However, one way in which chatbots are often preferred: They cost less to the business. Whether they're good or not seems to be a secondary concern. So, if your coworker is describing what the people inside the business want, they're probably right!
I'm baffled, which scenarios?
An example might be:
There's something wrong with my order -> wrong size -> order not shipped -> update size on order to small -> small out of stock -> cancel or backorder
or
There's something wrong with my order -> wrong size -> sorry, the order already shipped -> start a return
You can argue that these kinds of things should be supported via direct web UI, and that's fine, but I've seen them backed by chatbots, and I would rather do it on the web than make a phone call for a boring decision tree.
And "preferrable" meant it was preferrable to developers specifically, which based off of my experience nobody wants it there, it's an annoyance at best
Whether it saves cost or not: hiring people to manage the automated thing (including aforementioned bullshitter who is most likely expensive) or cheap front line support, I'm not sure