Microsoft Conversational AI Platform for Developers : End-to-End Chatbot Development From Planning to Deployment

Build a chatbot using the Microsoft Conversational AI platform. This book will teach you, step by step, how to save time and money by including chatbots in your enterprise's strategy. You will learn how to be proficient at every phase of development, from collaboration on a chatbot in an end-to-end scenario, to the first mock-up phase, and on through to the deployment and evaluation phases. Microsoft built a cloud service ecosystem for running artificial intelligence workloads in public cloud scenarios and a robust AI platform that offers a broad range of services targeting conversational artificial intelligence solutions such as chatbots. Building a chatbot requires not just developer coding skills but special considerations, including input from business stakeholders such as domain matter experts and power users. You will learn by example how to use a great set of tools and services to bridge the gap between business and engineering. You will learn how to successfully morph business requirements into actionable IT and engineering requirements. You will learn about Bot Framework Composer, which allows power users to initiate the building of a chatbot that can then be handed over to the development team to add capabilities through code. Coverage is given to the process of sharing implementation tasks and workloads between power users, who are using a low-code or no-code approach, and developers, who are building out the enhanced features for the chatbot. What You Will Learn: Understand Microsoft's comprehensive AI ecosystem and its services and solutions Recognize which solutions and services should be applied in each business scenario Discover no-code/low-code approaches for building chatbots Develop chatbots using the conversational AI stack Align business and development for improved chatbot outcomes and reduced time-to-market This book is for developers and power users who want to build chatbots. An understanding of the core principles of writing code (.NET or JavaScript) for modern web applications is expected. Stephan Bisser is a technical lead at Solvion and a Microsoft MVP for artificial intelligence. In his current role, he focuses on conversational AI, Microsoft 365, and Azure. He is passionate about the conversational AI platform and the cognitive services ecosystem. Stephan and several other MVPs founded BotBuilderCommunity and SelectedTech, community initiatives that focus on bot framework SDKs, tools, and tech topics related to Microsoft 365 and AI. Table of Contents About the Author About the Technical Reviewer Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Introduction to the Microsoft Conversational AI Platform Key Concepts of Conversational AI Natural Language Processing Language Translation Speech Usage Scenarios of Conversational AI Service Offerings Around Conversational AI in Microsoft Azure Bot Framework and Azure Bot Service Cognitive Services Solution Accelerators and Templates SaaS Solutions Summary Chapter 2: Introduction to the Microsoft Bot Framework Key Concepts of the Microsoft Bot Framework Activity Processing Activity Handlers State Dialogs Middleware Bot Project Structure Echo Bot Logic C# Echo Bot Logic JavaScript Bot Framework Skills: Reusable Bot Components Azure Bot Service: A Bot Hosting Platform Bot Framework SDK Tool Offerings Bot Framework Emulator Bot Framework Web Chat Bot Framework CLI Adaptive Cards Introducing Bot Framework Composer Advantages of Composer Adaptive Dialogs Language Understanding Language Generation Summary Chapter 3: Introduction to Azure Cognitive Services Language Category: Extract Meaning from Unstructured Text Language Understanding (LUIS) LUIS Building Blocks Creating a LUIS Application Using the LUIS Portal Using the CLI QnA Maker QnA Maker Building Blocks Creating a QnA Maker Service and Knowledge Base Using the QnA Maker Portal Using the CLI Populating a QnA Maker Knowledge Base Adding Data Manually Through the QnA Maker Portal Adding Data Using the Bot Framework CLI Adding URLs to the KB Adding Files Directly to the KB Testing a KB Publishing a KB Text Analytics Sentiment Analysis Key Phrase Extraction Named Entity Recognition Language Detection Translator Translate Detect Language Dictionary Lookup Determine Sentence Length Best Practices for Combining Cognitive Services Within a Chatbot LUIS and QnA Maker QnA Maker + Translator LUIS + Text Analytics Summary Chapter 4: Design Principles of a Chatbot Personality and Branding Greeting and Introduction Navigation (Menu) Conversation Flow Adaptive Dialogs Adaptive Dialog Triggers Adaptive Dialogs Actions Adaptive Dialogs Memory Scopes User Experience Rich Media Attachments Cards as Visual Elements Hero Cards Card Carousels Suggested Actions Adaptive Cards Summary Chapter 5: Building a Chatbot Introduction to Bot Framework Composer Memory LU (Language Understanding) LG (Language Generation) Create First Chatbot with Composer Templates and Samples Create an Echo Bot Enhance Chatbot with LUIS and QnA Maker BookRestaurantTable Dialog ManageBooking Dialog Help Dialog QnA Dialog Integrate Third-Party APIs into Your Chatbot Summary Chapter 6: Testing a Chatbot Introduction to Bot Framework Emulator Testing a Chatbot Using the Emulator Debugging and Tracing Language Understanding Debugging and Tracing QnA Maker Summary Chapter 7: Publishing a Chatbot Create Azure Resources Publish Bot to Azure Test Bot in Azure Summary Chapter 8: Connecting a Chatbot with Channels Azure Bot Service–Supported Channels Connect a Chatbot to Web Chat Connect a Chatbot to Microsoft Teams Summary Index Build a chatbot using the Microsoft Conversational AI platform. This book will teach you, step by step, how to save time and money by including chatbots in your enterprise's strategy. You will learn how to be proficient at every phase of development, from collaboration on a chatbot in an end-to-end scenario, to the first mock-up phase, and on through to the deployment and evaluation phases. Microsoft built a cloud service ecosystem for running artificial intelligence workloads in public cloud scenarios and a robust AI platform that offers a broad range of services targeting conversational artificial intelligence solutions such as chatbots. Building a chatbot requires not just developer coding skills but special considerations, including input from business stakeholders such as domain matter experts and power users. You will learn by example how to use a great set of tools and services to bridge the gap between business and engineering. You will learn how to successfully morph business requirements into actionable IT and engineering requirements. You will learn about Bot Framework Composer, which allows power users to initiate the building of a chatbot that can then be handed over to the development team to add capabilities through code. Coverage is given to the process of sharing implementation tasks and workloads between power users, who are using a low-code or no-code approach, and developers, who are building out the enhanced features for the chatbot. What You Will Learn Understand Microsoft’s comprehensive AI ecosystem and its services and solutions Recognize which solutions and services should be applied in each business scenario Discover no-code/low-code approaches for building chatbots Develop chatbots using the conversational AI stack Align business and development for improved chatbot outcomes and reduced time-to-market Who This Book Is For Developers and power users who want to build chatbots. An understanding of the core principles of writing code (.NET or JavaScript) for modern web applications is expected.