Strategy
How to choose an AI chatbot for a creator agency: 8 checks
The right AI chatbot for a creator agency replies from the creator's own account, in her voice and language, sells only at the prices you set, and lets your team take over any conversation in one click. It also stops on its own when a conversation must not continue, follows your scripts, and tells you which traffic source and which script brought each sale. If a tool fails one of these checks, it will cost you fans, money or both.
Below are the eight checks we would run before trusting any AI chatter with a creator's fans, and the questions to ask the vendor for each one.
1. Does it reply from the creator's own account?
Fans buy from a person, not from a generic bot with a different name. The AI must answer inside the conversation the fan already has with the creator's account, so nothing changes on his side.
On Telegram this is possible through Telegram Business: a bot linked to an account can read and answer its private chats on its behalf. Ask the vendor how an account is connected, and refuse any setup that asks for the account's phone number, password or login code. In LanaChat, an account connects with an @username and the token of a bot linked through Telegram's business connection, as the connection guide shows step by step.
2. Does it sound like her, in every language?
A chatbot that answers in the same flat tone for every creator will feel wrong to her regular fans within a few messages. Look for:
- a persona per creator: who she is, how she writes, her limits, what she remembers about each fan
- replies in the language the fan writes in, not only the creator's own language
- short replies, one message at a time, like a real chat, never a wall of text
Ask to test it in a sandbox with your own creator's profile before any fan sees it.
3. Who sets the prices?
This is the check that is easiest to skip, and the one that hurts most. An AI that negotiates on its own will learn that a discount closes the sale, and every fan will learn to ask for one.
The prices must come from you: a price on each media, or one price per script step. The AI may explain why a media is worth it, but it should never lower the price on its own. Lana, the AI in LanaChat, sells at the price set on the media or the step and never gives discounts. Only a person on your team can change a price.
4. Can your team take over in one click?
Some conversations need a human: a big spender, a custom request, a fan who is upset. Your chatters must be able to read every conversation live and take over instantly, with the AI pausing for that fan until they hand it back.
Ask how the handover works, whether the fan sees anything change, and whether sales sent by a human are counted separately. In LanaChat, takeover is one click in Live Convs, and sales sent by hand are billed at a much lower manual rate.
5. Does it stop when it must?
An AI that chats with fans at scale will meet conversations where the only right move is to stop selling: a fan who appears to be underage, a fan in distress, a request that is illegal, a fan who asks to be left alone. Ask the vendor three direct questions:
- What does the AI do when a fan seems to be a minor?
- What happens when a fan says he wants to stop?
- Who on my team is told, and where?
The answer you want is a hard stop, a clear status on the fan and a person in charge. In LanaChat, the fan list shows a status for each case: OFF for underage, crisis or distress, coercion, illegal request or asked to stop, Review when the age is unclear, and paused statuses when a person is in charge. Those fans are not to be restarted.
6. Does it follow your scripts?
Your best chatters have sequences that sell. A good AI does not replace them with improvisation; it runs them. Check that you can write scripts with steps, media and one price per step, decide when each script may start (night, priority, keywords from the fan), and see which script brought each sale. Our post on chatting scripts that sell shows how to write them.
7. Can you see which source brings the money?
If you buy traffic, you need to know which ad, story or bio brought each buyer, not just the total. Ask for tracking links per source, attribution of every purchase to the link the fan first clicked, and pixels for your ad platforms. Without this, the AI may sell well while your ad budget goes to the wrong places. The tracking links feature covers this side in LanaChat.
8. How is it priced?
Three pricing structures are common: a fixed fee per seat or account, a share of sales, or a mix. Each one says something about the vendor.
- A fixed fee only costs the same whether the AI sells or not.
- A share of sales only aligns the vendor with you, but check what "sales" means: gross, or net after the platform's share and refunds.
- A mix usually covers the vendor's running costs with the fee and rewards performance with the share.
Ask for the full grid in writing, with the tiers. LanaChat charges $19 per Telegram account per month, plus a commission on net sales: 12% of AI sales up to $30,000 of monthly net sales, 10% up to $100,000 and 8% above, and 4%, 3% and 2% for sales your team sends by hand. The details are on the pricing page.
How to run the test
Once a vendor passes the checklist on paper, test it the way you would test a new chatter.
- Fill in one creator's persona and connect one account.
- Chat with her yourself in the sandbox, playing the difficult fans: the one who asks for free content, the one who says it is too expensive, the one who goes quiet.
- Switch her on for a small share of new fans and read every conversation for a week.
- Compare her numbers with your human team on the same creator: first reply time, share of paying fans, net sales.
If you are still deciding how much to hand to the AI, our comparison of AI chatter vs human chatters helps decide what to automate first.
FAQ
What is the most important check?
Prices. An AI that gives discounts on its own trains every fan to ask for one. Make sure prices come from your vault and scripts only.
Do I need the creator's Telegram password to connect an AI chatbot?
No. On Telegram, a bot linked through Telegram Business answers the account's private chats. No phone number, password or login code is needed.
Can I keep some creators or some fans manual?
In LanaChat, yes. Each creator has a response mode, and the AI can be switched off for any single conversation.
What should an AI chatbot do with a fan who may be underage?
Stop. It should end the sales conversation, mark the fan clearly and leave the decision to a person on your team.
Should I pay per seat or a share of sales?
It depends on your volume. Compare the full grid of each vendor on your real numbers, and check whether the share is counted on gross or on net sales.