Overview
Conversational AI that’s easy to use and fast to deploy
IBM Watson Assistant helps you overcome the steep learning curve and frustrating jargon other virtual agent products use. It’s now easier than ever to design AI chatbots without complex decision trees or any kind of coding required. Watson Assistant now allows you, the one closest to the customer, to build better virtual agents your customers will actually want to use.
Easy to build
Train an AI system, no coding skills needed
Training an AI system may seem daunting, but it’s not with Watson Assistant – each topic can be trained with only a few example questions.
Gather information quickly with steps
Say goodbye to complex and brittle decision trees - you can quickly gather information or respond to customers with steps, which you simply prioritize inside of an action.
Recognize plain-language customer responses
Steps use AI under the covers to detect plain-language responses from your customers like synonyms, dates, times, and more – even if they’re misspelled or mispronounced.
Fine-tune the conversation flow with conditions
You get super fine-grained control over the flow of the conversation with an easy-to use condition builder on each step.
Preview actions the way a customer does
As you build, you can preview the conversation as your users will experience it — with advanced debugging capabilities to fix problems quickly.
Build faster by reusing common components
Instead of recreating the same flows in multiple places, you can build a portion of a flow once and reuse it anywhere.
Skips steps when it knows the answer
No need to build a forced conversation — your assistant automatically skips steps when it already knows the answer, even if the step is midway through an action.
Handles anything your customers throw at it
Don’t waste your time on the little things when building. With AI capabilities already built in, your assistant keeps the conversation on track, and can handle deviations like vague requests, topic changes, misunderstandings, errors and requests for a human agent automatically.
Provides an intuitive visual interface
With most tools, fixing a conversation flow is brittle and error-prone, but with Watson Assistant’s drag-and-drop editor, you can quickly change your content, conditions, or step prioritization without worrying about causing more problems.
Optimize your assistant with integrations
Search existing content
Find up-to-date answers in any existing content, from knowledge bases to websites, with Watson Discovery.
Handoff to live agents
Deploy anywhere your customers communicate with your business, including web, app, phone or messaging channels.
Integrate across channels
Easily connect your chatbot platform to existing live agent tools to route customers to the right people in real time.
Testimonial
We found Watson Assistant to be easy to use and very scalable. The interface allows anyone to create a chatbot, while also enabling our developers to leverage the full power of Watson.
Joan Francy
CEO
AdMed
Frequently asked questions
How long does building chatbots take?
You can learn how to use the product and build your first topic in less than 30 minutes.
What is an API?
An API is a software intermediary that enables two applications to communicate with each other by opening up their data and functionality. App developers use an API’s interface to communicate with other products and services to return information requested by the end user. When you use an application (such as a virtual assistant) on your phone or computer, the application connects to the Internet and sends data to a server via an API. The API then helps the server interpret the data so it can perform the necessary actions. Finally, the server sends the requested data back to your device via the API where it is interpreted by the application and presented to you in a readable format. Without APIs, many of the online applications that we’ve come to rely on would not be possible.
What is the best way to get started with a visual bot builder interface?
Learn more about how to start building your first chatbot in the Getting started documentation.
Is there a visual chatbot builder tutorial?
Visit the Watson Assistant documentation for a full tutorial on creating your virtual assistant with the visual chatbot builder.
Does Watson Assistant have an out-of-the-box web chat widget?
Yes, you can immediately add your assistant to your company website as a web chat widget that can help your customers with common questions and tasks and transfer customers to human agents. To integrate the web chat widget, follow these instructions to generate and copy the required code onto your webpage(s).
Can I deploy my chatbot to channels like Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Slack, or Amazon Alexa?
Yes, you can deploy your chatbot to Facebook Messenger, Intercom, Slack, SMS with Twilio, and WhatsApp. You can even deploy to Amazon Alexa. Learn more about Watson Assistant integrations.
Can I deploy to WordPress?
Yes, you can use this Wordpress plugin (link resides outside IBM). In a few minutes, you can train Watson to answer FAQs, provide useful information and help customers navigate your website.
How do I set up a Twilio account for my chatbot?
To integrate your chatbot with Twilio, you need to add the Watson Assistant phone integration first, then create a Twilio Flex project and a Twilio function to handle incoming calls. Read the full instructions in the Watson Assistant documentation.
Are there chatbot templates to use?
By default, the web chat window shows a home screen that can welcome users and tell them how to interact with the assistant. For information about CSS helper classes that you can use to change the home screen style, see the prebuilt templates documentation.
What are common chatbot use cases?
Customer care is the most common chatbot use case. Chatbots are helpful to both product- and service-based companies looking to provide a superior user experience by to answering customer questions, guiding customers through simple troubleshooting, and connecting customers to the resources they need.
Chatbots are also often used by sales teams looking for a tool to support lead generation. Chatbots can quickly validate potential leads based on the questions they ask, then pass them on to human sales representatives to close the deal.
Chatbots can even be used in e-commerce by acting as a digital sales clerk, akin to what customers would experience in brick-and-mortar stores. E-commerce chatbots can provide a personalized shopping experience that converts passive visitors into engaged prospects.