Product Update - v5.9, Webex Connect Bot Builder Platform, August 2024

Webex Connect Bot Builder v5.9 release brings multiple new capabilities to help you continue delivering seamless customer experiences. Here’s a list of the key updates:

• Introduction of LLM based knowledge bots that retrieve relevant information from the configured
  knowledge documents and provide generative AI powered answers based on user queries
• Search capability in intents and entities to improve developer productivity
• Custom events for voice channel for fulfilment
• Ability to send holding responses for voice channel for better end-user experience
• Ability to override the default platform error message for errors caused by incorrect bot configuration
• Fixed a bug to hide deprecated channels from analytics that were visible in certain tenants
• Changes to full access user’s view for first time login to bot builder platform through connect
• Updated language detection logic in Q&A and task bots for consistent multi-lingual experience

Please refer to the details below to learn about all the changes and enhancements.

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Release Date

The date of release will be communicated separately over an email.

Details

Added - LLM based knowledge bots

There’s a breakthrough in the Webex Connect Bot Builder Platform’s offerings: the incorporation of Large Language
Model (LLM) based ‘Knowledge bots'. This advancement empowers developers to create sophisticated knowledge
bots without the need for manually configured training data. Instead, the platform leverages the content of
uploaded files as a rich knowledge source. These LLM bots can provide users with comprehensive and informative
answers to their inquiries, fostering increased workflow efficiency, enhanced customer satisfaction, and an
empowered workforce equipped with the knowledge required for success. This is a BETA feature. To enable
knowledge bots for your enterprise, please contact your account manager.

Added - Search capability in intents and entities to improve developer productivity

Users can now search for a specific intent/entity directly from the intent/entity list.

Added - Custom events for voice channel for fulfilment

Developers can now search for intents and entities in their task bots using various fields. Intents allow search by
Intent name and Template key fields. Similarly, entities allow search by Entity name and Entity type. This will ease
navigation in bots with a high number of intents or entities.

Added - Ability to send holding responses for voice channel for better end-user experience

For voice channel, latency is of the utmost importance for a good end-user experience. There can be cases where a
response requires fulfilment by invoking external services that might take time to respond and increase the latency.
In such cases, developers can now use the ‘Send previous responses’ feature to send a holding message to the end-
user while the fulfilment takes place. This is available as a toggle in code responses for Voice channel. Turning this
toggle on instructs the bot builder to send any messages configured prior to the code template to the user before
the code execution takes place. The subsequent part of the response is sent as a different message to the end-user
once the code execution is complete. This ensures that the users are in the loop about the conversation being
active.

Added - Ability to override the default platform error message for errors caused by incorrect bot configuration

Developers can now mask the default platform error message which contains the transaction id for the message by
configuring the required error message in the ‘Runtime error message’ field. This message will be sent to end-users
in case of any errors in the bot builder and in error cases pertaining to bot configuration (template key not found,
incorrect variable use, etc.)

Fixed - A bug to hide deprecated channels from analytics that were visible in certain tenants

Fixed a bug that displayed deprecated channels in the Channel dropdown in Analytics section.

Changed - Changes to full access user’s view for first time login to bot builder platform through connect

We noticed that a developer with full access on Webex connect saw an empty dashboard when cross-launching
from connect for the first time. To fill this gap and help the user with the remedial steps for an enterprise with
existing bots, we have added an appropriate splash screen for this scenario.

Updated - Language detection logic in Q&A and task bots for consistent multi-lingual experience

To improve the user experience for multi-lingual Q&A and task bots, we have restricted the language detection to
only once per session. The user can however change the language manually mid-session. The new user-provided
language will then be used throughout the session.

Changelog