Programming self-service agents

You can programmatically change the behavior of your self-service agent during a call by using the Voice Gateway API. The API provides action tags and state variables that you define within the dialog in the IBM Watson™ Assistant service.

• Action tags initiate actions that Voice Gateway takes during a conversation session, such as transferring a call or changing configuration
• State variables define Voice Gateway characteristics that persist throughout the conversation unless otherwise changed

When the dialog node is triggered during a call, the specified action tags and state variables are passed to Voice Gateway, which then changes its behavior accordingly.

• Defining actions and states

  Learn about how to define action tags and state variables within the Watson Assistant service.

• Handling Watson Assistant response types

  Learn about how various Watson Assistant response types are supported in the Voice Gateway.

• Dynamically configuring Watson services

  See examples for how to dynamically configure the various services that Voice Gateway connects to, including the Watson services, service orchestration engines, and third-party speech services.

• Collecting dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) digits

  Program your self-service agent to collect DTMF digits, start and stop DTMF sessions, and use action sequences.

Tip: For a complete list of available action tags and state variables, see Action tags and state variables in the Voice Gateway API.