IBM Watson

Permissions Required: Integrations > Launch Integrations, Studio Script View, Create/Edit

IBM Watson Assistant is a platform you can use to develop virtual agent bots for your organization. You can integrate them into CXone for voice and ACD chat channels. Digital First Omnichannel chat channels aren't supported at this time.

Virtual agent bots interpret what your contacts say or type and respond appropriately. They do this using technologies such as:

• Speech-to-text Also called STT, this process converts spoken language to text. (STT)
• Text-to-speech Allows users to enter recorded prompts as text and use a computer-generated voice to speak the content. (TTS)
• Natural language processing Also called NLP, this process understands human speech or text and responds with human-like language. (NLP)
• Artificial intelligence (AI)

Virtual agents are flexible and can provide a range of functions to suit the needs of your organization. For example, you can design your virtual agent to handle a few simple tasks or to serve as a complex interactive digital agent.

Conversation Flow for Voice and Chat Bots

During an interaction, the Studio action used in the script acts like a bridge between CXone and the virtual agent. It passes replies back and forth between the script and the bot. For voice interactions, the contact's utterances What a contact says or types. are transcribed Also called STT, this process converts spoken language to text. into text so the virtual agent can analyze them. The virtual agent's responses are converted into synthesized speech using a text-to-speech Allows users to enter recorded prompts as text and use a computer-generated voice to speak the content. service before being sent to the contact.

The virtual agent analyzes the contact's utterances to understand the intent for each one. Intents are the purpose or meaning behind what a person says. When the intent is identified, the virtual agent sends a response to the contact. The script passes it to the contact. When the conversation is complete, or if at any point the contact needs a live agent, Amelia lets the virtual agent action know. The Studio script continues, transferring the contact to a live agent if needed.

The conversation flow has some slight differences depending on the virtual agent A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent. 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. you use. There are two types of virtual agent Studio actions. Conversation actions handle very simple virtual agents and exchange actions handle complex virtual agents. The differences in conversation flow are found in the role the action plays in the conversation:

• For simple virtual agents that use a conversation action, the action interacts directly with the virtual agent. It passively monitors the conversation, but doesn't handle any part of it.
• When you use an exchange action, you can customize the bot's behavior from turn to turn. This gives you great control over the conversation.

Conversation and exchange actions both support chat, digital, and voice channels A way for contacts and agents to interact, such as voice, email, chat, social media, and so on..

Prerequisites

To use Watson Assistant virtual agent bots A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent. with CXone, you need:

• IBM Cloud account.
• Watson Assistant virtual agent bot configured with actions that fulfill your contacts' requests.

IBM Watson Assistant and Digital Channels

You can use IBM Watson chatbots with Digital First Omnichannel (DFO) channels. Virtual Agent Hub supports messaging in plain text only with most digital channels.

Virtual Agent Hub supports messages that include rich media content on two DFO channels: Apple Messages for Business and DFO chat channels. DFO chat includes live chat Agents and contacts interact on a real-time basis and chat messaging Asynchronous chat in which contacts send a chat message anytime and wait for a reply. Rich media includes content such as buttons, list pickers, and attachments. The types of rich media you can include in messages depends on the DFO channel you're using.

When you want to include rich media content in chatbot responses, follow the JSON schema for the DFO channel. The schemas are different for each channel. Add the code for media content you want to use in the IBM Watson configuration console.