Agent
An Agent or Conversational Agent is any dialogue automation system that not only conducts Natural Language Processing but also responds automatically to customer queries in a contact center using human language over call and chat channels.
Bot
A bot is a form of virtual assistant that acts as an intelligent intermediary between people, digital systems, and internet-enabled things. Bots are intelligent with machine learning, natural language processing, and other forms of advanced software that allows them to handle complex human conversations, learn from past interactions, and improve responses over time.
Channel
A Channel is a bi-directional medium of messaging or voice interactions between a customer and an organization where a Bot is connected. SmartAssist supports Chat and Voice Call channels.
Entities
To fulfill user intent, the Bot may require additional information or parameters. For example, to book a flight, it needs the source and destination city along with the travel date. In the above example, user utterance Book me a flight to Orlando for next Sunday, Orlando and next Sunday are entities.
Entities are the necessary fields, data, or words for a chatbot to complete the user’s request. With the required entities in hand, the Bots Platform can reach out to the web service and get the specific data or perform the action as per the user intent.
For more information about parameters and user input, refer to the particular task type parameters and fields at Defining Bot Tasks.
| SAMPLE UTTERANCE | INTENT | ENTITY |
|---|---|---|
| Book me a flight to Orlando | Book flight | City: Orlando |
| Schedule a meeting with Bill this Sunday | Schedule a meeting | Person name: Bill Date: April 22, 2018 |
| Add two bottles of red wine to the cart | Add to cart | Item: Red Wine Count: Two |
Intent
A few essential words in the utterance that describe what the user wants the chatbot to do. It is usually a combination of a verb and a noun. For example, in the above user utterance Book me a flight to Orlando for next Sunday, the intent is Book me a flight.
Utterance
Anything that a user says to the chatbot is an utterance. For example, if the user types Book me a flight to Orlando for next Sunday, the entire sentence is considered as the user utterance.