Set Up Slots for CXone Bot Builder

Slots are key/value pairs that function as your bot's A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent. memory. You can use them to personalize interactions between bots and contacts.

Create Slots

When you create an entity Keyword or phrase defined in your company profile in Interaction Analytics. Related to an entity type. Can include variants., CXone Bot Builder automatically creates a slot Entity extracted from contact's message and saved for use in bot responses. Similar to a variable. for that entity. But if you want to use a slot for information from another source, you can create slots directly in CXone Bot Builder. For example, you might use a pre-chat form that asks for your contact's account number. You could then pull the contact's account status from another system, and design your stories so that the bot A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent. always attempts to collect any past-due balance.

Talk to your CXone Account Representative about how to set up an integration between CXone Bot Builder and the data source for a custom slot.

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

2. Click the bot you want to work with.
3. Click Dialogues in the left icon menu.
4. In the right pane, click Slots and then click New Slot.
5. Enter a name for your new slot and press Enter.
6. If creating a From Intent slot, click Add Value Mapping. You can add as many value mappings as needed to this slot.
7. Click the slot name to edit it. Set the Type, Intents, Value, and Form Restriction for the slot. Changes are saved automatically.
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   Learn more about fields in this step

   Field	Details
   Type	Use this drop-down to select the type of slot you're creating. Select from the following: Text: Select this type if you want the slot to hold text information. If you set Influence Dialog to On, the bot only evaluates whether or not there is content in this slot. It does not consider the meaning of the content. Number: Select this type if you want the slot to hold numbers with a minimum and maximum value. If you set Influence Dialog to On, the bot's behavior can change depending on the value in the slot. Categorical: Select this type if you want the slot to hold one of several Values. Separate the specific values with commas. If you set Influence Dialog to On, the bot's behavior can change depending on the value in the slot. Boolean: Select this type if you want the slot to hold true or false values. If you set Influence Dialog to On, the bot's behavior can change depending on whether the slot is set to True, set to False, or is Empty. Any: Select this type if you want the slot to hold arbitrary values. Slots of this type cannot be used to influence the bot's behavior. You can also read a more detailed explanation of slots, with examples for each slot type.
   Intents	Use the drop-down to select one or more intents to be associated with this slot. When one of the selected intents is recognized in a conversation, the Value will be filled into the slot.
   Value	Type the content you want to fill the slot.
   Form Restriction	Use the drop-down to select a form or forms where this slot should be used. If any forms are selected, the slot will only be used in those forms.

Use Slots as Variables

Required permission: Chatbot (ACD > DFO > Roles > [choose one] > Core Modules)

You can personalize your stories, rules, fallback, and more by including variables: entities Keyword or phrase defined in your company profile in Interaction Analytics. Related to an entity type. Can include variants. that come from slots. To use a variable, enclose the name of the entity in curly brackets { }. When you type the first curly bracket, the system displays a list of existing variables.

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

2. Click the bot you want to work with.
3. Click Dialogues in the left icon menu.
4. Click New Folder, type a new name for the folder, and then press Enter.
5. Under the new folder, click New Story.
6. At the top of the story section, enter a name for your story.
7. In the Customer may say box, enter the customer message and then press Enter. CXone Bot Builder analyzes the message and offers a list of intents and confidence level.
8. If CXone Bot Builder identified the correct intent, click Confirm. If not, expand the list of intents and select the correct intent, then click Confirm. In the preceding image, CXone Bot Builder correctly identified the intent as provide_location and stored Columbus as a location entity.
9. Hover over the plus sign until it changes to a bot icon, click the General, Forms, or Integrations tab, and then click an action.
10. Provide the information matching the action type you selected. For example, if you selected Message, enter the message with which the bot should respond. In the example image, Akela has created a response message that includes a variable using the {location} entity. The message would appear to the contact as, "Okay, you're at the Columbus location. Got it."
11. Click Train and Stage to train your bot on the new story.