Creating Your First Bot
Create, name and configure a new bot from a template, from scratch, or with AI.
Overview
A bot is an AI agent made of flows (connected nodes), intents and utterances, a Knowledge Base, and the channels it is published to. This guide creates a simple bot you can build on. You will find bots under Bots in the left navigation.
Choosing a bot type
When you create a bot you choose a type, which seeds an appropriate starting structure. You can customize any of them.
| Bot type | Best for |
|---|---|
| FAQ | Answering common questions from your Knowledge Base |
| Support | Resolving issues, with handoff to an agent |
| E-commerce | Order status, product lookups and checkout |
| Lead Gen | Qualifying and capturing leads |
| Custom | Building from a blank canvas |
Naming & metadata
- Open Bots and click New Bot.
- Give the bot a clear name and description.
- Choose the bot type and default language.
Adding your first node
- In Bot Builder, the default flow already has a Start node.
- Drag a Text node from the Core Conversation section of the palette onto the canvas.
- Draw an edge from the Start node to your Text node.
- Type your welcome message in the properties panel.
- Add an End node so the branch terminates.
Previewing the bot
Use the test simulator to chat with your bot exactly as a customer would, before publishing. Fix any validation warnings the builder surfaces.
What comes next
Add intents and utterances so the bot understands what customers say, upload content to the Knowledge Base so it can answer from your material, connect a channel on the Channels tab, then test and publish.