Create, edit, or delete an intent

Each intent represents a specific problem, question, or request that your virtual service agent can help resolve for your customers.

When the virtual service agent detects an intent in a customer’s message, it asks them to confirm that the intent detected is correct. Once confirmed, the virtual service agent starts the conversation flow for that intent.

You need to be a project admin to create, edit, or delete intents.

Create a new intent

1. From your service project, select Project settings, then Channels & self service, then Virtual service agent..

2. Select Intents, and then Create intent.

   • To use a template, select Browse templates. Hover over a template to see its details. Select a template to use it.

3. Enter (or edit) the Name, Description, or Display name.

   • The Display name may appear for customers as an option they can select to start the conversation flow for this intent, so make it short and clear.

4. Select Next.

5. Enter (or edit) three Training phrases. Find out how to train your virtual service agent to recognize an intent.

6. Select Create.

7. Build the conversation flow for your intent. Find out how to build a conversation flow.

8. Select Save changes.

Once you’ve created your intent and finished building its conversation flow, it’ll automatically be active in test mode and your Slack test channel. We recommend going to test mode and testing your intent before activating it for your customers. Read more about testing your virtual service agent, or find out how to activate an intent.

About intent templates

When creating an intent, you can use templates to get started quickly by selecting Browse templates. Templates pre-fill the name, description, and display name, and include a comprehensive set of training phrases. All you need to do is select a template, edit anything you’d like to change, and then build your conversation flow.

Intent templates include:

• Catalog templates, which are created by us based on the most common IT topics.

• From your data templates, which are generated using your project’s data. You need at least 150 issues in your project for ‘from your data’ templates to be generated. We look at your project’s issues, and use machine learning to group the most common themes. If you see the 'We’re loading your custom templates' message for more than 24 hours, you may not have enough data to generate templates.

Edit an intent

To make changes to an intent:

1. From your service project, select Project settings, then Channels & self service, then Virtual service agent..

2. Select Intents, and then select the intent you want to edit.

3. Select Flow to edit the intent's conversation flow. Find out how to build a conversation flow.

4. Select Training to edit the intent's Training phrases. Find out how to train your virtual service agent to recognize an intent.

5. Select Settings to edit the intent's Description, Display name, or Confirmation question.

6. Select Save changes.

Delete an intent

To delete an intent:

1. From your service project, select Project settings, then Channels & self service, then Virtual service agent..

2. Select Intents.

3. Hover over the intent you want to delete, and then select Delete () on the right hand side.

4. Select Delete.

If you want to keep your intent but don’t want it to be active for customers, you can deactivate it instead. Find out how to deactivate an intent.