I can't get Entities to work in my NLU Intent

[Matt Lodge]

I have built an intent that contains 161 utterances. I then created an entity that will point to a response further down the conversational flow of my topic. I then went to the VA Designer to link the new Entity to the Static choice node in my topic and I linked the utterance to the mapped entity i just created. Finally I trained the model and published  changes to the NLU model and topic.

When I now enter the utterance that should take me to the response further down the topic flow, it doesn't work. Instead, it takes me right to the beginning of the flow where I have my first static choice node.

I must be missing something somewhere, can anyone help?

[Tricia Cornish]

Hi chipt - Not sure, but you have 2 identical entities for 2 closely related topics - there's a lot of overlap. You mentioned "for internal reasons" but it might be worth revisiting that decision and using just 1 source. You can control access with the topic. Are your intents in different models in different scopes?

Your utterances might be out of balance and the check ticket type is used more frequently so is predicted higher than create ticket type. How does your batch testing, cross model conflict review look and expert feedback loop help?  Seems like you'll have to point specific test utterances with your dedicated entities to one or the other. 

[Tricia Cornish]

Hi Matt - this could be an issue in your topic design, or your mapped nlu entities. It depends on the entities found for the first static choice mode.  If this is still an issue, please post your pics of your topic and your nlu intents and entities.

Here's an example of my topic where I have multiple entities. In my "Manage Meetings" topic, without NLU and entity mapping, I'll have a Q&A for meeting type (Zoom, Teams, Webex), schedule type (create, reschedule, cancel), then date, time and user. My NLU entities are mapped in my utterances, then my VA components are mapped to those entities.
My topic is very sequential in the design and the path that is taken is based first on the tool, then the meeting type- if any of the prompts are not matched to an entity, prompt the user for details.  The topic does not jump ahead if those entities are not found.
In my NLU intent definition, I'm going to come up with variations of statements with my entities in different positions of the statement. 161 is a lot of utterances. 

In my example (which is for demo purposes so not completely built out), I have decision paths based on first the collaboration tool, then the schedule type (create a new meeting, reschedule or cancel because different details are required). The setup path is well defined and mapped to the entities. When I type "I need to set up a zoom with Abel Tuesday next Wed at 9" i'm only prompted for the meeting subject. 

My reschedule path is not mapped to entities at all. If I enter "I need to change my meeting next Tuesday", I'll need to choose my collaboration tool first and if I haven't mapped "changed" to "reschedule" in my NLU entity mapping, then I'll have to clarify and follow that path and I'll get prompted for date, time, meeting subject and participant. If Date on the "reschedule" path is not mapped to my system entity, then I'll get prompted for Tuesday as well. 

If I enter a simple statement: 
"I have a meeting next Wednesday"  i haven't defined my meeting tool in my utterance, prompt for Zoom, Teams or Webex.
In my NLU intent mapping,  I might not have indicated that "have a meeting" should be mapped to the "set up a meeting" in my simple entity meeting type,  so i'll still get prompted for "setup a meeting, reschedule or cancel", and I'll get prompted for time and participant.
My date (next Wed) is captured, but because I haven't answered the previous questions in my chosen path (set up v reschedule or cancel) for Zoom, I can't jump to the date and move from that point forward. 

Hope that helps!