botBrains vs. CustomGPTs: Which is best for Customer Facing AI Assistants?

Compare botBrains vs CustomGPTs for customer-facing AI assistants. Discover which AI platform best fits your business needs, with detailed comparisons of chatbot integration, features, and automation capabilities for direct customer interaction.

Liam van der Viven
Co-Founder & CTO at botBrains
The Challenge of Customer-Facing AI Assistants
CustomGPTs have shown the potential of AI assistants, but there's a catch: they're locked inside OpenAI's platform. While businesses would love to offer these powerful AI capabilities directly to their customers, there hasn't been a trustworthy solution for deploying such assistants in customer-facing environments.
Running AI assistants in a business setting requires:
- Secure Customer Interactions - Protected data handling and compliant user authentication
- System Integration - Seamless connection with your ERP, CRM, and existing business tools
- Customer Channel Presence - Meeting customers where they are: on your website, in Slack, or through your app
- Real-Time Support Features - Proper escalation paths, conversation tracking, and support ticket integration
botBrains bridges this gap, bringing CustomGPT-like capabilities to your customer touchpoints while meeting enterprise requirements. Built by a team with experience from world-class AI products, it's designed specifically for production deployment of customer-facing AI assistants.
Let's explore how botBrains and CustomGPTs compare when it comes to real-world business implementation.
Customer Service AI Platform Comparison
AI Built for Customer Engagement vs. OpenAI's Product Platform
botBrains: AI-Powered Customer Support
✅ Designed for customer-facing interactions in support, sales, and service.
✅ Integrated with your systems (CRM, ERP, ticketing, authentication).
✅ Built to personalize responses based on real customer data.
✅ Global reach with one-click translations and full support for 24 languages.
✅ Quality assurance through comprehensive test suites that ensure correct behavior.
CustomGPTs: AI Inside OpenAI's ChatGPT Platform
🤖 Customizable AI experiences for ChatGPT users—not customers.
⚠️ Cannot integrate directly with business systems like botBrains.
⚠️ No real-time customer data tracking—lacks personalization.
🔍 Key Takeaway: If you need AI that interacts with your customers, botBrains is the right solution. CustomGPTs are for users inside OpenAI's platform.
Where can the AI Interact with Customers?
botBrains: Where Your Customers Are
botBrains works across customer-facing channels, so your AI is accessible wherever your customers interact:
Deploy your AI assistant directly on your website through a floating chat window or embed it seamlessly into your app's sidebar or fullscreen view. Every chatbot can be fully customized to match your brand's colors and design, ensuring a consistent experience for your customers. Moreover, we support secure user authentication no matter your identity system.
Connect with your customers in Slack by deploying the assistant directly in their workspace channels.
CustomGPTs: Limited to OpenAI's ChatGPT Platform
⚠️ No support for Slack, websites, or direct customer access.
⚠️ Only accessible inside OpenAI's ChatGPT app.
⚠️ No built-in authentication or user tracking for personalized responses.
⚠️ Limited to black and white styling with no customization options.
🚀 Key Takeaway: botBrains meets customers where they are—CustomGPTs don't.
Connecting Your AI Assistant to CRM, ERP, and More
botBrains: AI That Knows Your Customers
💡 Pulls real-time customer data from your CRM, ERP, and authentication systems.
🔄 Tracks and logs in customers securely—works with any auth system.
🔗 Automates customer workflows with deep system integrations.
CustomGPTs: No Customer Context or System Access
❌ No ability to track users or authenticate customers.
❌ Users cannot be annotated from an embedded view and thus cannot seamlessly personalize the experience based on customer data.
❌ Requires manual setup for external integrations, (if even possible).
🔍 Key Takeaway: If you want an AI that personalizes responses and integrates with your business, botBrains wins.
Conversational Intelligence
✅ Tracks every interaction, giving you clear visibility into how customers engage with your AI assistant.
✅ Provides conversation analytics to uncover trends, identify frequent issues, and optimize responses.
✅ Sales & Support Insights – Understand which products/services customers ask about most, track conversion opportunities, and improve FAQs based on real questions.
✅ Escalation Reporting – See when and why users need human support, helping you refine automation and improve self-service rates.
CustomGPTs: A Black Box Without Tracking or Analytics
⚠️ No built-in tracking – You can't see how many users interact with your AI assistant or what they ask.
⚠️ No analytics dashboard – Lacks insights into conversation trends, missed questions, or engagement metrics.
⚠️ No conversation explorer – You can't review past interactions or optimize responses based on real customer data.
⚠️ No sales insights – Cannot capture leads / sales activity.
When to Choose CustomGPTs
While botBrains excels at customer-facing interactions, CustomGPTs have distinct advantages in certain scenarios:
Ideal Use Cases for CustomGPTs
✅ Internal Knowledge Management – Since only internal employees have access, less stringent safety measures are needed. Ideal for creating specialized AI assistants that help employees access and navigate company documentation.
✅ Data Analysis, Image Generation, ad hoc Document processing – Excellent for teams that need AI help with data analysis, research summaries, and content creation. Includes unique capabilities like Code Interpreter for complex data analysis and DALL-E for image generation. While both platforms offer web search capabilities, CustomGPTs' combination with Code Interpreter makes it particularly strong for research workflows.
✅ Cost-Effective Testing – Ideal for testing AI use cases before investing in a full-featured solution.
✅ Individual Productivity – Great for personal productivity and task automation within the ChatGPT environment.
CustomGPTs Shine When You Need:
🎯 Rapid prototyping of AI assistants
🎯 Simple internal tools without customer interaction
🎯 Access to OpenAI's latest models and capabilities
🎯 Minimal setup and maintenance overhead
🎯 Focus on content generation and analysis
Final Comparison: Which AI Platform is Right for You?
Feature | botBrains | CustomGPTs |
---|---|---|
Purpose | Customer facing AI applications | AI for ChatGPT users inside OpenAI |
Customer Channels | ✅ Slack, Website, In-App | ❌ Only inside OpenAI's platform |
Authentication | ✅ Login users, soft/hard authentication | ❌ No external user authentication |
Business Integrations | ✅ CRM, ERP, ticketing, APIs | ⚠️ No direct integrations, setup is cumbersome and requires advanced technical understanding |
Brand Customization | ✅ Full color and style customization | ❌ Black/white only |
Personalization | ✅ Uses real customer data | ❌ No personalization |
Insights | ✅ View all customer conversations, track usage, analyze topics, automatic reporting | ❌ No analytics |
Support Features | ✅ Handles tickets, escalations | ❌ No built-in business workflows |
Language Support | ✅ 24 languages with one-click translation | ✅ Fully localized UI, but prompting correct language is error prone. Start Messages are not customizable. |
Quality Assurance | ✅ Comprehensive test suites | ❌ No built-in testing |
Choose botBrains when you need:
- Direct customer engagement embedded into your website, app or Slack
- Analytics and tracking
- Secure authentication and user management
- Real-time customer data and personalization
- Integration with your ERP, CRM and custom APIs
- Professional customer support automation
The botBrains team brings extensive experience from world-class AI products, ensuring you get not just a tool, but expertise that understands the complexities of AI integration and customer interaction. This experience translates into better implementation, more reliable performance, and optimal customization for your specific business needs.
Choose CustomGPTs when you need:
- Internal knowledge assistants
- Quick deployment without complex setup
- Simple tools for team productivity
- Content creation and analysis focus
- Cost-effective AI experimentation
- Standalone AI capabilities without integrations