Ask for Intent action

Intents describe a goal or task that a user wants to do, such as tracking their package or booking a cab. In a bot, the Ask Intent Action prompts the user to provide an intent. Configure your bot intents from the Natural Language Understanding menu. For more information, see Intents overview.

Access the Ask for Intent action from the bot flow’s Ask menu in the Architect toolbox.

Name Description
Name field Type a distinctive name for the action. The label you enter here becomes the action’s name displayed in the flow structure.
Question Here, ask callers or chat recipients what they would like to do. In call flows, the question you enter hear plays verbally to the caller. In chat flows, this question appears in text.
No Input

For a no input invalid response, add a phrase to play back to the caller or chat recipient. For example, “Do you want to find a branch nearby?”

Before playing this response, No Input handling first plays the flow’s No Inputs Apology response. Configure the No Inputs Apology response under Settings > User Input > No Inputs Detected > No Input Apology. 
No Match

For a no match invalid response, add a phrase to play back to the caller or chat recipient. For example, “Tell me again what you would like to do.”

Before playing this response, No Match handling first plays the flow’s No Match Apology response. Configure the No Match Apology response under Settings > User Input > No Matches Detected > No Match Apology. 
Paths
  • Intents: Enable or disable the intents this action can match. For each intent, an output path is enabled on the action. If the intent matches the user input, then the flow takes the relevant output path.
  • Knowledge: Enable or disable the Knowledge output path. When you enable the path, if a knowledge article matches the user input, then the flow takes this output path.
  • Max No Inputs: Enable or disable the Max No Inputs path. When you enable this path, if the bot exceeds the maximum number of no input retries that you set for the action, then the flow takes this output path. If you enable both No Intent and Max No Inputs paths and the bot exceeds the maximum number of no input retries, then the Max No Input path takes precedence.
  • No Intent: Enable or disable the No Intent path. When you enable this option, then the flow takes this output path when:
    • The bot exceeds the Maximum Number of No Input Retries for this action and you do not enable the Max No Inputs path.
    • The bot exceeds the maximum number of no match retries for this action.
    • The bot exceeds the maximum number of confirmation rejections for this action.
    • The user rejects all enabled intents for this action and the Knowledge path is not enabled.

Note: If you disable a path, the flows configured for that output path are hidden, not deleted.