Voice-Enabled Text Virtual Agents

Voice-enabling text virtual agents allows you to use your existing virtual agent on voice channels A way for contacts to interact with agents or bots. A channel can be voice, email, chat, social media, and so on. with CXone Mpower. You can voice-enable any text virtual agent A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent. that Virtual Agent Hub supports. This includes Bot Builder and Custom Exchange Endpoints. You may want to voice-enable your text virtual agent if your provider doesn't have a voice option, or if Virtual Agent Hub doesn't support the type of voice connection your provider offers.

How a Voice-Enabled Text Virtual Agent Works

To start an interaction, contacts The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center. call a phone number and reach your organization. The contact may be connected directly to the virtual agent, or they might need to choose an option in an IVR Automated phone menu that allows callers to interact through voice commands, key inputs, or both, to obtain information, route an inbound voice call, or both. menu. The script uses the specified speech-to-text Also called STT, this process converts spoken language to text. service to transcribe the contact's voice audio. It sends the transcript to the virtual agent.

The virtual agent receives a transcript for each turn in the conversation. It analyzes each transcript to understand the purpose or meaning behind what the contact says. This is the intent. The virtual agent sends an appropriate text response to the script. The script synthesizes the text into audio using the specified text-to-speech Allows users to enter recorded prompts as text and use a computer-generated voice to speak the content. service.

Requests and responses are sent via Virtual Agent Hub and the script with each turn. This option allows for customization of the virtual agent's behavior from turn to turn. This is an utterance-based method of connection.

At the end of the conversation, the virtual agent sends a signal to the script. It can signal that the conversation is complete, or that the contact needs to speak with a live agent. If the conversation is complete, the interaction ends. If a live agent is needed, the script makes the request. The contact is transferred to an agent when one is available.

When the conversation is complete, the script can perform post-interaction tasks, such as recording information in a CRM Third-party systems that manage such things as contacts, sales information, support details, and case histories..

Single-Source Your Text Virtual Agent

You can use one virtual agent as both a text and a voice virtual agent in CXone Mpower. This saves you from having to create and maintain separate virtual agents for the same intents The meaning or purpose behind what a contact says/types; what the contact wants to communicate or accomplish. However, sometimes a virtual agent designed for digital channels A way for contacts to interact with agents or bots. A channel can be voice, email, chat, social media, and so on. must be modified to work with voice channels.

Digital channels support rich media Elements in digital messaging such as buttons, images, menus, and option pickers., such as buttons, quick replies, Adaptive Cards, and hyperlinks. Voice channels don't support these options. Virtual agent responses with these options must be changed. Or, you can set up separate responses for voice contacts The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center..

Additionally, the workflow and types of responses the virtual agent uses might be different in voice interactions. Human conversations can vary a lot between phone calls and text messages. The same may be true for your virtual agent. You might need to make adjustments to your virtual agent to make the conversation feel more natural as a phone call.

Changes to virtual agent's responses and workflow must be made in your provider's platform. How you accomplish this depends on the platform you use and the capabilities available to you. You might also need to change your Studio scripts. For example, you can set up your scripts to pass a variable to the virtual agent. The variable can indicate the channel's media type A medium, such as voice, email, and chat, through which a contact connects with an intended recipient., either voice or digital. It can be sent at the beginning of the conversation or with each turn. Then, you can set up your virtual agent to respond appropriately based on this variable.

If your virtual agent doesn't use rich media and its workflow and responses a suitable for any channel, single-sourcing your virtual agent is simple. Set up the text virtual agent in Virtual Agent Hub, then create separate Studio scripts for voice and digital channels. If you already have a text virtual agent set up in Virtual Agent Hub and a digital script, you only need to create a voice script.

Custom Scripting Guidelines

Before integrating a virtual agent The meaning or purpose behind what a contact says/types; what the contact wants to communicate or accomplish, you need to know: 

• Which script you want to add a virtual agent to.

• The virtual agent Studio action you need to use.

• Where the Studio actions must be placed in your script flow.
• The configuration requirements specific to the virtual agent you're using.
• How to complete the script after adding the virtual agent action. You may need to: 
  • Add initialization snippets as needed to the script using Snippet actions. This is required if you want to customize your virtual agent's behavior.
  • Re-configure the Studio action Performs a process within a Studio script, such as collecting customer data, playing a message or music, or routing a contact to an agent. connectors to ensure proper contact flow and correct any potential errors.
  • Use the OnReturnControlToScript branch to handle hanging up or ending the interaction. If you use the Default branch to handle hanging up or ending an interaction, your script may not work as intended. StandardBot behaviors. You can learn more about handling the end of the interaction in the online help about
  • Complete any additional scripting and test the script.

You may be able to obtain template scripts for use with virtual agent integrations from CXone Mpower Expert Services. If you need assistance with scripting in Studio, contact your Account Representative, see the Technical Reference Guide section in the online help, or visit the CXone Mpower Community site.

Supported Studio Action

 The Voicebot Exchange action is for complex virtual agents, or for when you need to customize the virtual agent's behavior from turn to turn. It monitors the conversation between the contact and the virtual agent turn by turn. It sends each utterance What a contact says or types. to the virtual agent. The virtual agent analyzes the utterance for intent The meaning or purpose behind what a contact says/types; what the contact wants to communicate or accomplish and context and determines the response to give. The action passes the virtual agent's response to the contact. When the conversation is complete, the action continues the script. If you want to configure barge in or no input, additional scripting is required.