Create, edit, or delete an intent

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

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

Intents can have one of two statuses:

• Test – the intent is active in the test channel, but not in the customer-facing request channel.

• Live – the intent is active in both the customer-facing request channel and in the test channel.

When you create a new intent, its status is set to Test by default. When you’re ready to activate it for customers, you can change the status to Live. Learn more about activating or deactivating an intent, or about virtual agent channels.

Create a new intent

1. From the navigation on the left, select Project settings, then Virtual agent.

2. Select Intents, and then Create intent.

3. Give your intent a Name.

4. Give your intent a detailed Description.

5. Give your intent a Display name.

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

6. Enter three Training phrases to start teaching your virtual agent how to recognize this intent.

   • Once your intent is created, we recommend adding more training phrases to improve your virtual agent’s intent recognition. Learn more about training your virtual agent to recognize an intent.

7. Select Create.

8. Build the conversation flow for your intent. Learn how to build a conversation flow.

9. Select Save changes.

Once you’ve created your intent and finished building its conversation flow, it’ll automatically be active in your test channel. We recommend going to your test channel and testing your intent before activating it for your customers in a request channel. Learn how to activate an intent.

Edit an intent

To make changes to an intent:

1. From the navigation on the left, select Project settings, then Virtual agent.

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

3. Select Flow to edit the intent's conversation flow. Learn more about building a conversation flow.

4. Select Training to edit the intent's Training phrases. Learn more about training your virtual 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 the navigation on the left, select Project settings, then Virtual 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. Learn how to deactivate an intent.