Are Slower Chatbots Better Than Faster Ones?
19 Sept 2025
5 min read
In the tech world, speed is king. From internet connections to mobile processors, faster almost always means better. But when it comes to chatbots, that’s not necessarily true.
It sounds strange, but slower chatbots can sometimes provide better experiences and outcomes than faster ones. Let's find out why.
The Sweet Spot of Speed
When we look at chatbot performance, two key things matter most:
Resolution rate – how often the chatbot successfully solves the customer’s problem.
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) scores – how customers feel about the interaction.
Research shows there’s a “sweet spot” for how fast a chatbot replies. One that answers instantly might seem unthinking or shallow. On the other hand, one that takes too long risks frustrating customers who think it’s broken.
Finding that perfect balance is where the magic happens. This is based on something called the Labor Illusion.
The Labor Illusion
This balance comes from a concept in behavioral economics called the Labor Illusion, first described by Harvard researchers. The Labor Illusion suggests that people value a service more when they think effort is being put in on their behalf, even if that effort isn’t real.
For example, when a flight search engine shows you all the airlines it’s “checking” before giving results, you feel confident it’s working hard for you. The same idea applies to chatbots: if they seem careful and thorough, customers rate their answers as more valuable.
Some companies even add fake delays to their bots’ replies to create this impression. But here’s the catch: if the delay feels fake or lasts too long, it backfires. In graphical terms it looks something like this:
The “Bullshitter Effect”
Beyond the Labor Illusion, there’s another psychological effect at play – let’s call it the Bullshitter Effect.
Imagine you’re in a job interview. You ask a candidate a tough question. One candidate answers instantly without thinking. The other pauses, considers, and then replies thoughtfully.
Which one do you trust more?
We naturally connect a slight delay with careful thought and accuracy. Conversely, answering too quickly can seem glib or even careless.
We’re used to tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI overviews giving rapid responses to questions, but we’ve also all seen examples where they make mistakes. That may be because they’ve not checked every source they would need to. If you ask ChatGPT to search more sources, it slows down a bit, and hopefully accuracy improves.
Why latency can be slower
At DigitalGenius, people sometimes ask why our chat isn’t the quickest on the market. The answer is simple: our systems prioritize accuracy and depth over pure speed.
Let’s look at a common customer service situation:
👉 A customer says their package hasn’t been delivered.
A fast but simple chatbot might just reply with a tracking link. Quick, yes – but useless if the customer already has the tracking link and knows the package is late.
Our approach is different. To give a helpful answer, we might need to:
Check if the package was actually sent out.
Confirm if the carrier picked it up.
Get the latest updates from the carrier.
Compare all this with the customer’s report of non-delivery.
Each of these steps involves connecting systems, looking up data, and checking information. That adds a little time, but it also means the final answer is relevant, accurate, and truly helpful. Of course, we are always looking for ways to make things faster, but we believe it’s better to get the right answer in 25 seconds than the wrong answer in 5.
Chatbots that use buttons and have scripted answers can be faster because the conversation paths are predictable. When you use generative AI to provide a more natural and spontaneous feel, that can slow things down a little bit.
Think about how your human agents operate. Some questions are quick and easy to answer, and some require looking in multiple systems and triangulating to get to the right answer.
From Illusion to Real Work
While some companies may rely on the illusion of work by adding fake delays, at DigitalGenius we believe in the value of real effort.
Our chatbots genuinely perform multi-step processes behind the scenes, making sure the customer gets an answer that solves the problem rather than one that just seems fast.
That way, the “delay” isn’t wasted time – it’s time spent working for the customer’s benefit.
The Bottom Line
When it comes to chatbots, faster isn’t always better. Customers value carefulness, accuracy, and reliability – even if it takes a few extra seconds.
At DigitalGenius, we see speed not as the main goal, but as part of a bigger picture: giving answers that customers can trust. After all, the best chatbot experience isn’t the one that replies first – it’s the one that gets it right first time.
