French AI chatbot: answer customers in French
The chat widget ships fully in Français, the AI agent replies in French, and you decide the tone. For France, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland and French-speaking Africa.
Build and run it on the Free plan.
- Widget labels
- Built in, Français
- AI replies
- In French, automatically
- Form of address
- Yours to set
- Plan
- Free plan included
What visitors see in French
Set Widget language in Customize to Français, or leave it on Automatic to follow each visitor's browser. These are some of the built-in labels, taken from the translation that ships with the widget.
| Where | Français |
|---|---|
| Message box | Écrivez un message... |
| Send button | Envoyer |
| Attach button | Joindre un fichier |
| Voice message | Enregistrer un message vocal |
| Ask for a person | Parler à un conseiller |
| Answer rating | Utile ? |
| After a thumbs up | Merci pour votre retour ! |
| After a thumbs down | Désolé. Qu'est-ce qui n'allait pas ? |
| Retry an answer | Reformuler |
| Menu: restart | Recommencer |
| Menu: transcript | Télécharger la conversation |
| Menu: email the chat | M'envoyer cette conversation |
| Email transcript note | Nous enverrons toute la conversation dans votre boîte mail. |
| Survey comment box | Dites-nous en plus (facultatif) |
| Drag and drop a file | Déposez pour envoyer |
| Chat closed | Cette conversation a été fermée. |
| Reconnecting | Reconnexion… vos messages partiront dès votre retour |
| Offline | Vous êtes hors ligne - vos messages partiront à la reconnexion |
Tone and form of address
The widget's built-in labels use the formal vous: "Écrivez un message...", "Merci pour votre retour !". That matches what most French-speaking customers expect from a brand.
Some fashion, gaming and youth brands use tu. If yours does, write your greeting and flows with tu and add one line to the agent's instructions; the labels stay in vous, which rarely bothers visitors.
An instruction you can give the AI agent:
Vouvoie toujours le client et adopte un ton chaleureux et professionnel. Respecte la typographie française, avec une espace avant ? ! : et ;.- French typography puts a space before ?, !, : and ; and uses « guillemets ». The widget's own labels already follow it ("Utile ?").
- Avoid English loanwords where a French word is standard for your audience, especially in Quebec.
- Keep sentences short: formal French gets long quickly, and chat bubbles are narrow.
Regional differences in French
- France: vouvoiement is the default for brands; prices like 1 234,56 €.
- Quebec: customers expect courriel rather than e-mail and clavarder for chat; prices in CAD.
- Belgium: septante and nonante for 70 and 90; many visitors also speak Dutch, and the AI answers each in their own language.
- Switzerland: septante, huitante in some cantons, and prices in CHF.
| Region | Date | Price |
|---|---|---|
| France (fr-FR) | 03/11/2026 | 1 234,56 € |
| Canada (fr-CA) | 2026-11-03 | 1 234,56 $ |
| Belgium (fr-BE) | 3/11/2026 | 1 234,56 € |
| Switzerland (fr-CH) | 03.11.2026 | 1 234.56 CHF |
Write dates and prices in your knowledge base the way your customers expect them. Words such as bonjour, merci, prix, horaires, combien, est-ce tell the AI a message is in French; for a one-word first message it uses the visitor's browser language as a hint.
A starter flow in French
| Greeting | Bonjour ! Je suis l'assistant de [votre entreprise]. Comment puis-je vous aider ? |
|---|---|
| Quick replies | Suivre ma commande · Livraison et retours · Parler à un conseiller |
| When the bot is unsure | Je ne suis pas certain d'avoir bien compris. Pouvez-vous reformuler votre question ? |
| Handing over to a person | Je vous mets en relation avec un conseiller. Il vous répond en général en quelques minutes. |
| Closing message | Merci de nous avoir écrit ! N'hésitez pas à revenir si vous avez d'autres questions. |
How a conversation can go
Bonjour, livrez-vous en Suisse ?
Bonjour ! Oui, nous livrons en Suisse sous 4 à 6 jours ouvrés. Les frais de douane sont indiqués avant le paiement. Puis-je vous aider à choisir un produit ?
Oui, je cherche un cadeau à moins de 50 euros.
Voici trois idées à moins de 50 € : le coffret découverte, le carnet en cuir et la bougie parfumée. Laquelle vous intéresse ?
An illustration: your bot answers from your own knowledge base.
Who you reach in French
The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie counts 396 million French speakers in its 2026 report. It uses a new counting method, so the figure is not directly comparable with the 321 million in its 2022 report. Most of the growth is in Africa, so a French bot often serves visitors far beyond France.
Source: OIF, La langue française dans le monde 2026 (synthesis)
Fixes for French bots
| What you see | The fix |
|---|---|
| Quebec visitors find the wording too European | Add Quebec vocabulary to the knowledge base and tell the agent you serve Canada; it follows your instructions. |
| Prices appear in euros for Swiss visitors | The agent repeats what the knowledge base says. List CHF prices for Switzerland. |
| The bot used tu after a vous greeting | Add the vouvoiement instruction above; the reply follows your instructions over the visitor's style. |
French chatbot: common questions
Does the widget use tu or vous?
The widget's built-in labels use vous. If your brand uses tu, write your greeting and flows that way and tell the agent to use tu.
Does it work for Quebec and Belgian customers?
Yes. The AI replies in French to visitors from any French-speaking country. Add region-specific details, such as prices in CAD or CHF, to the knowledge base.
Does it follow French typography?
The widget's own labels do, with a space before ? and !. For the AI's replies, add the typography line from the instruction example above.
Can one bot serve French and Dutch speakers in Belgium?
Yes for AI answers, which follow each visitor's language. Fixed messages you write show in one language, so keep them short or build one bot per language.
Start answering in French today
Start free with Conferbot: the free plan includes 600 conversations, AI answers from your knowledge base and live chat handover. Try it first in the website chatbot preview.
Checked against Conferbot's widget translations and AI agent on November 3, 2026. See also: multilingual chatbot, what breaks in language two, training on your knowledge base, human handoff, AI chatbot builder, website chatbot, WhatsApp, Telegram, WordPress, Shopify, templates.
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