Use Virtual Agent Designer to create and modify Virtual Agent topics (conversations). Build your topic to meet a specific objective or goal, such as fulfilling a user's request or helping a user complete a task.

Before you begin

Do the following:

Role required: virtual_agent_admin or admin

About this task

The topic is in the Inactive state until you publish it. Publishing a topic changes the topic state to Active and automatically deploys the topic to your Virtual Agent clients.

The Large Language Model (LLM) topic type is faster and easier to set up compared to using Natural Language Understanding. You don't have to select NLU intents or train NLU models for your virtual agent. For more information, see LLM topic discovery in Virtual Agent.

When NLU is enabled, the Set up Natural Language Understanding (NLU) section is displayed in the Topic Properties page. You can use this section to specify the associated NLU model and intent for the topic. You can also optionally specify keywords that Virtual Agent can use as a fallback if NLU doesn't return a matching intent and topic. For more information, see Natural Language Understanding (NLU) topic discovery in Virtual Agent.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to All > Conversational Interfaces > Virtual Agent > Designer.
  2. In the Topics page, select Create.
  3. On the form, fill in the fields.
    For a description of the field values, see the Create a topic form.
  4. Select Create.
  5. On the Flow tab, build the conversation flow.
    Flow steps Description
    Add controls
    To create the topic flow:
    1. Select the controls for user inputs, bot responses, or utilities from the palette and drop them onto the canvas.

      When you add a control to the canvas, it becomes a node in the conversation flow.

    2. For each node, complete the corresponding property sheet. In the topic header bar, select Save. The topic header bar displays a Saving in progress... message. The toast message Successfully saved your topic appears in the lower-right corner afterward for 4 seconds, and can be closed by selecting the X in the message.

      For details about each control and the corresponding properties that you define, see User inputs, Bot responses, and Utilities.

    As you add controls, watch for a yellow warning badge or a red error badge in the corner of the control. The number on the badge indicates the number of issues in that control, such as missing mandatory information in the property sheet. (Highlighting a badge or the "Incomplete" banner at the top of the property sheet details the items in need of correction.)
    Move a node Select the node, drag it to the new location in the flow, and Select Save.
    Delete a node

    Select the X in the upper right corner of the node. In the topic header bar, select Save. The topic header bar displays a Saving in progress... message. The toast message Successfully saved your topic appears in the lower-right corner afterward for 4 seconds, and can be closed by selecting the X in the message.

    Note: You can't delete a node that has a script variable used by subsequent JavaScript expressions in the flow. Also, you can delete a decision node only when it has a single branch.
  6. Select Test in the header bar to test your topic in a chat window.
    You can review test results in the adjoining tabs. For detailed information, see LLM topic testing and Testing NLU/Keyword topics.

    If the Now Assist panel or Microsoft Teams is configured for your environment, preview options for those channels display in the Test button list. Select Preview in Now Assist panel or Preview in Microsoft Teams in the list to test your topic in those environments. For more information, see Integrating Virtual Agent with enterprise messaging apps.

  7. When you're finished with the topic, select the More actions on Topics icon (More actions on Topics icon) in the topic header bar, then select Save.
    The topic is in the Inactive state until you publish it.
    The topic header bar displays a Saving in progress... message. The toast message Successfully saved your topic appears in the lower-right corner afterward for 4 seconds, and can be closed by selecting the X in the message.

What to do next

Publish the topic to deploy the topic to your Virtual Agent clients. The topic state changes to Active.

If you created a topic that might be frequently used in certain contexts (environments), consider promoting the topic as part of the default or custom chat experience.