Twilio Autopilot skipping initiation task

Question

we have setup an autopilot flow where some of the tasks have the same training samples, so we have setup listen constraints along the flow to help keep the tasks answering properly.

Current setup: Our greeting task is setup as sort of a dummy, which just listens and constrains available tasks to "initial_screen_yes" and "initial_screen_no". These tasks contain various samples, for instance initial_screen_yes has things like: sure, yes, yup, totally, right now, soon, etc. and similarly with our initial_screen_no.

The current "greeting" task looks like:

{
    "actions": [
        {
            "listen": {
                "tasks": [
                    "initial_screen_yes",
                    "initial_screen_no"
                ]
            }
        }
    ]
}

The problem: When we initiate a chat conversation, autopilot seems to be skipping the configuration on the task flagged as the "initiation" task in Default Behaviors and going straight to a further sub-task which also has training samples that include "yes, sure, yup, etc"

Expected behavior seems that it would take in the response and direct it to these two tasks, but it's being grabbed by another task we have called: schedule_home_value_appt

Any ideas?

The initial task is set up for things like phone calls, where the bot speaks first. In a chat conversation it is going to wait for input from the user first and then choose a task. In this case it seems that because your tasks have similar samples there is just a battle between the tasks. I'd like to understand the flow better before I suggest another way to do this. Can you explain how this works from a user perspective? They are in a chat, how do they get asked the first question? How do they start their conversation with the bot? — philnash
@philnash we initiate the first message via programmable sms. The first message is dynamically generated with the leads address, provided value and our clients name. I would expect initiation task to be followed whether via SMS or voice to be honest. I think this is a bug in twilios logic. Their support finally answered and said they are escalating it as my config should be limiting to the two tasks I defined. — 1parkplace
As far as I understand, the initiation task is for when the bot initiates the conversation, such as when answering an inbound call. There isn't a function to have the bot initiate a text conversation which is why you have to send the message via programmable SMS. I'm glad that you've raised with support, they will be able to bring it to the attention of the product team and either get an better answer for you, or add this to the backlog. — philnash
@philnash Yea, there is no way to initiate a call or a text from an autopilot which is a bummer, but this is why people use it in conjunction with Studio Flow. However, regardless of whether someone enters an autopilot via SMS or a phone call, it should ALWAYS route through the initiation step (as defined in default behaviors) in my opinion, logically following the UI hints. — 1parkplace

philnash philnash · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-03T07:51:06

Twilio developer evangelist here.

I believe I've found what you need here.

The initial task is for phone calls where the bot answers the phone and speaks first. This is not supported for text channels like SMS. However, you can set a target task by adding a TargetTask parameter to the URL (or by setting the target task in the Autopilot widget in Studio).

Let me know if that helps!

Twilio Autopilot skipping initiation task

1 Answers