Intents are the intentions or actions that users want to perform through a conversation with a chatbot or a virtual assistant. In other words, intents represent the purpose or goal of the user during the conversation.
For example, if a user wants to book a flight, the intent might be “book a flight”. If the user wants to know the opening hours of a store, the intent could be “ask for opening hours”.
Intents are identified through the analysis of the user utterances. In other words, the chatbot analyzes the phrases used by the user to identify the underlying intent. Once the intent is identified, the chatbot can elaborate an appropriate response and provide the user with the requested information.
Identifying and defining intents is an important activity during the development of a chatbot, as it allows you to create an artificial intelligence system, capable to understand and respond to users’ requests precisely and effectively.