Pre-training of virtual chat interfaces

A method comprising:

• providing, by a software application and to a computing device associated with a managed network, a virtual agent interface, wherein persistent storage is disposed within a remote network management platform associated with the managed network, wherein the persistent storage contains:
• (i) a plurality of pre-defined conversation flows respectively corresponding to conversation topics, wherein the pre-defined conversation flows respectively define conversational states and transitions therebetween,
• (ii) pre-defined mappings that respectively associate the conversation topics to one or more conversational expressions with matching semantic meanings, and
• (iii) a plurality of records related to issues with configuration items of the managed network;
• receiving, by the software application and from the computing device, a textual or verbal conversational expression, wherein receiving the textual or verbal conversational expression occurs by way of the virtual agent interface;
• determining, by the software application and by way of a natural language understanding unit, a particular semantic meaning of the textual or verbal conversational expression;
• based on the pre-defined mappings, determining, by the software application, a particular conversation topic associated with a particular conversational expression, wherein the particular conversation topic corresponds to a particular information technology (IT)-related issue, wherein a particular conversation flow respectively defines conversational states and transitions therebetween related to actions for remediating the particular IT-related issue, and wherein the particular conversational expression has a matching sematic meaning that is within a similarity threshold of the particular semantic meaning of the textual or verbal conversational expression;
• determining a particular attribute that corresponds to at least a particular portion of (i) the textual or verbal conversational expression or (ii) a different conversational expression received during the particular conversation flow, wherein the software application also has access to a plurality of attributes respectively associated with remote network management platform or with the managed network, wherein determining the particular attribute that corresponds to at least the particular portion comprises determining that the particular attribute, from among the plurality of attributes, matches the particular portion, wherein the particular attribute is associated with a particular record of the plurality of records and comprises one or more of:
• (i) a unique identifier of the particular record, (ii) a priority level of the particular record, wherein the software application is configured to transition from a first conversational state to a second conversational state based on the priority level of the particular record, (iii) a state of the particular record, (iv) a description of the particular record, or (v) a category of the particular record;
• and
• in response to determining the particular conversation topic, carrying out, by the software application and by way of the virtual agent interface, a particular conversation flow of the pre-defined conversation flows that corresponds to the particular conversation topic in accordance with the particular attribute.

An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations, wherein the computing system includes persistent storage disposed within a remote network management platform that is associated with a managed network, the operations comprising:

• providing, by a software application and to a computing device associated with the managed network, a virtual agent interface, wherein the persistent storage contains:
• (i) a plurality of pre-defined conversation flows respectively corresponding to conversation topics, wherein the pre-defined conversation flows respectively define conversational states and transitions therebetween,
• (ii) pre-defined mappings that respectively associate the conversation topics to one or more conversational expressions with matching semantic meanings, and
• (iii) a plurality of records related to issues with configuration items of the managed network;
• receiving, from the computing device and by way of the virtual agent interface, a textual or verbal conversational expression,
• determining, by way of a natural language understanding unit, a particular semantic meaning of the textual or verbal conversational expression;
• based on the pre-defined mappings, determining a particular conversation topic associated with a particular conversational expression, wherein the particular conversation topic corresponds to a particular information technology (IT)-related issue,
• wherein a particular conversation flow respectively defines conversational states and transitions therebetween related to actions for remediating the particular IT-related issue, and wherein the particular conversational expression has a matching sematic meaning that is within a similarity threshold of the particular semantic meaning of the textual or verbal conversational expression;
• determining a particular attribute that corresponds to at least a particular portion of (i) the textual or verbal conversational expression or (ii) a different conversational expression received during the particular conversation flow, wherein the software application also has access to a plurality of attributes respectively associated with remote network management platform or with the managed network, wherein determining the particular attribute that corresponds to at least the particular portion comprises determining that the particular attribute, from among the plurality of attributes, matches the particular portion, wherein the particular attribute is associated with a particular record of the plurality of records and comprises one or more of:
• (i) a unique identifier of the particular record, (ii) a priority level of the particular record, wherein the software application is configured to transition from a first conversational state to a second conversational state based on the priority level of the particular record, (iii) a state of the particular record, (iv) a description of the particular record, or (v) a category of the particular record;
• and
• in response to determining the particular conversation topic, carrying out, by way of the virtual agent interface, a particular conversation flow of the pre-defined conversation flows that corresponds to the particular conversation topic in accordance with the particular attribute.