# Multi-Channel Chatbot

### <mark style="color:orange;">What is a Chatbot?</mark>

A chatbot is a software that can help users by automating conversations and interacting with them through messaging platforms.

### <mark style="color:orange;">Why do you need a Chatbot?</mark>

Chatbots can be utilised for:

1. **Discovery:** The creator can enable the discovery of content, programs, apps, etc., for its users.
2. **Query resolution:** User's queries related to anything for which a help section is required can be resolved.
3. **Updates and Announcements:** The creator can put personalised updates and announcements for its users to consume.
4. **Contextual engagement:** The creator can significantly improve the user interaction on your platform by implementing contextual chatbot popups. These popups can be strategically activated in key scenarios such as when a user tends to leave a page or requires further explanations about the content presented.

### <mark style="color:orange;">How can you use a Chatbot?</mark>

Users can interact with the chatbot in two ways:

1. **Structured pre-defined steps:** The creator can define the steps, flows, UI, and actions that a user can access. The user must choose specific paths to reach what they seek.
2. **Free-flowing conversation:** In this, the creator can define an answer to a list of probable questions. Using machine learning, the system will further make more such combinations of questions to which a particular answer can be applied. This is more like a real conversation with users, but here also, the boundary is what answers have been already defined by the creator.

### <mark style="color:orange;">How to Configure?</mark>

The above capabilities of the Multi-Channel Chatbot are derived from components of Sunbird UCI. You can find details by clicking on the link [here](https://ed.sunbird.org/learn/functional-capabilities/product-and-developers-guide/multi-channel-chatbot).


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://ed.sunbird.org/learn/functional-capabilities/multi-channel-chatbot.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.