Chatbots answer anything. Yours answers for your products.
General chatbots are strong at general questions, drafting and summarizing, at no cost, and every rep already has one open.
They do not know your catalog, your options or your prices, and when asked for a number they produce one that looks right. The rep finds out it was wrong when the order comes in.
Keep the chatbot for drafting and research. Choose Poly9 AI when the answer has to be true about your products and the price has to come from your rules.
The five verbs, plus three that decide it.
| What matters | general AI chatbots | Poly9 AI |
|---|---|---|
| Answer | From general training; nothing about your products. | From your catalog record: repeat, width, fire rating, stock. |
| Configure | Describes options in words. | Shows the product in the chosen option, from your materials library. |
| Price | Invents a plausible number. | Prices from your recipes and matrices, or says “price on request”. Never estimates. |
| Quote | Drafts a quote-shaped email. | A quote with traceable lines the buyer approves from the email; it lands in Projects. |
| Present | Generates an image of something like your product. | Renders your product in your materials, labeled, and builds a priced collection from a board. |
| Learns your business | Forgets the conversation; trains on the world. | Remembers your buyers and quotes; trains only on your company. |
| Pricing model | Free or a monthly subscription per person. | One credit per sales action; everyone included. |
| Time to first quote | Instant, and wrong about the price. | The same day, and right, once the first rule is written. |
Category behavior is described in general terms; specific products vary. Poly9 AI behavior is as shipped in September 2026.
Why the differences matter.
Ask a general chatbot the vertical repeat on Train To Paris and it will tell you something. Ask Poly9 AI and it reads 25.5 inches from the Fabricut record, because the record is the only place it looks.
A chatbot can describe walnut. Poly9 AI puts your walnut, from your library at your price, on the product the buyer is looking at, labeled as a render.
This is the line that matters. A chatbot asked for a price produces one that looks like a price. Poly9 AI produces the number your recipe or matrix produces, shows the rule, and when no rule exists says “price on request”. The eval suites that guard this pass at 100% on every release.
A chatbot drafts an email that looks like a quote. The rep who sends it finds out it was wrong when the order comes back short. Poly9 AI sends a quote the buyer opens from the email and approves in one tap. Every line is traceable and the approval is logged in Projects.
Image generators make a chair that resembles yours. Poly9 AI renders your chair, from your product image, in your materials, and prices the variation from its recipe.
A chatbot starts every conversation from zero and learns from everyone. Poly9 AI remembers what Dana asked last time and learns only from your company.
Chatbots are free or a subscription per person. Poly9 AI is one credit per sales action, so the cost follows the quotes, not the headcount.
A chatbot is instant. Poly9 AI is an account you set up the same day, and it is right about your products from the first rule you write.
- Drafting emails and summaries that do not carry a price.
- Research about a market, a material or a competitor.
- Translating a buyer’s message.
- Anything where a plausible answer is good enough.
- The answer has to be true about your product, not about products in general.
- A number will be sent to a buyer.
- The buyer should be able to ask on your site and approve on their phone.
- What the AI learns should stay inside your company.
Most teams keep a general chatbot open for drafting and research and use Poly9 AI for anything that touches the catalog, the price or the buyer. Poly9 AI also drafts the follow-up, in your voice, from the quote it just sent.
Ask for an option you have not priced.
Whatever you compare it with, run this on your own catalog. Poly9 AI prices from your recipes and matrices through one engine, and when the rule is missing it says “price on request” and drafts the request. The tool that produces a plausible number instead is the one that costs you an order.
A Lee Industries frame priced in grade F from the real matrix. Sample conversation, real rules.
Questions about general AI chatbots.
Is Poly9 AI built on the same models as the chatbots?
Can we upload our price list to a chatbot instead?
Does Poly9 AI hallucinate?
What does it cost compared with a chatbot subscription?
Sources: Poly9 AI eval suites (error-tag cases 100%), September 2026 · Poly9 AI plan catalog, September 2026. All comparisons →
Start free. Judge it on your own catalog.
Create your account, add your catalog or start with your industry’s sample catalog, and ask the question you would ask the other tool. 250 sales actions free, no card, and the account stays yours.