Setting up routing interactions to Vonage AI Studio's Virtual Assistant

Virtual Assistant uses artificial intelligence (AI) to interpret a customer's questions and ask clarifying questions to formulate the appropriate response. That response may reference content from an FAQ, propose an action to update or read customer data, or route the call to a real agent using an appropriate interaction plan.

For more information about Virtual Assistant, see Virtual Assistant.

In this page

How do I route an interaction to a virtual agent within Virtual Assistant?

Before you can route a phone interaction from Vonage Contact Center (VCC) to Virtual Assistant, you must have a Vonage AI Studio account. From within Vonage AI Studio:

Get an API key for Vonage AI API. Save the API key to use later. For information about getting an API key for Vonage AI API, see Vonage AI Studio authentication.
Create a virtual agent and configure the agent's conversation. Save the agent's ID and virtual number to use later. For information about creating a virtual agent, see Create a new Vonage AI Studio agent.
Take a look at response parameters that your virtual agent can return. You will be able to choose which of these you want to get data from and map to data sources in VCC. For information about response parameters, see Vonage AI Studio parameters.

To route an interaction to a virtual agent within Virtual Assistant, create a Virtual Assistant applet. Complete the following sections:

Set up your connection to Vonage AI Studio’s Virtual Assistant (VA)

Provide virtual agent credentials to connect your VCC account to a virtual agent in Virtual Assistant.

Field	Options	Description
API key	Text	Your API key for Vonage AI API. You should have generated and saved the API key in step 1 in earlier in this page. As you type in the API key and when you save the key, the actual key is masked using asterisks.
ID	Text	The ID of the virtual agent in Virtual Assistant. You should have created a virtual agent and saved its ID in step 2 earlier in this page.
Number	Text	The number for the virtual agent that will handle the interaction. You should have created a virtual agent and saved its number in step 2 earlier in this page.
Region	EU or US	The region is defined in AI Studio while creating a virtual agent. The value is set automatically using data from AI Studio when connection details are verified.

After completing this section, click Update to verify the credentials and get parameters from Virtual Assistant.

If connection details are not correct, an error is displayed and the mapping section does not appear.

Send VCC data to Virtual Assistant (VA)

Define which VCC data source values to send to the virtual agent in Virtual Assistant. Map these data sources to VA parameters that will use the data.

Field

Options

Description

VCC data source

Data source

Name of the VCC data source whose data you want to send to the virtual agent in Virtual Assistant. Identify data sources using the $(DataSourceName) format, for example, $(name).

VA parameter

List of Virtual Assistant parameters

The list of parameters defined in Virtual Assistant in AI Studio. Select a Virtual Assistant parameter that will receive the corresponding data source value.

For example, CALLER_PHONE_NUMBER.

To add a new mapping, click Add.

To delete an existing mapping, click Delete.

Duplicate Virtual Assistant parameters

If you try to map a VCC data source to a VA parameter more than once, an error will appear and you will not be allowed to save the applet.

Get data from Virtual Assistant (VA)

Add Virtual Assistant parameters containing data collected by the virtual agent in Virtual Assistant. Map the parameters to VCC data sources that will use the data.

Field

Options

Description

VA parameter

List of Virtual Assistant parameters

The list of parameters defined in Virtual Assistant in AI Studio. Select a Virtual Assistant parameter that will contain data to set in the corresponding VCC data source.

For example, CALLER_PHONE_NUMBER.

VCC data source

Data source

Name of the VCC data source you want to receive Virtual Assistant parameter data from the virtual agent in Virtual Assistant. Identify data sources using the $(DataSourceName) format, for example, $(name).

To add a new mapping, click Add.

To delete an existing mapping, click Delete.

Duplicate VCC data sources

If you try to map a VA parameter to a VCC data source more than once, an error will appear and you will not be allowed to save the applet.

Custom Virtual Assistant parameters

The VA parameter list contains both system and custom parameters that are defined in Virtual Assistant in AI Studio. If the virtual agent does not set a value for the custom parameter, no value is returned — the VCC data source's value remains the same as before the interaction was routed to the virtual agent.

Configure next applets

Choose where interactions should go next, on either success or failure.

Field	Options	Description
Next Applet	List of available applets	Select the applet that the interaction is routed to when interaction with the virtual agent is completed.
Next Applet On Failure	List of available applets	Select the applet that the interaction is routed to if it cannot be transferred to the virtual agent.

For more information about the Virtual Assistant applet, see Virtual Assistant applet.