What is an intent?

<aside> 💡 It's the tool used to recognize what the user wants.

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One intent is a category that lists all the ways to say something. For instance, when the caller wants to tell you her first name, we will use the intent GiveFirstName that contains :

• "My name is ···"
• "My first name is ···"
• "I am called ···"
• "Call me ···"
• "··· is my first name"
• etc.

<aside> ☝ The sentences that we list within one intent are called utterances or user’s expressions.

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When do we use intent?

<aside> ⭐ All the time, it's a key element to conversational design.

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You will use the intents to abstract what the user wants in order to design the conversation that the voice agent will have with the caller. Every time you want to ask a question to the caller, you should try to anticipate possible answers by creating conversation paths. Depending on the recognized intent the voice agent will take one branch or another.