Intents — Human intentions
Intents are the most important resources for any chatbot.
Chatbot? Intents? What are those?!
A chatbot is a computerized assistant which imitates humans in a conversation.
But what is a chatbot? Read this article if you really want to know more about chatbots. But we’re here to discuss Intents.
Intents are human intentions that form the context in a conversation.
In the business world, the ultimate goal of chatbots is to bring support to business teams in relation with customers by offering precision, personalization, efficiency, and scalability.
Here’s an example of a typical chatbot conversation
In this scenario, you can find a chatbot reacting to customer questions, but it doesn’t sound like the robotic and monotonous chatbot you may be accustomed to. How is this possible?
This is where Intents come into play.
But what is an Intent? Are they really that important?
Intents are the lifeblood of all chatbots. Learning what elements create an intent, how they work, and how to effectively craft intents will go a long way in making your chatbot effective and useful to your customers.
Here’s an example.
Your chatbot platform is like the vascular system in your body: Intents act like the heart. If the heart fails to pump blood, you die. The same way, if you fail to add intents to your chatbot, your chatbot fails.
Or you could imagine intents as the fuel system of a vehicle that is your chatbot. Intents act like fuel. If your vehicle isn’t filled with fuel then your vehicle is about as useful as a brick.
Intents are fed into a chatbot in a question and answer format. That is, the intention the human is hopeful in inquiring and the response that is expected to be associated with the particular intent.
Here are some tips and tricks on designing intents. Before designing an intent, you need to focus on three major factors.
Human intentions:
Here, think from a customer’s perspective. What does a customer need? In which way will he quote his intention? All of this is subjective and varies from user to user.
Entities:
Entities represent a term or object in a customer’s intention and act as a key to understand the context of that particular intent.
Response to intentions:
This is the most crucial part of designing an intent. What kind of response will satisfy the customer’s intentions? Try making the response simple and to the point.
Here is a simple design of a sample intent,
Intents are the lifeblood of any chatbot (Given they use that jargon. Even if called by other names, intentions are part of it). Learning what elements create an intent, how they work, and how to effectively craft intents will go a long way in making your chatbot effective and useful to your customers. And especially one that is supposed to sound like a human.
So you want a thoughtful bot? Be thoughtful in crafting your intents.
