There is a substantial difference between regular chatbots and AI-powered ones. The difference lies in the technology used to power them. Regular chatbots follow pre-programmed rules and can only respond to specific keywords or phrases. On the other hand, AI-powered chatbots utilise AI technologies, such as natural language understanding and machine learning, to understand the intent behind user queries and provide more intelligent responses. AI-powered chatbots can learn from past interactions and improve their performance over time, while regular chatbots are limited to the rules programmed into them.