Manage an assistant chat experience

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 18, 2025
  • 5 minutes to read

    • Manage the chat experience of your assistant.

    Before you begin

    See Enable additional chat features.

    Role required: virtual_agent_admin or admin

    About this task

    Define your greeting, closing messages, and fallback options.

    Depending on your configuration, different options may appear. Legacy messages (chat messages) and legacy fallbacks (chat fallbacks) are shown when at least one display experience has standard chat or enhanced chat. Premium messages and premium fallbacks are shown when at least one display experience has premium chat.

    A standard chat preview pane is shown for the default greeting topic and the default closing topic. Selecting custom topics won't show a preview pane.

    Fallbacks appear in the preview pane when you toggle individual or all fallbacks on.
    Note:
    Fallbacks aren't supported for Now Assist - Developer assistant.

    Procedure

    1. Select the Chat experience page.
    2. In the Legacy messages or the Premium messages section, set up your messages.
      Figure 1. Set up legacy messages
      Greeting message screen.

      Selecting a default topic shows its corresponding default message. You can also create your own topic from All > Assistant Designer > Asset Library, and use it as the greeting or closing topic. When selecting a custom topic, the message field isn’t shown in the preview pane.

      Closing message only appears if you have a display experience with standard chat.
      Figure 2. Standard chat closing message
      Closing topic and closing message for the standard chat experience.
      Note:
      Configuration options differ between different assistant types and display experiences.
      Table 1. Message options for assistants
      Field Description Now Assist in Virtual Agent assistant Employee Slate assistant Now Assist panel - Platform assistant Now Assist panel - Developer assistant
      Greeting topic Now Assist - Greeting is the default greeting topic for Now Assist in Virtual Agent assistants.

      Now Assist Panel - Greeting is the default greeting topic for Now Assist panel assistants.

      Select a custom greeting if you want to replace the default greeting topic.

      		 Yes Yes Yes
      Greeting message

      For legacy messages, if the default greeting topic is used, the default greeting message is shown. If a custom greeting topic is selected, the Greeting message field doesn't appear.

      		 Yes Yes Yes Yes
      Closing topic The closing topic is only applicable for the standard chat experience.

      Now Assist - Closing is the default closing topic. To replace it, select a topic from the drop-down menu.

      		 Yes (only for standard chat) No No No
      Closing message Closing message field is shown and used if the default Now Assist - Closing topic is selected.

      If a custom topic is selected, the Closing message field isn't shown.

      		 Yes (only for standard chat) No No No
      Error topic Now Assist - Error is the default topic for Now Assist in Virtual Agent assistants.

      Now Assist Panel - Error is the default topic for Now Assist panel assistants.

      To replace the default topic, select a custom topic from the drop-down menu.

      		 Yes No Yes Yes
      Error message

      For legacy messages, if the default - Error topic is used, the default Error message is used. If a custom topic is used, the error message field isn't shown.

      		 Yes Yes Yes
      Survey

      You can optionally select a custom topic to use it as a survey topic. If you don't select any topic, the default survey experience is applied.

      Feedback surveys are supported in both the standard and enhanced chat experiences. When enhanced chat is enabled, the survey is automatically triggered when the user indicates that they are finished chatting, based on the assistant's survey configuration.

      		 Yes No Yes No
    3. In the Legacy fallbacks or Premium fallbacks sections, activate one or more fallback options.
      Note:
      For premium fallbacks, web search fallback is dependent on your web search mode setting in Enable additional chat features. If web search mode is turned off, web search fallback is unavailable (grayed out). If web search mode is turned on, web search fallback is available where you can turn it on or off.
      Figure 3. Activate legacy fallback options
      Activate fallback options.
      Note:
      For Now Assist panel - Platform assistant, web search, record producer, and custom fallback are available options. End this chat and survey are available for the standard chat experience.

      Live agent is not an available option.

      Examples for when you might want to select more than one fallback option:
      • To transfer a user to a live agent while also creating an incident record.
      • To end a conversation while creating an incident report.
      • To use a custom topic while having the live agent transfer option.
      1. Route the user to an available agent by turning on Live agent. Selecting the Live agent topic field displays a drop-down for topics, and the text input is used for the fallback button in the assistant. The default Live agent topic is Now Assist Live Agent.The default button label is Request a live chat.

        If your instance doesn't have Live Agent configured, the Live Agent fallback option is unavailable. To configure Live agent, select the Configure link and navigate to CI Admin console > Settings > Agent chat tab. Use the default Now Assist Live Agent topic or select a topic.

      2. Provide the user with web search results by turning on Web search. The web search option is useful when the synthesized response can't generate answers. The Web search check box displays a text input that is used for the name of the fallback button in the assistant. The default button label is Search the web. The default web search provider is Google Gemini.
        Warning:
        Certain API features that process data via third-party providers may route traffic to a datacenter outside of your region or location for these API features. See KB2596322 for a list of third-party APIs. Please consider your organization's data policies before using this feature.

        If the instance is self-hosted or regulated, the warning message won't be shown.

        Note:
        For the premium chat experience, web search fallback requires web search mode to be turned on. To ensure that web search mode is turned on, see Enable additional chat features.
      3. Direct the user to a record producer catalog item to create an incident or a case by turning on Record producer.

        A Record producer catalog item field check box displays a drop-down where you can select a catalog item. The default record producer catalog item is Create a generic ticket. The button label default is Create a generic ticket.

        Note:
        By default, Create a generic ticket is enabled for record producer premium fallbacks. If you want to customize your own record producer fallback, select an agentic catalog item from the drop-down list.
      4. End the chat between the user and the assistant by turning on End this chat. End this chat is a fallback option for the standard chat experience. For the enhanced chat experience, conversations don't end. The text input is used for the fallback button in the assistant, and the default text input is End this chat. The button label default is End this chat.
      5. Select a topic from the Custom fallback topic field by turning on Custom fallback. There isn't a default topic. The text input is used for the fallback button in the assistant. The default text input is Custom fallback button.

      For more information about fallback options, see Enhanced chat.

    4. Select Save and continue.

    What to do next

    See Review chat assistant settings.