Internal Chatbots: Find Out What's Best for You
As AI capabilities rapidly mature, leadership teams are reassessing how knowledge flows across their organizations. One of the most common ways AI can power one's business is through chat bots, whether internal or external facing.
Today we'll take a look at how internal chat bots can improve your employees' efficiency and your options for building one as a medium size (50-500 employees) firm.
Advantages
As a company grows, access to information can become tribal, passed down by word of mouth from more seasoned team members to newcomers. Even if documentation exists, acronyms and "if you know, you know" internally used terms obfuscate the ability to find information, with employees now spending 10% of their work week looking for the information needed to do their jobs. Companies embracing hybrid and remote work environments has exacerbated this, as conversations and decisions become scattered across Slack, Confluence, Google Docs, and Microsoft Office products.
Chatbots can help break down these barriers by importing your company's documentation, policies, and tools, and making them searchable in an easy to understand, conversational format. Based on having the full context of the data you provide to it, it can bridge the gap between what an accountant and a data analyst have described the same thing in different scenarios. By unifying documentation into a conversational interface, internal chatbots reduce search friction, shorten ramp time for new employees, and improve cross-functional alignment.
Solutions
ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude Subscription
ChatGPT ushered in the era of LLMs and is the most famous name on the market. But how well does it suit your business's needs for an internal chatbot?
These tools are excellent productivity enhancers, but they are not designed to serve as enterprise knowledge assistants. They lack role-based governance, data refresh pipelines, analytics on usage, and the workflow automation many mid-sized companies require.
Simple subscriptions to these services work best for small companies whose employees are in frequent collaboration with each other and wear many hats. Larger firms often need additional AI tools to compensate for the limitations of general-purpose LLMs.
Data is protected
Your company data can be kept out of public training sets.
Costs increase per user
Per-seat pricing grows quickly with headcount.
Limited customization
You are constrained to the provider's interface and workflows.
Enterprise Chatbots
Several companies offer platform solutions for chatbots, such as the company Chatbot App. These companies offer a solution akin to using AWS to host your servers as opposed to building out your own data center. They usually offer the ability to ingest your company's data, and sometimes offer access to different underlying LLMs, such as the aforementioned ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and others.
Company-wide context
Centralized knowledge improves cross-team visibility.
Costs increase per user
Pricing scales with headcount even as usage stays steady.
Not fully tailored
Platforms can limit workflow and UI customization.
Enterprise chatbot platforms are well-suited for organizations that prioritize:
- Rapid deployment (4–8 weeks)
- Centralized content ingestion without custom engineering
- Compliance-ready vendor infrastructure
- Standard HR/IT use cases (policy lookup, benefits, IT troubleshooting)
However, per-seat pricing remains a factor, and customization is limited to what the platform supports.
Bespoke Chatbot
Custom-built chatbots offer the highest level of flexibility and are ideal for organizations whose workflows require domain-specific logic, secure integrations, or automation beyond what pre-built platforms provide. A bespoke chatbot can:
- Surface analytics to leadership on frequently asked questions to reveal knowledge gaps
- Integrate custom automations (i.e. accounting can automatically pull spend data from APIs)
- Scale at cost, meaning you pay only for compute, not per-seat licenses
To illustrate the difference:
- A 250-person company using ChatGPT Business would pay $7,500 per month in subscription fees alone.
- A custom internal chatbot typically costs $500–$2,000 per month in hosting and compute for average usage, regardless of headcount.
Deep customization
Shape the experience around your teams and workflows.
Cost efficiency at scale
Pay for compute, not per-seat licenses.
Own your data
Control architecture, privacy, and governance.
Workflow automation
Integrate actions that move beyond Q&A responses.
Which is the best for you?
Chat bots are one of the most essential ways you can speed up your business with AI. Here's a quick recap to help guide your choice:
- Choose Consumer LLMs if: You have <50 employees, limited budget, and simple knowledge needs
- Choose Enterprise Platforms if: You need fast deployment, have standard use cases, and want vendor-managed compliance
- Choose Bespoke Solutions if: You require custom automations, need cost efficiency at scale, or have domain-specific workflows
Whether you need help deciding between one of these options or building out your own custom chat bot Farley Tech Consulting is happy to help guide you on your journey. Schedule a free consultation today! In your free consultation, we'll map your current knowledge bottlenecks and outline a custom chatbot roadmap, no obligation.
Ready to explore your chatbot strategy?
Tell us about your knowledge gaps and we'll help you pick the right path.
Book a Free Consultation
We'd love to hear from you!
Written by Dray Farley
Co-founder of Farley Tech Consulting, helping organizations design and build AI-powered systems that actually move the needle.