Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant features
Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant™ (IVA) is a chatbot that provides you with several useful features, depending on your version of Pega Platform. After you create, configure, and build a chatbot, users can interact with your application by using a social messaging platform, such as Apple Messages for Business, Facebook, SMS/MMS, and WhatsApp, to instantly ask for help, obtain more information, or report problems. The comparison matrices in the sections below provide a comprehensive view of feature support across different Pega Platform versions.
The following video describes new chatbot and email bot features that are available in Pega Platform version 8.6:
Chatbot types
The following table lists available chatbots by Pega Platform version.
| Chatbot type | 7.3.1 | 7.4 | 8.1 | 8.2 | 8.3 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.6 |
| IVA for Alexa | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| IVA for Legacy Webchat | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| IVA for Facebook (legacy channel) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| IVA for Facebook (Digital Messaging channel) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| IVA for SMS/MMS - Twilio (Digital Messaging channel) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| IVA for Apple Messages for Business (Digital Messaging channel) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| IVA for Web Messaging (Digital Messaging channel) | ✓ | |||||||
| IVA for WhatsApp (Digital Messaging channel) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Run time
The following table lists available run-time features by Pega Platform version.
| Run-time feature | 7.3.1 | 7.4 | 8.1 | 8.2 | 8.3 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.6 |
| Rich user interface menu (IVA for Facebook and Legacy Webchat). | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Date picker control (IVA for Legacy Webchat). | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| File attachments (IVA for Legacy Webchat). | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Time and date picker control (IVA for Legacy Webchat). | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Simple forms (IVA for Legacy Webchat). | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Menu of commands displayable as simple menu buttons or text replies. | ✓ | ✓ |
Design time
The following table lists available design-time features by Pega Platform version.
| Design-time feature | 7.3.1 | 7.4 | 8.1 | 8.2 | 8.3 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.6 |
| Add new commands in the preview console. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Edit questions in the preview console. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Test the chatbot using the preview console. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Use an entity-to-case property mapping definition. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Build a chatbot using the preview console. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Create a single channel to expose on multiple messaging platforms (Digital Messaging). | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Create a stand-alone conversation process. | ✓ | |||||||
| Configure conversation smart shapes in a conversation process: Ask a question, Send a message, and Conversation flow. | ✓ |
NLP analysis
The following table lists available NLP analysis features by Pega Platform version.
| NLP analysis feature | 7.3.1 | 7.4 | 8.1 | 8.2 | 8.3 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.6 |
| Perform NLP analysis of each chat message from users. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Suggest case commands that are based on NLP in order to start a business case. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Highlight detected entities in the chat message in the preview console. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Supports decisioning capabilities in chat conversations. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Supports keyword-based entities. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Supports named entity recognition, including multiple entities in the text analytics model. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Supports the iNLP text analyzer and uses outcomes from multiple text analyzers. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Change the default analyzer in the advanced configuration and display the text analysis settings on the Behavior tab. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Configure the chatbot to detect small talk separately. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Training models
The following table lists available training model features by Pega Platform version.
| Training models feature | 7.3.1 | 7.4 | 8.1 | 8.2 | 8.3 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.6 |
| Use the Training data tab to perform inline editing of records. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Send feedback about training data to the text analytics model in the IVA channel. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Use bulk Mark reviewed and Delete actions on the Training data tab. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Update the text analytics model with one click. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Edit and mark up the training data records on the Training data tab. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Create, update, and remove entities on the Training data tab. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Highlight entities in the preview console. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Create both entity and topic feedback records for text analytics models. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Click Save as to create a copy of out-of-the-box entities in the application ruleset. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Export both reviewed and unreviewed records together with entity models. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Import both reviewed and unreviewed records together with entity models. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Send feedback to the text analytics model when removing an entity. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Text analytics model versioning. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
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