Create a Bot with CXone Bot Builder

Before You Begin

Before you create your first botClosed A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent. in CXone, you should:

  • Plan the initial use case the bot will handle.
  • Gather real-word examples for this use case from your organization. These might include recorded chats, emails, text and social conversations, and voice interactions.
  • From your examples, map out a successful interaction (also known as the happy path). Keep your examples, though; you'll need them to train your bot for unhappy pathsClosed Story that produces a wrong outcome for the intent.

Akela wants to build a bot that can assist users with password resets. She starts by talking to her help desk agents and reviewing recordings. Based on this input, she builds a file of typical password reset interactions.

Once you have this prep work done, you're ready to start using CXone Bot Builder.

Complete each of these tasks in the order given.

Create a User

Required permission:  Admin > Employees Create

CXone treats botsClosed A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent. as user entities, so to create a bot you must first create an employee account.

Follow these best practices when creating your bot:

  • Don't use a real agent for your bot. Use a human-sounding name, but choose one that's unlikely to belong to a real person.
  • Don't use the same user for more than one bot. Each bot should have its own unique body for routing and reporting purposes.
  • Do use the same name for the bot and the user entity. This keeps things simple when you're managing multiple bots.
  1. Click the app selector and select Admin.

  2. Click Employees.

  3. Click New Employee.
  4. Enter a First Name and a Last Name. This should be the same name you plan to give your bot.
    Screenshot of Employee General tab
  5. Enter a working Email Address. You must be able to respond to the invitation CXone sends to all new employees.
  6. Enter a Username.

  7. On the General tab, use the Attributes drop-down to select the Digital Engagement checkbox.

    Do not select the Virtual Agent Enabled option at this time. If you do, you will not be able to assign the user you're creating to your bot.

  8. Leave all other settings at their default values and click Create & Invite.
  9. When the invitation email arrives at the email address you entered, click the link to accept and follow the on-screen prompts. You must accept the invitation to activate the employee or the account will not sync to Digital Experience.

Set Up a Bot

Required permission:  Bot Builder > Launch Bot Builder

You can create a new bot from scratch or you can import an existing bot to the Bot Builder platform.

Create a New Bot

  1. Log in to CXone with your own account.

  2. In CXone, click the app selector and select Bot Builder.

  3. Click Create Bot.

  4. Enter a Name and click Continue.

    Screenshot of Bot name dialog

  5. Select the initial bot skills you want the bot to have, then click Create the Bot. Or you can just click Create the Bot add skills later from the Skill Store.

    the dialogue to select which skills you want to add to your new bot.

  6. It may take several minutes for the setup to complete. You can wait or click Enter the Bot to explore the Bot Builder interface.
  7. Once the bot is created, go to Preferences icon, represented by a gear > Settings > Bot Body.

  8. Select a user from the drop-down. You should pick the user you specifically created for the bot. Click Connect.

    Screenshot of Bot name dialog

Duplicate a Bot

  1. Log in to CXone with your own account.
  2. Create a CXone employee account for the new bot. If you're duplicating a bot only to have a backup, you don't need an employee account.
  3. In CXone, click the app selector and select Bot Builder.

  4. Click the bot you want to duplicate.

  5. Click Preferences icon, which looks like a gear. in the left icon menu.

  6. On the General tab, click Duplicate.

  7. Enter a name for the new bot and click Confirm.
  8. Click the Open link in the success message that appears at the top of the page. If you don't see this message, you can open the duplicated bot from the main Bot Builder page.
  9. It may take several minutes for the setup to complete. You can wait or click Enter the Bot to explore the Bot Builder interface.
  10. If you created an employee account for this bot, go to Preferences icon, represented by a gear > Settings > Bot Body.

  11. Select a the bot's CXone employee account, then click Connect.

Import a Bot

The file you import must have the YAML or YML extension.

  1. Log in to CXone with your own account.

  2. In CXone, click the app selector and select Bot Builder.

  3. Click Import Bot.

  4. Enter a name for the bot, then drag-and-drop or click Browse Files to bring your YAML or YML bot file into CXone Bot Builder. Click Import Bot.

    Screenshot of the dialog to import a bot.
  5. It may take several minutes for the setup to complete. You can wait or click Enter the Bot to explore the Bot Builder interface.
  6. Once the bot is created, go to Preferences icon, represented by a gear > Settings > Bot Body.

  7. Select a user from the drop-down. You should pick the user you specifically created for the bot. Click Connect.

    Screenshot of Bot name dialog

Assign Bot's Employee Profile to ACD Skills

Required permission: ACD > Contact Settings > Skills Edit

CXone considers Bot Builder botsClosed A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent. to be users. For your bot to receive contactsClosed The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center., it needs to be assigned ACD skillsClosed Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge, just like a human agent would.

Follow the steps to add skills to a user or add users to a skill. Use the CXone employee profile you created for the bot.

Assign ACD Skills to a Point of Contact

Required permission: ACD > Contact Settings > Points of Contact Edit

If you haven't already, create a point of contactClosed The entry point that an inbound contact uses to initiate an interaction, such as a phone number or email address. (POC) for the digital channelClosed Any channel, contact, or skill associated with Digital Experience. you're using with your Bot Builder bot. For the default ACD skillClosed Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge in the POC, configure it to use the skill you assigned to the bot's employee profile. Information about creating POCs is available on the help page for the specific digital channel you're using.

Ensure that the Studio script assigned to the POC appropriately routes contactsClosed The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center.. For example, if you want to use your Bot Builder bot as an overflow agent during peak hours, you must have script logic to define the conditions for when contacts are routed to the bot and when they're routed to human agents. The Reqagent Studio actions that route to your bot should be configured with the appropriate digital ACD skill.