Poly9 AI · compared with general AI chatbots

Chatbots for FAQ. Sales AI for quotes.

AI chatbot or a sales AI that quotes? A general AI chatbot answers from broad training, so it is good at FAQ, lead capture and drafting, and it will invent a plausible price for a custom product. Poly9 AI is a sales AI: it reads only your catalog, refuses options your rules forbid, prices from your recipes and grade matrices, and says price on request when a rule is missing.

In three sentences

General chatbots are strong at FAQ, lead qualification, drafting and research. Every rep has one open, and they are good at capturing a buyer’s contact before a quote is ready.

They do not know your catalog, cannot enforce compatibility rules, and when asked for a custom price they produce a number that looks right. You find out it was wrong when the order is short or the margin is gone.

Keep the chatbot for FAQ, lead capture and drafting. Choose Poly9 AI when the buyer is configuring a custom product and the price must come from your rules.

At a glance

The five verbs, plus four that decide it.

Rows the other category wins stay in. Swipe the table on a phone.

What mattersgeneral AI chatbotsPoly9 AI
AnswerFAQ answers from general training. Good at shipping, returns and lead capture.Product answers from your catalog: repeat, width, grade, fire rating, stock. Not for FAQ.
ConfigureDescribes options in words. No compatibility enforcement.Shows the product in the chosen option from your materials library. Your rules refuse what does not fit.
PriceInvents a plausible number from patterns in its training data.Prices from your recipes and matrices, or says price on request. Never estimates.
QuoteDrafts a quote-shaped email or captures the lead for later follow-up.A traceable quote the buyer approves from the email. Every line shows its rule in Projects.
PresentGenerates an image of something that resembles your product.Renders your product in your materials, labeled, and prices a collection from a mood board.
Drafting and researchThey win this rowEmails, summaries, market and material research, in seconds, on anything.Not the job. Poly9 AI stays inside your catalog and your rules.
Learns your businessForgets the conversation. Trained on the world, not your company.Remembers your buyers and quotes and learns which options each buyer asks for. Trains only on your company.
Pricing modelFree, or a monthly seat fee for team plans.One credit per sales action, $100 buys a thousand, everyone on your team included.
Time to first quoteInstant, and wrong about custom pricing.Same day with a sample catalog. Certified quotes once your first pricing rule is written.

Category behavior is described in general terms; specific products vary. Poly9 AI behavior is as shipped in September 2026.

groundedTwo lanes. Grounded: a question goes through your catalog and your rules to a cited answer with a source rule. Plausible: the same question goes through a general model to a plausible reply with no source.groundedquestion“grade F, priced?”your catalogyour rulescited answer$2,140 · source rulesourceplausiblequestion“grade F, priced?”general modelbroad trainingplausible replya number it made upno sourcegroundedTwo lanes. Grounded: a question goes through your catalog and your rules to a cited answer with a source rule. Plausible: the same question goes through a general model to a plausible reply with no source.groundedquestionyour catalogyour rulescited answer$2,140 · source ruleplausiblequestiongeneral modelplausible replya number it made upno source

The same question, two paths: cited from your catalog and rules, or plausible with no source.

Row by row

Why the differences matter.

Answer

A general chatbot answers from broad training. It is good at FAQ: shipping policy, return windows, lead times. It captures the buyer’s contact when they are not ready to configure. It knows nothing about product 3585-11’s vertical repeat or fire rating. Poly9 AI reads 25.5 inches from the fabric record and Class 1 from the compliance field, because the catalog is the only place it looks.

Configure

A chatbot describes walnut in words. Poly9 AI enforces compatibility: if your recipe says “walnut leg requires a wood frame”, it refuses walnut on the upholstered base and explains why. Then it shows your walnut, from your materials library at your price, on the product the buyer is looking at, labeled as a render.

Price

This is the line that matters for custom products. Ask a chatbot “how much for this sofa in grade F with nailheads?” and it produces a number that looks like a price. Poly9 AI runs your grade matrix line by line, applies your nailhead upcharge from the recipe and returns the number your rules produce. When the nailhead rule is missing it says price on request and drafts the request for your pricing team. The eval suites that guard this pass at 100% on the error cases, every release.

Quote

A chatbot drafts an email that looks like a quote, or captures the lead for a rep to follow up. Both are useful until the drafted quote carries an invented price. Poly9 AI sends a quote the buyer opens from the email and approves in one tap, on their phone. Every line is traceable to its rule, and the approval is logged in Projects with a timestamp.

Present

Image generators make a chair that resembles yours. Poly9 AI renders your chair, from your product photo, in your chosen materials, labeled with option codes. Send it a mood board and it builds a priced collection: nine pieces rendered, priced from your rules, one link the buyer can approve from.

Drafting and research

Here the chatbot wins, and you should keep it. Drafting the follow-up email, summarising a call, researching a competitor’s fabric range or a new fire standard: a general chatbot does all of that in seconds and Poly9 AI does not try to. Poly9 AI stays inside your catalog and your rules on purpose, because that is what makes its prices right.

Learns your business

A chatbot starts every conversation from zero and trains on the world. Poly9 AI is scoped to your company. It remembers what Dana asked last Tuesday, learns that this buyer prefers grade F when the upcharge is small, and notices that nailheads usually go with box-pleat skirts in your quotes. The rules are still yours; the memory is new.

Pricing model

Chatbots are free or a monthly seat fee. Poly9 AI charges one credit per sales action, so the cost follows the quotes you send, not the logins. A showroom with fifteen people who together send twenty quotes a week pays for those actions. Everyone on your team is included on every plan.

Time to first quote

A chatbot is instant. Poly9 AI is an account you create the same day: add your catalog or start with your industry’s sample catalog, write the first pricing rule in plain language, and send the first certified quote in the same session. A 37,400-SKU fabric catalog loaded in one day once the files were in hand.

Keep a general chatbot for
  • FAQ support: shipping, returns, lead times, care instructions, availability.
  • Lead capture when a buyer is browsing but not ready to configure.
  • Drafting emails and summaries that carry no product-specific price.
  • Research about a market, a material or a competitor.
  • Anything where a plausible answer is good enough and no quote follows.
Choose Poly9 AI when
  • A buyer is configuring a custom product and needs a certified price.
  • The answer has to be true of your product’s specs, not products in general.
  • Compatibility rules must be enforced: refuse walnut on upholstered, require stainless for washdown.
  • A price will reach a buyer, and the number must come from your rules.
  • The buyer should configure on your site and approve the quote from their phone.
Using both

Most manufacturers keep a general chatbot on their site for FAQ and lead capture and hand the conversation to Poly9 AI when the buyer is ready to configure. The chatbot answers “do you ship to Canada?” and “what is your lead time?”. The sales AI answers “show me this sofa in grade F with brass nailheads” and returns the certified quote.

The one test that settles it

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.

Storefront assistant asked for a fabric with no price rule: a drafted quote request marked price on request, nothing sent until confirmed

No rule for that fabric, so no number: a drafted request, price on request. Real storefront.

Questions about general AI chatbots.

Is Poly9 AI a chatbot?
It answers in natural language, so the experience feels like a chatbot. The difference is that it only answers from your catalog and your pricing rules, never from general training. It is not for FAQ. It is for configure, quote and approve on custom products where the price must be certified, and it says price on request when a rule is missing.
What is “price on request” and why does it matter?
When a buyer asks for an option you have not priced, grade M with contrast welt or a walnut leg on product 4402, Poly9 AI says price on request and drafts the request for your pricing team. A general chatbot produces a number that looks right. The first costs you a follow-up. The second costs you an order.
Can we use a chatbot for custom product sales instead?
For FAQ and lead capture, yes. To configure and quote a made-to-order product with a certified price, no: it has no access to your catalog structure, no compatibility enforcement, no pricing engine, and no way to say “this rule is missing” instead of guessing. Those four things are what Poly9 AI is.
Is Poly9 AI built on the same kind of models as general chatbots?
Yes, the language models underneath are the same kind, and Poly9 AI switches between providers as needed. The product is not the model. What makes it right about your products is the catalog it reads from, the pricing engine that applies your rules, the compatibility constraints that refuse invalid configurations, and the memory scoped to your company.
Does Poly9 AI hallucinate?
It can be wrong in prose like any language model, which is why every price comes from the pricing engine, never from the model. Every quote line shows its source rule, the buyer approves, and a person on your team presses send. Pricing behaviour is checked by eval suites on every release, and the error cases pass at 100%.
Can a chatbot read our price list if we upload it?
Yes, and it will answer questions about the list. It will not apply a grade matrix line by line, enforce “stainless required for washdown”, compute a quantity break, or say price on request when the option is not in the file. It will produce a number that looks like it came from your pricing. Those are the cases that cost orders.
What does it cost compared with a chatbot subscription?
General chatbots are free or a monthly seat fee. Poly9 AI is one credit per sales action, and one configure-and-quote is one action. $100 buys 1,000 credits and you start with 250 free. Four reps sending 30 quotes a week use about 500 credits a month, or $50. Everyone on your team is included; you pay for the quotes, not the logins.
Why would we need both?
Because they do different jobs. The chatbot captures leads, answers FAQ, drafts follow-ups and handles anything where plausible is good enough. Poly9 AI configures custom products, enforces your compatibility rules, prices from your certified recipes and produces traceable quotes. Most teams run the chatbot until the buyer is ready to configure, then hand off.
What if our products are not custom?
If you sell off-the-shelf SKUs at fixed prices, a chatbot that reads your price list is fine. There is no configuration, no compatibility rule and no grade matrix to apply. Poly9 AI is built for made-to-order: furniture in COM, cabinetry by the linear foot, windows by size band and glazing, anything priced from rules rather than looked up in a list.
How fast can we test this?
Create your account, choose your industry, and start with the sample catalog: 20 to 30 priced products with options, materials and a few pricing rules. Ask “show me a sectional in grade F” and approve the quote from the link it emails you. Then add your own catalog. 250 sales actions free, no card required.
Sources
  1. Poly9 AI eval suites, error-tag cases at 100%, September 2026
  2. Poly9 AI plan catalog and trial terms, September 2026
  3. Poly9 AI sample catalogs at signup, September 2026
Related pages

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.

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