Using agents in the watsonx Orchestrate chat
In IBM watsonx Orchestrate, agents collaborate to automate tasks and manage workflows. These agents can be configured to perform specific tasks based on user input or coordinate with other agents to streamline complex workflows. Agents can be directly visible in the chat interface or work in the background, contributing to orchestration by sharing information and resources across tasks. This setup ensures that business processes are handled efficiently, whether agents actively engage in user interactions or support behind-the-scenes operations.
Out-of-the-box agent behavior
The out-of-the-box (OOTB) agent provides basic large language model (LLM) functionalities, for example, Q&A, summarization, content generation, text classification, translation, and sentiment analysis. The OOTB agent appears only when no other agents are available in the tenant. It does not display in the agent selection dropdown and is not accessible when a custom agent is deployed. The system hides the recent chats section until a custom agent is deployed. The OOTB agent does not support chat history, which is lost when the screen refreshes. Conversational search is unavailable.
Connecting an agent to a channel
When builders connect an agent to a channel, they configure it for real-time interaction through the chat interface. This enables the agent to collaborate with builders and perform specific tasks based on the workflows and configurations set by the builder. Builders can see the agent available in the Agents dropdown list in the chat view. Users can request the builder to enable it in the chat interface if a specific agent is needed.
Agent collaboration in orchestration
Even when an agent is not connected to the chat interface, it can still collaborate with connected agents. This collaboration allows the agent to contribute to the overall orchestration process by supporting tasks and sharing information in the background, ensuring seamless workflow execution.