Build your first chat bot with WhatsApp, Twilio and Dialogflow

Today's customers expect an always on experience – to transact and have their questions answered whenever and wherever they are – without downloading an app or searching a slow website.

A way to achieve this is through a WhatsApp chat bot that is always ready to help, but building a bot that doesn't frustrate clients is surprisingly tricky.

In this talk I'll walk you through building your first chat bot using integrated tools like WhatsApp, Google Assistant, Twilio and Dialogflow for natural language processing, all without needing a PhD in machine learning.

Transcript

2. Build your first chat bot with WhatsApp, Twilio and Dialogflow Dale Humby CTO, Nomanini Google Cloud Platform Developer Expert
4. 90’s
5. 90’s 00’s
6. 90’s 00’s 10’s
9. Average user spends 2 hours 22 min per day on their phone
11. Meet your customers where they already are
13. 90’s 00’s 10’s Next
14. Don’t have to learn a new UI
15. Departures Fast answers to simple questions
16. Opportunity for a personal connection
17. WhatsApp
18. Dialogflow WhatsApp
19. Dialogflow WhatsApp
20. API Backend services 0xc0ffee lab
22. API Backend services 0xc0ffee lab
23. Dialogflow API Backend services 0xc0ffee lab
24. Dialogflow Agent
25. Dialogflow Agent Unstructured language “Please can I have a coffee?” “Deliver a flat white to 3 Main Rd at 10am” “Espresso. Black, please.”
26. Dialogflow Agent Unstructured language Structured data “Please can I have a coffee?” “Deliver a flat white to 3 Main Rd at 10am” “Espresso. Black, please.” $time $location $coffeeType
27. Dialogflow Agent Unstructured language Structured data “Please can I have a coffee?” “Deliver a flat white to 3 Main Rd at 10am” “Espresso. Black, please.” $time $location Expression $coffeeType
28. Dialogflow Agent Unstructured language Structured data “Please can I have a coffee?” “Deliver a flat white to 3 Main Rd at 10am” “Espresso. Black, please.” $time $location Expression Intent $coffeeType
29. Dialogflow Agent Unstructured language Structured data “Please can I have a coffee?” “Deliver a flat white to 3 Main Rd at 10am” “Espresso. Black, please.” $time $location Expression Intent Parameters $coffeeType
30. Dialogflow Agent Let’s build
31. Dialogflow API Backend services 0xc0ffee lab
32. API Backend services 0xc0ffee lab Dialogflow
33. Dialogflow API Backend services 0xc0ffee lab
35. Dialogflow API Backend services 0xc0ffee lab Firebase Functions
36. Dialogflow API Backend services 0xc0ffee lab Firebase Functions Google Assistant
37. Top tips for building a good conversational UI “AI” “Can I teach this to a high school student in 1 hour and expect them to do it well?”
38. Top tips for building a good conversational UI “AI” “Can I teach this to a high school student in 1 hour and expect them to do it well?” Find all the cat photos Spam / not? Answer simple questions Order and deliver coffee
39. Top tips for building a good conversational UI “AI” “Can I teach this to a high school student in 1 hour and expect them to do it well?” Summarise current world affairs Give me a legal opinion on ... Predict the stock market Find all the cat photos Spam / not? Answer simple questions Order and deliver coffee
40. Top tips for building good conversational UI’s • Simple, structured requests – fast, accurate answers • Give it a personality • Check logs ◦ Analytics ◦ Unmatched intents ◦ Improve training data
41. So you want WhatsApp for business… our story
42. So you want WhatsApp for business… our story • Brace yourself… took me 6 months • Need to use an aggregator (e.g. Twilio) • Need Facebook for Business • Twilio WhatsApp is very beta. I probably sent 8 support tickets. Dashboard broke after each stage • SA telephone number (+27) did not work. US number did • WhatsApp profile pic 640x640 jpg (no transparent background) • WhatsApp has to approve your push messages • Unlikely to get the green tick (unless you’re a global brand)
43. Send a WhatsApp message to +1 415 523 8886 with code join eventually-seems
44. Resources Dialogflow dialogflow.cloud.google.com (free) Twilio twilio.com/try-twilio ($15 credit at signup) Codelabs Build your first chatbot with Dialogflow codelabs.developers.google.com/codelabs/chatbots-dialogflow-appointment-scheduler/ Build Actions on Google Assistant codelabs.developers.google.com/codelabs/actions-1 Dale Humby dale@nomanini.com dalehumby.com We’re hiring nomanini.com/careers
45. Thanks dale@nomanini.com
46. OMG the demo failed
68. Send a WhatsApp message to +1 415 523 8886 with code join eventually-seems.
69. Backup slides
70. Final tip: Use Chatbots as another tool in your toolbox Chatbot KB Suggest answers Sentiment analysis Speech ⟷ text Transcripts Customer satisfaction Handoff to human operator