NLP vs. Buttons -- Let's Settle This Once and For All

If you strip away all the bells, whistles, and tricks, there are only really two frameworks for chatbots -- NLP and Buttons. The "Buttons" style of chatbot is often referred to as a "rules-based" chatbot or perhaps a "menu" chatbot, "scripted" chatbot, or "tree" chatbot. It's what I personally refer to as a Plinko chatbot, which functions something like this: Meanwhile, the second fundamental chatbot framework is known as the "NLP" or "Natural Language Processing" style of chatbot. Sometimes, it's called NLU ("Natural Language Understanding). This second type of chatbot framework is always -- and I do mean always -- referred to as "AI" or "using AI" (and -- for bonus points -- Machine Learning (ML)) regardless of how much real AI is involved.