Introduction to Watson Assistant

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  With IBM Watson Assistant, you can build conversational interfaces into any application, device, or channel. Most virtual assistants try to mimic human interactions, but Watson Assistant is more. Watson Assistant knows when to search for an answer from a knowledge base, when to ask for clarity, and when to direct you to a human.

  Why use Watson Assistant?

  Virtual assistants, or chatbots, go far beyond the gimmicky approach that they are often associated with. You can use bots to set appointments, call a car, and so on. It’s not a replacement for search. Amazon Echo and Google Home are excellent examples of virtual assistants. There is no interface, so having a well-structured dialog to talk through is essential.

  A couple of instances of where Watson Assistant excels are customer self-service and employee self-service. Watson Assistant:

  • Integrates directly with end-channels such as Slack or Facebook Messenger so that you can handle requests wherever it is most convenient for your users
  • Knows when to provide a direct answer to a common question or reference more generalized search results for something more complex
  • Stores data within user interactions that can be used to guide and personalize the experience over time
  • Hands off the issue to a human agent when it’s something the virtual assistant can’t handle

  Architecture

  The following figure shows Watson Assistant architecture that’s common for all implementations. In this architecture:

  • Users interact with the assistant through one or more of these integration points:

    • A virtual assistant that you publish directly to an existing social media messaging platform, such as Slack or Facebook Messenger.

    • A custom application that you develop, such as a mobile app or a robot with a voice interface.

  • The assistant receives user input and routes it to the dialog skill.

  • The dialog skill interprets the user input further, then directs the flow of the conversation. The dialog gathers any information it needs to respond or perform a transaction on the user’s behalf.

  • Any questions that cannot be answered by the dialog skill are sent to the search skill, which finds relevant answers by searching the company knowledge bases that you configure for the purpose.

  For details check here

  https://developer.ibm.com/technologies/artificial-intelligence/articles/introduction-watson-assistant/

   

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