Custom Agent Assist Integrations

CXone supports custom integrations of agent assist applications. This enables your organization to use an agent assist A software application that provides context-specific help to the agent. application that CXone doesn't natively support. CXone supports agent assist applications on voice and ACD chat channels A way for contacts to interact with agents or bots. A channel can be voice, email, chat, social media, and so on..

The online help for custom agent assist integrations provides high-level information about planning, building, and implementing your own integration. Use this information along with: 

• Other resources provided by NICE CXone, including the CXone online help, knowledge base articles, and the NICE CXone Community site.
• Documentation from your agent assist provider.
• Documentation for any component of your network environment that is impacted by the integration with CXone. This can include API gateways, security or authorization systems, cloud hosting environments, and so on.

How Custom Integrations Work

Custom integrations use a proxy tunnel to transmit data between your agent assist provider and CXone. The proxy tunnel allows communication between two systems where network connectivity is limited or restricted by firewalls and other security measures.

The following table explains the flow of requests and responses in a custom agent assist integration.

Step	Details
1	A contact initiates a voice or chat interaction. This invokes a point of contact The entry point that an inbound contact uses to initiate an interaction, such as a phone number or email address. in CXone. CXone routes the contact to the Studio script that handles that point of contact.
2	The script routes the request to the proxy tunnel endpoint, if one is included in the integration. If the integration doesn't include a proxy tunnel, the request goes directly to thewebhook The request includes the contact's utterance What a contact says or types.. For voice interactions, the utterance is sent as audio in the format of the G-711 codec. The proxy tunnel passes the request to the agent assist application. For chat interactions: Skip to step 4.
3	For voice interactions only: The agent assist application transcribes the contact's utterances using a speech-to-text Also called STT, this process converts spoken language to text. (STT) service.
4	The text (transcribed or from a chat) is processed by the natural language processing Also called NLP, this process understands human speech or text and responds with human-like language. (NLU) engine. The agent assist application uses the NLU engine's analysis to provide assistance to the agent. The kind of assistance varies depending on the application you're using. The agent assistant returns responses only when they're relevant according to how the application is configured and trained. It doesn't necessarily respond to every utterance.
5	When the agent assist application has a response, it passes back through the proxy tunnel to the Studio script. The response is received as text. The script routes the returned resource or assistance to the agent.
6	Meanwhile, the interaction continues. The script sends the contact's utterances What a contact says or types. through the proxy tunnel in real time. The system processes each utterance as the contact makes it.

The proxy tunnel is an optional but recommended component of custom agent assist integrations. If you choose not to include one in your integration, CXone and the agent assist provider communicate directly instead of through the proxy tunnel.

Custom Integration Core Components

The core components of a custom AI integration are:

• CXone API Endpoints: Communication between your agent assist application and CXone happens via API endpoints. CXone has an endpoint designed for custom agent assist integrations.
• Proxy Tunnel and Websocket: The proxy tunnel and websocket sit between CXone and your agent assist application. All communications pass through them. The proxy tunnel is not required. However, it's recommended that you include one in your integration.
• Studio scripts: Studio scripts define the conversational flow of requests and responses between CXone and your agent assist application. Scripts may also handle authentication, if required.

Key Facts About Custom Agent Assist Integrations

The following items are key facts to know about custom agent assist integrations: 

• MAX is the only supported agent application for use with custom agent assist integrations.
• You can add authorization headers for authentication with the agent assist provider.
• Speech-to-text transcript is handled by the agent assist provider. Utterances What a contact says or types. from voice interactions are sent as audio bytes.
• Audio is sent as G711 μlaw 8-bit 8000 kHz raw audio. This is the same format as all CXone telephony audio.
• Currently, the NICE events API cannot be used with custom agent assist integrations. Websocket audio is not integrated with any NICE events or APIs. It can only be initiated using the Agent Assist action in a script.