The Chatbot Retainer Ceiling: Why Managed Conversation Beats Seat Licenses

AI chatbots shift agency revenue from one-time build fees to recurring optimization retainers, but only when the agency owns the escalation logic and the knowledge base. Vendors now sell the same white-label stack to every competitor, so the defensible margin sits in configuration, evaluation, and monthly tuning rather than in the software itself. Agencies that treat deployment as the deliverable will watch clients churn within two quarters.