Learn the main terms to understand and build a bot
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

NOTE: This article refers to the older bot construction model on the platform, called intention-based chatbot or bot 1.0.

Bot is a shortened version of the English word robot. In summary, it is an automated tool that executes a series of pre-programmed functions. It is typically associated with artificial intelligence and seeks to interact by simulating human thought processes.

Other important terms when discussing bots:

Chatbot

This is the tool, also called a bot, with which people will have the most contact in their daily lives. The word chatbot is a combination of chat and robot: chatbots, or conversation robots, are communication tools. Their purpose is to simulate interaction with a human customer service agent and automate various processes.

How do I build a bot in Botmaker?

To build a bot in Botmaker, it's important to know some terms that we will use in our articles to help you become familiar:

What is an intention?

An intention is a structure that allows defining the responses that the bot will offer to users based on their questions, conversations, phrases, words, or conditions (defined in the platform as "triggers").

The creation of an intention is done in three parts:

• Name: used to organize and describe the content of the bot's responses;
• Triggers: these are motivators for intentions to be activated. In other words, triggers can be understanding a user's message or user inactivity time. It is not mandatory to define a trigger, as we can activate the intention directly, without the need for a trigger (we'll talk more about this in "How to create a response with Action - Go to").
• Response: the response consists of what the bot will reply to a user's intention, i.e., what will be the bot's response when the user sends or acts in a certain way?

Point of attention - Intention settings

Within an intention, on the NAME tab, you will have two options that can be activated:

• Show suggestion to the user in quick responses: When activated, this option will appear as a quick response for the operator. So, if the client asks a question that already has a response in the bot, the agent can activate it and respond to the client more quickly.
• Show this intention in the chat header: With this option, you can create buttons within the chat screen that the operator can activate in the middle of the conversation, such as closing the chat, sending a customer satisfaction survey, among other options. In other words, you can create an intention that the operator can activate at any time for the client.

Written by the Botmaker Team
Updated: 02/09/2024