WhatsApp for every aspect of customer experience.

FAQ

Do I need coding skills to build a custom AI chatbot?

Not at all. Build flows in a drag-and-drop builder and add an AI agent wherever needed. Set its rules, knowledge sources, goals, and handoff to a human agent without writing a single line of code, then test and update the setup on your own.

Do I need my own API key?

Yes. You’ll need an API key from your AI provider, which you can add to your entire account or to a specific chatbot. Your AI provider bills you directly at its own rates. Web search and file search add extra costs on top of token usage. Still, you can set per-contact request limits to keep AI usage within your budget.

To add an AI model, you'll also need a paid SendPulse plan.

How do I prevent my chatbot from making things up?

Upload your files and prompt your chatbot to rely only on them. This helps keep its replies grounded in your content, though no AI system can guarantee perfect accuracy every time.

Which messaging channels does a custom AI chatbot support?

You can use a custom chatbot on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and live chat. SendPulse brings every conversation into one inbox. Each chat is linked to a CRM record, so your team can see the customer's details and history without switching tabs.

Can a human take over the chat?

Yes, any team member can pause the automation, reply personally, and hand the conversation back to your chatbot when they're done.

Make your custom AI chatbot work your way

Build custom AI chatbots around your business, so every conversation works toward your goal.