Virtual Agent Contextual Search topic block picker.

trevorn
Tera Contributor

I recently added contextual search to our greeting topic in virtual agent, and I have it configured to search both the Service Catalog and Knowledge base. However, I cannot seem to find a way to search topic blocks that I have created as well. Does anyone know if it's possible to include the topic block picker in the contextual search, or set this up in a better wayfind_real_file.pngfind_real_file.png

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Travis Rogers
ServiceNow Employee
ServiceNow Employee

Hey Trevorn - The greeting wouldn't really be an ideal place to perform the contextual search. Out of box, the AI Search Fallback Topic is already designed to search the Catalog and Knowledgebase. Be sure to activate AI Search to take advantage of this. Note that Fallback Topics are a 'last resort' and not the primary method by which users should interact with VA. 

More importantly, keep in mind that Virtual Agent is meant to be conversational and not just a replacement of the platform Search widget. This means VA will first look at your existing Topics, then if none match the user's input it will invoke the AI Search fallback. You don't need to configure anything special to make this happen. 

Example AI Search Fallback: 

find_real_file.png

 

Based on the flow as you've designed it above, VA would greet the user, ask them what they want, try to search the KB/Catalog, then it will again ask them what they want and go off to search the VA topics. Not an ideal experience for users. Imagine if the user's original input was "I'm having trouble with Outlook" - the best path is to route them to the Email Issues OOB topic to assist the user first, versus forcing them straight to the knowledgebase. 

Hope this was helpful. Feel free to reply with more questions on this!

Regards,

Travis

 

View solution in original post

2 REPLIES 2

Travis Rogers
ServiceNow Employee
ServiceNow Employee

Hey Trevorn - The greeting wouldn't really be an ideal place to perform the contextual search. Out of box, the AI Search Fallback Topic is already designed to search the Catalog and Knowledgebase. Be sure to activate AI Search to take advantage of this. Note that Fallback Topics are a 'last resort' and not the primary method by which users should interact with VA. 

More importantly, keep in mind that Virtual Agent is meant to be conversational and not just a replacement of the platform Search widget. This means VA will first look at your existing Topics, then if none match the user's input it will invoke the AI Search fallback. You don't need to configure anything special to make this happen. 

Example AI Search Fallback: 

find_real_file.png

 

Based on the flow as you've designed it above, VA would greet the user, ask them what they want, try to search the KB/Catalog, then it will again ask them what they want and go off to search the VA topics. Not an ideal experience for users. Imagine if the user's original input was "I'm having trouble with Outlook" - the best path is to route them to the Email Issues OOB topic to assist the user first, versus forcing them straight to the knowledgebase. 

Hope this was helpful. Feel free to reply with more questions on this!

Regards,

Travis

 

How can we implement this ?

 

Can you please explain the steps for that ?