Create and configure the AI agents

For more information, see Set up scripted AI agent and Set up autonomous AI agent sections in the Webex AI Agent Studio Administration guide.

Configure AI agents in flow

You can use an AI Agent node to answer specific queries from a corpus or knowledge base. You can also enable multiturn conversations. The AI agent can ask follow-up questions, understand context, and provide personalized responses.

Simply drag and drop the AI Agent node onto your visual flow builder to get started. This node helps you use scripted and autonomous AI agents configured within the Webex AI Agent Studio.

Configure input and output variables in AI agent node

The AI Agent node contains two methods:

• Process Message: Allows you to send user messages to the selected agent and get agent responses back.

• Close session: Allows you to close a session in the AI agent. In certain scenarios, it may be necessary to close an existing AI agent session and initiate a new one. It can be achieved using a specific method within the AI Agent node. For example, if a session remains inactive for a specified period, the system closes the session automatically to optimize resources.

1. In the Process Message method, configure the following input variables:

   • Agent type: The type of agent used in the flow, such as scripted or autonomous.

   • Agent: The agent that processes the user message and gets a response.

     You can see the AI agents that you have access to in the Webex AI Agent Studio. For more information on managing users and agents in Webex AI Agent Studio, see User Roles.

   • Message: The variable name containing the incoming customer message sent to the chosen AI agent

   • Language: If the chosen AI agent is multilingual, you can choose the language of the incoming message in the Language drop-down list. We populate the drop-down list based on languages in AI agent settings.

     Note: We disable this drop-down list for agents with a single language.

   • Channel: The name of the channel from which the system receives the customer's message.

   • User identifier: Provide the user's unique identifier for the chosen channel.

   • Custom Parameters (optional): You can pass additional information about the customer to the Webex AI Agent Studio as a key value pair. We associate this information with the user's profile and use it for later conversations. For example, you can specify whether a user is a new customer or an existing customer.

     Keys passed as Custom Parameters are accessible as ${consumerData.extra_params.<your_key>} in agent responses.

     Currently, custom parameters are supported only for scripted AI agent through digital channels.

   • Message Parameters (optional): You can pass additional information about the current exchange to the Webex AI Agent Studio as a key value pair.

     We don’t store this message and it’s only available for use in the next agent response. Keys passed as Message Parameters are accessible as ${extra_params.<your_key>} in agent responses.

2. Configure the following output variables in the Process Message method:

   • TextResponse: The text output configured within the AI agent; works only if no other type of rich or special elements is present. Also, for multiple text items in the response, the first text item is returned.

   • FullResponse: The full response with all rich elements and multiple messages present in the output from the agent.

   • Datastore: A JSON/dict of all user-defined sessions variables within the agent

   • TransactionId: The transaction id for the request in Webex AI Agent Studio

   • SessionId: The session/conversation id in Webex AI Agent Studio

   • ConsumerId: The customer id in Webex AI Agent Studio

   • MessageMetadata: The metadata associated with the current response from the configured agent

   • SessionMetadata: The metadata associated with the session for the current response from the configured agent

     Currently, MessageMetadata and SessionMetadata are supported only for scripted AI agent through digital channels.

   • ResponsePayload: The complete response payload from Webex AI Agent Studio

3. Configure the following input variables in the Close Session method:

   • Agent: The agent who processes the user message and gets a response.

     You can see the AI agents that you have access to in the Webex AI Agent Studio. For more information on managing users and agents in Webex AI Agent Studio, see User Roles.

   • Session ID: We close the AI agent session. Session ID is available as an output variable of the Process message method.

Node Outcomes

You can see the list of possible node outcomes for this node. You can customize the node labels using the Edit (pencil) icon. The node exits through one of the node edges corresponding to the outcome of the node. Each AI Agent node corresponds to a node outcome. Here’s a list of node outcomes.

• Error (Red): indicates the following:

  • onError: when the agent hasn’t responded with a message.

  • onInvalidCustomerID: when a customer identifier is missing.

  • onInvalidMessage: when the message value is missing.

• Success (Green): indicates the following:

  • onSuccess: when the agent responds with a message.

  • onAgentHandover: when the agent raises a request to handover to the agents.

• Timeout (Yellow/Amber): indicates the following:

  • onTimeOut: when the agent hasn’t responded in not more than 15 seconds.