AI Chatbot | Yaplet

Overview

The Yaplet widget supports two chatbot experiences that visitors interact with directly: the AI chatbot (Vex) for free-form conversations, and custom workflows for guided, step-by-step interactions. Both run inside the same chat interface and can seamlessly hand off to each other or to a live agent.

This section covers the visitor-facing experience in the widget. For setup and configuration, see the Vex and Custom Workflows dashboard documentation.

What's Inside

AI Conversations

Streaming AI responses, conversation starters, and the agent handoff toggle — the core AI chat experience visitors interact with.

Workflow Interactions

Buttons, data collection forms, links, and other interactive elements visitors encounter during guided custom workflows.

AI Data & Products

Context tool forms for fetching real-time data and product recommendation carousels that appear during AI conversations.

Two Chatbot Experiences

AI Chatbot (Vex)

The AI chatbot handles open-ended conversations. Visitors type questions in natural language and receive streamed responses based on your knowledge base, documents, and connected data sources. The AI can also pull in real-time data from external APIs and recommend products.

Key visitor-facing features:

Streaming responses — answers appear word by word in real time
Conversation starters — suggested topic buttons before the first message
Product carousels — horizontal scrollable product cards embedded in responses
Context tool forms — data collection forms that appear when the AI needs external information

Custom Workflows

Custom workflows guide visitors through predefined conversation paths. Instead of free-form chat, visitors interact with structured elements like buttons, forms, and decision trees. Workflows trigger automatically based on conditions like keywords, page visits, or visitor properties.

Key visitor-facing features:

Buttons — multiple-choice options that branch the conversation
Data collection — inline forms for gathering specific information
Forms — full multi-field form overlays
Links — automatic redirects to external pages

How They Work Together

Visitors experience both chatbot types within the same chat window — there's no visual break when switching between them:

A workflow can hand off to the AI using an AI Bot action, seamlessly transitioning from guided steps to free-form conversation
A workflow can trigger another workflow using a Custom Bot action, chaining multiple flows together
The AI can trigger workflows when it detects specific visitor intents
Both can escalate to a live agent when human help is needed

From the visitor's perspective, this all feels like a single, continuous conversation.