Yet triaging questions is often made simpler by provinding another type of UI, like simple buttons in a funnel for example. That's what makes chatbots gimmicky in my opinion.
You're right, but that's not always true, and there's plenty of good use cases where a conversational experience is better. For example, if someone is trying to return something, you might ask them what they ordered. Picking from a list of 1000 items isn't a great UX. Datepickers are way more annoying to use than typing in "Jan 6 2022". The best chatbots I've used (and built) alternate between more a button-like interface vs. eliciting conversational answers in the appropriate context.
Sounds kinda like the chatbot becomes a fuzzy search interface, difference is the presentation. Regardless, definitely better than picking from 1000 product list. I think I would like a natural language (type-in) date picker with a good preview of what the result will be.
