The point about testing with real customer questions before committing is so important. Demos are designed to impress, but production is where the truth shows up. I’d also want to know how easy it is to update the knowledge base when policies change. A bot that’s accurate today but hard to maintain will quietly fall behind.

I think the under $100 budget is doable, but only if you pick based on maintenance, not features. A cheaper tool that nobody can update becomes expensive fast. Chatbase looks like the best balance here because it covers testing, analytics, and human handoff without locking you into a bigger system.