Virtual Agent API features

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Virtual Agent API features

    The Virtual Agent API allows for the integration of features found in Virtual Agent and Agent Chat into your chat environment. The support for specific features may vary based on your ServiceNow release and the Store app version of the API. Documentation for request and response templates, along with common use cases, can be referenced in the Virtual Agent Bot Integration API guide.

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Features

    • Provider Authentication: Options include static, hash, and token-based methods.
    • User ID Auto-linking: Automatically associates user IDs with ServiceNow accounts for a personalized experience.
    • Agent Transfer: Facilitates the transfer of users to live agents in Agent Chat.
    • Intent Classification: Supports bot-to-bot integrations, allowing the primary bot to identify user intent and manage requests effectively.
    • Idle Conversation Management: Automatically closes bot-to-bot conversations that have been inactive for over an hour.
    • Conversation States and Notifications: Records the state and reason for conversation termination, and notifies the primary bot when the conversation ends or requires control.
    • Intent Changes: Shares NLU confidence scores and enables direct topic jumps based on intent matching.
    • Logging Support: Introduced in version 1.3.0, allows logging configuration through a system property.

    Key Outcomes

    By utilizing the Virtual Agent API, ServiceNow customers can enhance their chat capabilities, ensuring a more personalized and efficient user experience. The ability to manage conversations, classify intents, and integrate with live agents supports improved service delivery and user satisfaction.

    You can use the Virtual Agent API to integrate many of the same features that are available in Virtual Agent and Agent Chat into your chat environment. Feature support varies depending on your ServiceNow release and the Store app version number of the API.

    For information about the request and response templates for Virtual Agent API, as well as examples of common use cases, see Virtual Agent Bot Integration API.

    Key features

    The main features in Virtual Agent API starting with version 1.0.9 include the following:
    • Provider authentication using static, hash, and token-based authentication
    • Auto-linking user IDs to ServiceNow accounts for a personalized experience
    • Virtual Agent transfer to a live agent in Agent Chat
    • Intent classification in bot-to-bot integrations through the following strategies:
      • The primary bot determines the user intent and sends the user request to Virtual Agent so that the corresponding topic is displayed to the user.
      • The primary bot sends the user utterance to Virtual Agent so that it can discover the intent and return a prediction confidence score. A higher confidence score indicates that the predicted topic more accurately matches the user utterance.

    Version 1.0.12 features

    Automatically close idle bot-to-bot conversations
    You can automatically close conversations that have been idle for more than one hour. The Time Out Abandoned B2B Conversations job runs hourly each day and automatically closes idle conversations that requesters have abandoned.
    Conversation states and reason codes in Virtual Agent interaction records
    When a user or primary bot ends a conversation, Virtual Agent records the state and reason codes in the interaction records. For example, an end user can type End to stop the conversation or click the X button to close the chat.
    Notifying when a conversation ends
    The primary bot is notified when Virtual Agent or Agent Chat conversations end. The primary bot is also notified when it must take control of a conversation. Virtual Agent uses the following flags:
    • completed: Sent when the conversation with Virtual Agent or a live agent is finished.
    • takeControl: Sent when the primary bot must take control. This typically occurs when Virtual Agent can't determine the conversation intent after two consecutive attempts (the default value). You can add the va.bot.to.bot.take.control_times system property to change the default number of attempts that Virtual Agent tries to determine the conversation intent.

    For more information, see Virtual Agent Bot Integration API.

    Changes with intents
    • Share the NLU confidence score for an intent match if NLU is enabled in Virtual Agent.
    • Enable end users to jump directly into a topic based on intent matching by the primary bot.

    Version 1.3.0 features

    Starting with version 1.3.0, Virtual Agent API supports logging as a system property (va.bot.to.bot.logging_enabled).