How To: Train Conversation AI
In this guide, we will explore how to train Conversation AI to ensure it accurately responds to customer inquiries, enhances engagement, and streamlines communication processes. Whether you're adding custom data, linking URLs, or improving its query detection, this article will walk you through the necessary steps to fully optimize and train your Conversation AI bot for your business needs.
Migrate “Conversation AI” to “Conversation AI V2”
Please note that since the launch of “Conversation AI V2” the old version "Conversation AI" is being phased out of our Platform. You will have the option to seamlessly Migrate your Bots to the new "Conversation AI V2" and from now on if “Conversation AI” is mentioned - we mean “Conversation AI V2”!
What is Conversation AI?
Conversation AI is an advanced tool that automates customer communication through various channels such as SMS, Web Chat, Facebook, and Instagram. It can be trained to answer frequently asked questions, provide accurate information, and improve over time based on data input and user interactions. By training your Conversation AI, you can ensure it aligns perfectly with your business goals and provides meaningful value to your customers.
You find the relevant Settings for Bot Training by navigating to “Settings” → "Conversation AI V2" → “Bot Training” and “Bot Goals” depending on what you want to customize. The Bot Goals describe the personality, intent and Guidelines of your Conversation AI Bot. Bot Training is the hub for providing Information to answer customer questions with.
Key Steps to Train Conversation AI
1. Bot Goals
Bot Goals define the specific outcomes you want your Conversation AI to achieve during customer interactions. Whether it's answering FAQs, booking appointments, or guiding customers through complex processes, setting clear goals ensures your AI operates with purpose and precision. These goals serve as the foundation for training and optimizing the bot, helping it align with your business objectives and enhance customer experiences. Within the “Bot Goals” Tab you can customize the Conversation AI's personality, intent and provide additional information like conversation guidelines, examples or rules to follow. With this Feature you have full control on how your Bot behaves.
For further details, please read the “Bot Goals in detail” article.
2. Bot Training
You can train your Conversation AI using information from your website or manual Q&A's:
Web Crawler Training:
Under the “Bot Training” section, add relevant Web URLs that contain key information about your business. This Web Crawler saves you the need of manual work, lets you save time and use already existing information to train itself. You can choose between the following Web Crawler options:
- Exact URL: This setting allows the web crawler to gather information from a single, specific web page. Use this option if you want the bot to reference data from one particular URL without including any other pages on the same site. Ideal for isolating content like an FAQ page or a product-specific page.
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All URLs with the path: Selecting this option instructs the crawler to pull data from all URLs that match the specified path structure. This is useful for targeting a group of related pages, such as all subpages within a category or section (e.g.,
/support/articles/) without crawling the entire domain. - All URLs in this domain: The most comprehensive setting, this option allows the crawler to access and gather data from all pages within the specified domain. Choose this if you want the bot to have a full view of all content available on the website for the most extensive training coverage.
These settings help you customize the scope of your bot's training data collection to align with your specific needs and priorities.
Depending on how extensive your Website/Knowledge Base is that you provided this can take some time, since the AI will crawl these links, extract data, and use it to answer customer queries.
When finished you can view all pages that got crawled by clicking on the “View all pages” button as you can see in the image below.
Review the extracted content to ensure accuracy and relevance. Select either all pages to train your bot with or check individual pages, with which you want to train the bot with.
Manual Q&A Training:
The Manual Q&A Training section empowers you to fine-tune your bot's responses by manually adding or improving question-and-answer pairs. You can test your bot directly by interacting with it in the "Test your Bot" panel. If a response is accurate and satisfactory, give it a thumbs-up to confirm. However, if the response needs improvement, give it a thumbs-down. This action will prompt an option to create or refine the Q&A for that specific query, ensuring your bot continues to learn and improve over time. This hands-on approach allows for tailored and precise training to meet your specific communication needs.
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3. Reviewing and Auditing Data
In the "Uploaded Links" section, you have full control over the information crawled by the bot. You can edit specific content retrieved from individual pages (URLs) to ensure the bot’s responses align with your business needs and messaging. Additionally, you can refresh specific pages to update the data without re-crawling the entire domain, keeping the information current. If a page is no longer relevant, you can delete the specific URL from the crawled data, ensuring the bot only uses accurate and necessary information. This flexibility allows for precise management of the bot’s training material.
By regularly auditing, you ensure the AI remains effective and up-to-date with your business needs.
Best Practices for Training Conversation AI
- Start with the Basics: Add frequently asked questions and their answers.
- Use Reliable Sources: Ensure the URLs provided are accurate and up-to-date.
- Regular Audits: Review and update data consistently for continuous improvement.
- Refresh Data regularly: Regularly refresh your crawled Data of your website and knowledge base to provide up-to-date information to your customers.
- Test your Bot: Regularly test your bot and improve answers you are not satisfied with.
FAQs
Can the bot be trained based on Google Sheets, Docs and other similiar services?
Yes, the bot can crawl any website/webpage if the webpage is available to anyone who has the link. You can set the permissions for your Documents in Google or other similiar services - the permission needs to be the following: “Anyone with the Link can View”.
I am not able to find Conversation AI in the Sub-Account Settings.
Check if the “Conversation AI V2” section is available, if neither of these two is available you need to check your Permissions in the “My Staff” Section of the settings (if you are not an Admin within your Sub-Account you need to contact your Admin to do this for you). If you are an Admin and you still are having problems don't hesitate to contact us! Contact
Can I upload documents (PDF, txt, or docx) to train the bot?
As of now you need to upload your files to any service like Google sheets or something similiar, since the training method via file upload is in development. For now you can train the bot via any public URL/Website and manual Q&A's.
What is the purpose of the “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” icons on the Bot Trial Page?
These icons serve as a feedback mechanism. The "thumbs up" icon indicates that the bot's response is correct, while the "thumbs down" icon allows users to edit the bot's response for the question and train the bot further via this action. The process will add a new Q&A.
Can I edit both the question and the answer when I click the “thumbs down” Icon?
Yes, the "thumbs down" icon opens a pop-up window where you can edit both the question and the answer provided by the bot.
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How do I add custom responses to the Conversation AI?
You can manually add responses by navigating to the Bot Training section under Conversation AI and entering custom Questions and answers.
What happens if the AI doesn’t know how to respond?
This is a information that you can provide and set for your Conversation AI Bot. Within the Tab Bot Goals you can add information on how the Conversation AI should act, how its personality should be and more. Here are two examples on how a bot can behave in two different situations:
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Can I check from where the Conversation AI takes its information for a answer?
Yes, if you click on the “star” icon of a bot message, within the Test area of the Conversation AI, a window will open as you can see in the image below. Here you can see the source and information of why and how the response of the Bot was how it ended up to be.
Can I train the AI using my website’s content?
Yes, you can add relevant URLs under the training section, and the AI will crawl the pages to extract and train on the content.
How do I review and update the crawled data?
Use the Uploaded Links dropdown to see what data was crawled. You can edit, delete, or add new information to refine the bot’s responses. Click on the button for the desired url to review and a window will open in which you can edit the information crawled from the website. Right beside the “review” button you can find a refresh button, if you want to refresh a single url.
How often should I audit my Conversation AI?
Regular audits are recommended, especially after adding new data or URLs, to ensure accuracy and relevance.
Can Conversation AI speak German and other languages?
Yes, Conversation AI can communicate in German and several other languages. However, its effectiveness depends on the training material provided. By adding Q&A pairs or crawling websites with content in the desired language, you can train the bot to understand and respond in that language. For optimal results, ensure that the training data is comprehensive and contextually accurate in the language you want the bot to use.
Conclusion
Training your Conversation AI ensures it meets your business’s unique needs and provides consistent, reliable answers to your customers. By adding custom responses, integrating website content, and regularly auditing the AI, you can continuously improve its efficiency and accuracy. Start training your Conversation AI today to streamline customer communication and enhance engagement.