Virtual agent flows

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Virtual Agent Flows

    The Virtual Agent Flows in Accounts Payable Operations empower suppliers to efficiently manage invoice and inquiry-related tasks via the supplier portal’s chat channel. Suppliers can check invoice and inquiry statuses, create inquiry cases, and navigate predefined chatbot topics. The solution integrates Natural Language Understanding (NLU) to interpret supplier queries and guide them to the appropriate conversation topics, enhancing the self-service experience.

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    Suppliers can seamlessly switch between interacting with the virtual agent and live agents for additional support, ensuring flexibility in handling their issues.

    Key Features

    • Check Invoice Status: Suppliers enter an invoice number to receive the current status. Invoice statuses are clickable links leading to detailed case views. The chatbot also offers options to add comments, escalate to a live agent, search other topics, or end the chat.
    • Check Inquiry Status: Suppliers provide an invoice number to view inquiry statuses. Accounts Payable agents can create inquiries related to the invoice.
    • Create New Inquiry: Suppliers can initiate new inquiry cases via a dedicated link, selecting the inquiry type and adding comments as needed.
    • Live Agent Support: Suppliers may bypass the virtual agent greeting to connect directly with live Accounts Payable agents. Live agents can create and associate interaction records with invoice cases. If no agent is available, the system informs the supplier accordingly.
    • Pre-chat Survey: When the app-supplier-awa plugin is installed, suppliers complete a pre-chat survey that helps route conversations between live agents and Accounts Payable self-service options.
    • Chat Channel Configuration: Administrators can activate the virtual agent chatbot within the supplier portal to enable these self-service capabilities.

    Key Outcomes

    • Improved supplier experience through easy access to invoice and inquiry information via conversational UI.
    • Reduced workload on live agents by enabling suppliers to resolve common tasks independently.
    • Enhanced support flexibility by allowing seamless transitions between virtual and live agents.
    • Better case tracking and interaction management through integration with interaction records and inquiry cases.
    • Streamlined supplier communication through NLU-enhanced chatbot topic guidance and pre-chat surveys.

    Suppliers can check the invoice and inquiry statuses, create inquiry cases in the supplier portal using the chat channel. Suppliers can also use the virtual agent to view predefined chatbot topics.

    Suppliers can switch between a virtual agent and a live agent to address their issues. The customer service virtual agent topics (chatbot conversations) help suppliers complete common self-service tasks. The supplier initiates a conversation topic that consists of dialogs with the virtual agent chatbot to accomplish a goal.

    Natural Language understanding (NLU) is integrated with the virtual agent chatbot to help suppliers with invoice and inquiry-related queries. NLU also helps suppliers to analyze, understand, and navigate to the right topic.

    For more information, see Connect and Virtual Agent.

    Accounts Payable Operations Virtual agent flows

    Supplier can choose to view the following Virtual agent flows.

    Check invoice status

    The supplier provides an invoice number and the virtual agent displays the status of the invoice. The invoice status is a clickable link, which navigates suppliers to view invoice case details. For more details about the invoice, see Work with invoices.

    The chatbot prompts the supplier to perform the following.
    1. Add new comment-comment on the inquiry or invoice case that the supplier requested for
    2. Talk to a live agent- Accounts Payable Operations agent interacts with a supplier for an invoice or inquiry-related query
    3. Search for something else- Redirects suppliers to point 1
    4. All good thanks- Ends the chat

    Live Agent support

    Suppliers are routed directly to a live Accounts Payable Operations to initiate conversations and skip the virtual agent conversation greeting. Live agents can also create Interaction records and associate with an existing invoice case. For more information on interaction records, see Interaction management in Accounts Payable Operations. If an agent isn't available, the message No agent available is displayed to the user.

    Check inquiry status

    The supplier provides an invoice number and the virtual agent displays the status of the inquiry. The Accounts Payable Operations agent can create a new inquiry on the invoice.

    Create new inquiry

    The supplier can choose to create an inquiry case related to the invoice using the Create inquiry link. The Create inquiry link enables suppliers to choose the type of inquiry case. Suppliers use Add new comment to add comments related to the inquiry.

    For more information on creating inquiry case, see Submit Invoice Inquiry.

    Prechat Survey

    Pre-chat survey is available to supplier if the Accounts Payable admin installs the app-supplier-awaplugin into the system. Depending on the response received from the supplier, the chatbot directs the supplier to choose between Talk to Live Agent and Accounts Payable options. For more information on the options, see Configure the chat channel and Advanced Work Assignment in Accounts Payable Operations.

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