Bot Actions in Responses

When you create a dialogue Bot stories and rules in CXone Bot Builder., you can choose which type of action the bot will take as its response. The bot will always respond with the response you configure when it recognizes the intent The meaning or purpose behind what a contact says/types; what the contact wants to communicate or accomplish set in the dialogue.

Bot responses can be simple or as complex as you want to make them. Bots can:

Reply with information or questions.
Display images, GIFs, videos, or links to web pages. They can include buttons or lists that the contact can interact with.
"Choose" which action to take using conditions. You can configure multiple possible responses based on what the contact says.
Follow a form to collect information from the contact.
Escalate the interaction to a human agent.

Bot responses consist of one or more bot actions. All bot actions are available on a menu that pops up when creating the bot response, as shown in the following image. If you've created custom bot actions with scripting or API integrations, they're also available on the bot action menu.

Glossary

Concept	Definition	Example	What the Bot Does
Utterance	Anything a contact says in an interaction. Sometimes called a message.	"I lost my password." "What is my balance?" "Are you a bot?"	The bot uses Natural Language Understanding (NLU) to analyze each contact utterance to determine its meaning, or intent.
Intent	What the contact wants to communicate or accomplish. Every message the contact sends has an intent.	"I lost my password" has the intent of "reset password". "Hello" has the intent of "greeting".	The bot analyzes a contact's message using NLU This process expands on Natural Language Processing (NLP) to make decisions or take action based on what it understands. to determine the intent. Once it knows that, it can respond with a message of its own. You configure the response you want the bot to use for each intent.
Entity	A defined piece of information in a contact's message.	Person or product name, phone number, account number, location, and so on.	The bot uses NLU to identify entities in a contact's message. Entities help the bot understand what the contact's message means.
Slot	An entity extracted from a contact's message and saved for use in bot responses. Similar to a variable.	Creating a slot for contact name lets the bot use that name in responses during an interaction, making it more personal.	When configured to do so, the bot extracts an entity from a contact message and saves it in a slot. You can have the bot use this information later in the conversation.
Rule	Defines a bot's response to messages that don't change meaning with context.	Single-turn interactions with fixed responses: What are your hours? What is your address? Conversation building blocks: Greetings, good-byes, thank yous and transitions; simple yes/no questions; and acknowledgments. CXone Bot Builder comes with default intents and rules for several of these, including greetings, handover Any contact message that should trigger transfer to a live agent requests, and more. FAQs Insults and classic bot challenges	Rules are one of two ways you can configure how the bot responds to an intent. Rules are useful for certain kinds of intents, but not all intents.
Story	Trains a bot to handle an interaction based on message intent and conversational context.	In an interaction about a forgotten password, the bot would respond to, "How do I do that?" in one way. If the interaction were about creating a new account, the response would be quite different even though in both cases the contact is using the same words with the same intent – to get more information.	Stories are the second of two ways you can configure how the bot responds to an intent. Stories teach the bot how to use the context of the conversation to respond appropriately.
Bot Action	Anything a bot says or does while handling an interaction.	In an interaction about a forgotten password, the bot responds by sending the link to the password reset FAQ on the website. When a contact expresses frustration, such as "I don't understand! It's not working!!!" the bot responds with "I'm sorry. Would you like me to transfer you to a human agent?" When the contact says yes, the bot initiates the transfer.	Actions are the options you have when defining how you want the bot to respond to each intent. They give you the flexibility to configure each response to achieve the outcome that meets the contact's needs.

All Bot Actions

Action type	Details
Message	The bot sends a text-based message to the contact. You can add buttons or quick replies to the message or choose to leave it as regular text. If a message has buttons or quick replies with an intent defined, the intent shows up next to the message on the bot response configuration page. You can click on them to see all stories and rules where they are used. For channels that don't support buttons or quick replies, you can customize the rich messaging fallback for this response. By default, the bot will use what is configured in rich messaging fallback.
Multimedia	The bot sends a multimedia file, such as images, videos, PDFs, or MP3s. You can upload a file that meets supported file types and sizes. Multimedia is supported on certain channels only. For channels that don't support multimedia, rich messaging fallback is used.
Cards	Cards can combine images, structured text, and buttons into one message. This keeps the interface cleaner than sending several responses back to back. You can add up to 10 cards to be sent at a time. The customer will be able to swipe back and forth to view them. For channels that don't support cards, you can customize the rich messaging fallback for this response. By default, the bot will use what is configured in rich messaging fallback.
List Picker	The bot sends the contact a list of options to choose from. You can provide an introductory message. A list can contain up to 10 options. For channels that don't support list pickers, you can customize the rich messaging fallback for this response. By default, the bot will use what is configured in rich messaging fallback.
Rich Link	The bot can send a URL with an image included. The contact can click on the link or image to visit the URL. For channels that don't support rich links, you can customize the rich messaging fallback for this response. By default, the bot will use what is configured in rich messaging fallback.
Adaptive Cards	The bot can send Adaptive Cards to contacts. They are a method of sending rich messaging content. For channels that don't support adaptive cards, you can customize the rich messaging fallback for this response. By default, the bot will use what is configured in rich messaging fallback.
Fill Slot	This bot action allows you to have a slot Entity extracted from contact's message and saved for use in bot responses. Similar to a variable. filled with a value. You can select from your existing slots or create a new slot from the bot action in the dialogue. If you create a new slot, you must open the Slots panel and configure the slot so it works the way you need it to. This bot action is invisible to the contact.
Slot Condition	You can use a slot as a condition to create branched paths in conversations. You can specify the slot value that must be matched for the bot to take each path. This bot action is invisible to the contact.
Handover	This bot action allows you to have a contact message trigger the handover Any contact message that should trigger transfer to a live agent rule.
Add Tag	You can add one or more tags to the interaction. Tags allow you to identify patterns in conversations. If the tag you want doesn't exist, you can create it from this bot action in the bot response workspace or in the Tags section of Preferences . This action is invisible to the contact.
Checkpoint	Checkpoints provide a simple way to connect different stories within the same dialogue. This action is invisible to the contact.
Forms tab	Forms allow you to collect multiple pieces of information from a contact. This tab displays the available forms, which you can add as bot actions when you want to activate a form during an interaction.
API tab	API integrations allow you to connect your bot to web services via APIs. If you have any integrations set up, this tab displays the bot actions from the integrations. You can add one to a response when you want to trigger an API call during an interaction.
Scripts tab	The Scripts tab displays the custom scripts that have been enabled in CXone Bot Builder. This includes custom scripts and scripts that are part of any bot skills added from the Skill Store. You can add a script as a bot action in a response when you want to trigger that script during an interaction. Scripts must be enabled in the Script Integrations section of CXone Bot Builder to show up on this tab.