Virtual Agent conversations for Contact Tracing

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
  • Contact Tracing provides a Virtual Agent conversation to assess the health of potentially exposed contacts via SMS.

    Overview

    A Virtual Agent conversation topic enables a dialog between the Virtual Agent (chatbot) and a user to accomplish a specific goal. The provided Exposure conversation topic for Contact Tracing asks potentially exposed contacts questions based on the Exposure Case Task Survey. Contact tracers use the responses to assess the health of a potentially exposed contact.

    Contact Tracing uses an SMS outreach to initiate the Virtual Agent conversation and begin the survey. The Exposure Case Task Survey outreach can be sent automatically when users are added to case tasks as exposed contacts. Alternatively, contact tracers can send the survey manually while working on a case task by selecting the Send SMS Survey button. Users who receive the survey can reply back via SMS.

    Organizations can use the Exposure conversation topic and Exposure Case Task Survey as provided or customize it. For example, you might want to add a "Prefer not to say" answer option to one or more questions.
    Note:
    To complete the customization, you must apply any changes to both the Exposure conversation topic in Virtual Agent > Designer and the Exposure Case Task Survey in Survey > View Surveys. Applying changes to only the conversation topic or the survey will not update both the topic and survey.

    Installation and setup requirements

    Note the following requirements to use Virtual Agent with SMS:

    Note the following requirements for users to complete Exposure Case Task Surveys via SMS:
    • Your organization must install and set up Virtual Agent for use with SMS.
    • To receive SMS messages for Contact Tracing, users must have a mobile phone number listed on their user record [sys_user]. Mobile numbers must be in E.164 format, for example, +18585551212.
    • Privacy consent for Contact Tracing must be configured before users can reply to SMS messages. For instructions and more information, see Setting up data privacy consent settings for Contact Tracing.
    • Users must agree to the privacy consent before they can respond to the survey.

    Send Exposure Case Task Surveys automatically via SMS

    As an administrator, you can configure Contact Tracing to enable Exposure Case Task Surveys to be automatically sent via SMS.

    Before you begin

    Ensure that the installation and setup requirements to enable Virtual Agent conversations for Contact Tracing are met. For more information, see Virtual Agent conversations for Contact Tracing.

    Role required: admin

    About this task

    Enable the sn_imt_tracing.enable_sms_exposure_survey property so that Exposure Case Task Surveys are sent automatically when users are added to Exposed Contacts. Potentially exposed contacts can respond to the surveys via SMS, providing contact tracers with an assessment of their health status.

    Procedure

    1. Configure the sn_imt_tracing.enable_sms_exposure_survey property.
      1. Navigate to Contact Tracing > Administration > Properties.
      2. Set the sn_imt_tracing.enable_sms_exposure_survey property to Yes.
      3. Click Save.
    2. Optional: Modify the survey questions and answers sent to potentially exposed contacts.
      For example, add a "Prefer not to say" answer option to one or more questions.
      1. Update the Exposure Virtual Agent conversation topic in Virtual Agent > Designer.
        For more information on updating conversation topics, see Virtual Agent Designer.
      2. Update the Exposure Case Task Survey in Survey > View Surveys.
        For more information on updating surveys, see Survey designer.

      To complete the customization, you must apply any changes to both the Exposure conversation topic in Virtual Agent > Designer and the Exposure Case Task Survey in Survey > View Surveys. Applying changes to only the conversation topic or the survey will not update both the topic and survey.

    Result

    When adding users to potentially exposed contacts in case tasks:
    • Potentially exposed contacts are automatically added to the Exposure case task survey audience.
    • The Exposure Case Task Survey outreach sends the SMS notification to the audience and the Virtual Agent processes the responses, executing the survey as an SMS conversation.
    • Survey answers are stored in the [asmt_metric_result] table.