--- title: "Chatbot or AI agent: what's the difference and what do you need?" description: "A chatbot answers questions, an AI agent gets work done. Here's the difference, which agents we rent out from €79 per month, and how to pick the right one." url: https://vanborg.com/en/blog/chatbot-vs-ai-agent locale: en type: article published: 2026-07-26 author: "Nicolaas Sterenborg" tags: [ai-agents, chatbot, whatsapp, installation-business] --- # Chatbot or AI agent: what's the difference and what do you need? ## What is the difference between a chatbot and an AI agent? A chatbot answers questions; an AI agent gets work done. The chatbot talks, the agent acts: it qualifies the enquiry, books the appointment in your calendar, chases the quote and files the receipt. At Van Borg Agency the ChatAgent costs €149 per month with no setup fee; a flow is €250 setup and €79 to €149 per month. So the distinction isn't in the technology or the chat window, but in what happens *after* the conversation. A chatbot ends with an answer. An agent ends with a result: an enquiry in your system, an appointment in your calendar, a quote that got followed up. That's the difference between "neat" and "saves me half an office day every week". ### Where most chatbots get stuck Two things, and at trade businesses we almost always see them together. One: the bot guesses. It doesn't know your service area or your rates, invents something, and then you have to walk the conversation back. Two: the bot has access to nothing. It can't open a calendar and can't hand anything over, so it all lands on your plate anyway. Our agents work the other way round: they run on a knowledge base we train on your business, and if they don't know, they hand the conversation to you instead of guessing. ## Which chatbots and AI agents does Van Borg Agency offer? One ChatAgent that runs on any website and on WhatsApp and does it all: it answers questions about rates, service area and warranty, handles the full intake including photo and video upload, and books straight into your Google or Outlook calendar. No more three separate subscriptions to piece together — one agent, one price. Alongside it, five automation flows that work behind the scenes, plus custom work. Those add-ons are where it really starts paying off, because they cover work that's sitting on your kitchen table right now: - **follow-up flow**: every quote chased automatically on day 3, 7 and 14; a reply stops the flow. More: [automatic quote follow-up](https://vanborg.com/en/blog/automatic-quote-follow-up). - **review flow**: job done → review request with a reminder; when a review lands, your reply is already drafted. - **admin flow**: receipt or invoice PDF in, supplier, amount and VAT extracted and booked. More: [automate your admin with AI](https://vanborg.com/en/blog/automate-your-admin-with-ai). - **scheduling flow**: appointments arranged by travel distance, confirmations and reminders out, and the rest of the day reshuffled when a job overruns. The full rundown is in [what an AI agent does for your construction business](https://vanborg.com/en/blog/what-does-an-ai-agent-do). ### What we deliberately don't do No AI that judges free-form construction photos or sets prices on its own. That isn't reliable today, and we don't sell anything that doesn't work. The ChatAgent collects and structures the media perfectly; the estimate stays with the professional. ## What does a chatbot or AI agent cost per month? The ChatAgent costs €149 per month, with no setup fee. A flow costs €250 one-off setup and from €79 per month, excluding VAT. That rent covers everything: hosting, monitoring, AI usage (tokens), messaging costs, support and continuous optimisation. Phone Agent and automations are cancellable monthly. Prices updated: August 2026. | Agent | Setup | Per month | | --- | --- | --- | | ChatAgent (answers, intake with photo/video, books into your calendar) | €0 | €149 | | Automation flow (quotes, admin, scheduling…) | €250 | €79–149 | An extra channel (WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram) is €25 per month, an extra language €250 setup + €15 per month. The full overview with a calculator lives on the [pricing page](https://vanborg.com/en/pricing). ## Do the agents work on WhatsApp and on my existing website? Yes. One small script places the agent on any existing website: WordPress, Wix or custom, it doesn't matter. So you don't need to buy a new site. The same agent also runs on WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram through the [WhatsApp Business Platform](https://business.whatsapp.com/products/business-platform). One channel comes standard with the agent; each extra channel is €25 per month. In construction WhatsApp is usually the important one: customers already send their photos there, and messages there get read almost every time. Everything runs white-label under your company name, so your customer simply sees your business. ## When is a chatbot enough, and when do you need an agent? A chatbot is enough if you mostly get the same questions and your calendar already fills itself. An agent is what you need the moment work starts piling up: enquiries with half the information, quotes nobody follows up, or a calendar you're still filling yourself at night. In short: talking versus doing. In the conversation logs we review with customers every month, the top questions are strikingly predictable: what does a call-out cost, do you cover my area, how fast can you come, do you take on small jobs, and do you offer a warranty. The ChatAgent handles those five on its own — and since the same agent also runs the intake and fills the calendar, you don't need to buy anything extra for that. It's only once work remains that isn't a conversation (chasing quotes, filing receipts, following up invoices) that you need a work agent alongside it. ### How to choose in a minute - **Questions, intake and calendar all in one?** The ChatAgent, €149 per month, no setup. Decide today, live this week. - **Quotes still going quiet after the conversation?** follow-up flow as an add-on. - **Need to be reachable by phone too, day and night?** Add the [voicebot](https://vanborg.com/en/services/phone). ## How fast is a chat agent live? The ChatAgent is live within a few days: it's one system, so answering questions, intake and booking all go live together, not in phases. You don't install anything yourself: we build, connect and manage everything remotely, and improve the agent every month after that. Want to know which of the two you actually need? In a free 30–45 minute [AI workflow scan](https://vanborg.com/en/contact) we look together at where work is piling up in your business. No obligation, and you get immediate advice on whether [the ChatAgent](https://vanborg.com/en/services/chatagent) fits the way you work.