Utterance triggers unexpected topic

Chris Armstron1 · ‎06-17-2022

Hi All,

I'm very new to Virtual Agent - I thought I understood how NLU works but now i'm not sure, as something unexpected is happening.

My current understanding was that an utterance is typed into the VA and then matched to an intent within an NLU model and if that intent and NLU model has been associated with a topic in Virtual Agent > designer - it will then trigger that particular topic.. is this how it works?

I have a case where a customer is typing in 'I need help with an existing ticket' but the VA is suggesting these topics:

This utterance should have triggered the 'Check IT Ticket Status' topic, but it didn't.. Having checked the utterances within the NLU intent associated within the the check ticket status topic, there are many utterances that closely resemble the phrasing that the customer has entered, using the same words. But when I check the topics that the VA is suggesting, Microsoft Teams, E-Business, Password or login issues - none of these have remotely similar utterances in the intents that are associated with those topics.

I don't understand why the desired topic isn't being triggered, is there anything i'm missing?

Tricia Cornish · ‎06-17-2022

I tested that phrase (with the OOTB Check Ticket Status intent) and I had the same result - my NLU suggested other topics based on the utterance but not Check IT Ticket Status. I agree - you'd think it would launch "Check IT Ticket Status" but it doesn't (and I don't know why). Once I added the phrase to my intent, it was a 100% match. I don't think you're missing anything - I think this is just an example of a very generic statement that has a very specific purpose. Sorry!

Chris Armstron1 · ‎06-20-2022

Thanks Trisha, even after updating the utterances on the 'Check IT ticket status' yo match this utterances it doesn't seem to trigger it when this is typed into the VA - Which is super strange!

Thanks for having a go.

Tricia Cornish · ‎06-21-2022

Sure - It's frustrating it doesn't work the way you expect although once you add the utterance, it should find the intent.

Just to make sure that we're comparing similiar situations:
Model: is this your only active model? (You can have more than 1 but right now, I'm using my dominant custom NLU model) You re-trained and then re-published your model? Do you have enough utterances?

Topic: Are you using the template IT Ticket status or a custom IT Ticke status? Is that "discoverable?" (under the active flag, you have "display in list" and "discoverable"

Then I would look at the other topics with closely worded utterances: Teams, E-Bus, Password login and it might be helpful to edit those utterances. For my other topics like this, the subject is usually the dominant entity (all my utterances with Teams would not necessarily have "I need help with..TEAMS" but would have something like "teams is giving me issues") If your other topics also have "I need help with..." as a sample utterance, that could cause the issue. The difference between Check Ticket Status and Teams troubleshooting is the very specific topic (teams v a ticket). In that case, it might be helpful to create an entity for the app and then assign that entity to the intent in the Teams, EBS and PW topics.