Introduction
SearchAssist allows your Search Assistant to integrate with an active virtual assistant that is capable of performing actions related to intents. You can enable your end users to experience VirtualAssistant driven journeys by allowing them to invoke VirtualAssistant-actions from the search interface itself. The queries your users enter can reveal their intents, if any. The intent in turn triggers an action if only the corresponding services are offered by the linked virtual assistant.
VirtualAssistant-Actions are a list of tasks that an enterprise Virtual Assistant or bot can perform. To make a Search Assistant task-oriented it’s essential to make the services of the linked Virtual Assistant visible.
A search bar is the first interface where most end-users land to enter a query. Traditional search has a limitation of listing read-only results. In SearchAssist Invoking Virtual Assistant Actions overcomes that limitation by presenting actionable search results. The end-user is taken through the journey by the linked Virtual Assistant action that is required to fulfill the intent.
Kore.ai has innovated to transform the simple search experience for your customer or employee from viewing-listed-results to the advanced accomplishing-intent level.
Prerequisites
Your business has already deployed and actively uses Kore.ai’s virtual assistants in various practice areas catering to enhance Customer Experience(CX) or Employee Experience(EX). Examples:
- in case of e-commerce deployment of SearchAssist, a ShoppingAssistant
- in case of enterprise internal portal deployment a HRAssistant
For example, in a scenario where a banking customer is searching for “How to pay bills from my bank account.” Instead of just answering the query in steps of text or verbiage, the Search Assistant can enhance the user experience by giving an option to pay the bill then and there.
End Users Experience Virtual Assistant Actions from Search
Once you have linked a bot or Virtual Assistant, your end-user can invoke VirtualAssistant-actions right from search. For example if the the linked Virtual Assistant is a BankAssistant, which has the capability to reissue a debit card, then the following steps flow through:
- End-user enters a query in the search interface, “Can you reissue my debit card?”
- Search Assistant detects the intent behind the query and maps it to “request for reissuing a debit card” task. The Search Assistant displays the following:
- the related action namely, “Reissue debit card”
- the related information in FAQs and web search results
- End user clicks the action as a desired response in this case “Reissue debit card”
- The BankAssistant takes over and prompts for responses in conversation mode
- The BankAssistant handholds the customer through the entire journey and walks through the following logical steps that are essential to complete the task:
- confirms the address of the customer
- accepts a One Time Password (OTP) to authenticate this request
- acknowledges the request that is accepted and informing the customer a tentative timeline for delivery
- generates a shipment tracking number in the background
- provides link to track the shipment
- Once the task is completed the control returns to the search bar
Preparing your VirtualAssistant for SearchAssist
SearchAssist platform allows you to link an existing live Virtual Assistant built on the Kore.ai platform with your Search Assistant. The following are the sequence of steps you need to complete:
- Build a virtual assistant catering to your needs. Refer Kore.ai VirtualAssistant Builder assistant
- Enable the Webhook channel for the Virtual Assistant using the access token and post URL as shown in the How to Link the following section. Refer Adding Webhook as a Channel.
- The Search Assistant can interface and interact with only after the webhook channel is published or live.
- Make a note of the Client ID and Secret ID from the Kore.ai Virtual Assistant, after enabling the Webhook channel.Note: You can link only one virtual assistant with one Search Assistant at a time.
Integrating Virtual Assistant to your Search Assistant
To access the journeys and actions done by a virtual assistant from your Search Assistant, you need to have the active virtual assistant from the Kore.ai VirtualAssistant-platform linked to your Search Assistant.
To link Virtual Assistants from the Actions tab, take the following steps:
- On the left pane, under the Sources section, click the Actions tab.
- On the Bot Actions page, click Link a Bot.
- On the Link Bot dialog box, click Link Bot against the bot you wish to link.
- Enter the Client ID and the Secret ID from the virtual assistant as described in the previous section.
- Click Save.
Note: You can link only one virtual assistant with one Search Assistant at a time.
Managing Virtual Assistant Actions
Once you have linked a Virtual Assistant to your Search Assistant, you can
- view the virtual assistant and the associated tasks it’s capable of handling
- open the Virtual Assistant in the Kore.ai’s Experience Optimization (XO) or bot platform
- click Edit Configuration to capture any changes from the Kore.ai’s Experience Optimization (XO) or bot platform
- click Unlink bot to link a new bot or virtual assistant Unlink the currently linked virtual assistant
