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Main Concepts

The main concepts of branchly are centered around providing a structured and intelligent system for managing customer interactions via AI-enabled user interfaces. Below is a concise explanation of these key concepts.

branchly - main concepts

Organization​

In the branchly ecosystem, dashboard users operate within an organization. You have the option to create a new organization or join an existing one. Your subscription and its associated usage limits are linked to your organization, allowing you to create as many Navigators as needed within these limits.

Navigator​

A Navigator acts as a comprehensive repository for knowledge, logic, and the user interface elements of an AI-enabled use case within an organization. An organization can have many navigators.

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When does it make sense to have multiple Navigators? When you have distinct use cases and the data / user requests should not be mixed but rather focused. An indicator could be that you use different user interfaces at different website locations and you want the user interfaces to behave differently.

User Interface​

branchly offers four distinct user interfaces for embedding into your website or application. You can use only one or all user interfaces for each navigator. Each User Interface is customizable in style and behavior through the dashboard:

  • Chat Widget: A site-wide widget designed to reside in the bottom right corner of a page, utilizing generative AI tailored to your knowledge base as well as dynamic navigation.
  • Chat Navigator: Positioned at a specific location, such as a contact or service page, this interface serves as a primary entry point for user inquiries. Same as the Chat Widget, it uses generative AI to generate responses and features dynamic navigation.
  • Search Navigator: Similar to the Chat Navigator, this interface is placed at a strategic location on your site. It uses semantic instant search to search for the best content in the knowledge base and includes the dynamic navigation.
  • WhatsApp (early Q3/24): branchly's generative AI chat functionality will be extended to WhatsApp, allowing users to interact with your WhatsApp number and receive AI-generated responses based on your branchly navigator.

Knowledge Base​

The knowledge base within branchly is structured into various nodes, each with its type/label, HTML content and title. These nodes are interconnected through relationships to facilitate the dynamic navigation, as users often prefer clicking through related topics. You can manage nodes either individually via the Node Editor or through data sources. The Node Editor includes a WYSIWYG HTML editor for content editing. We use a multilingual design by default, enabling content addition and updates in multiple locales, allowing for language and country-specific customization.

Data Source​

Data sources are crucial for populating the knowledge base with nodes. branchly supports a range of data sources:

  • File Upload (CSV, PDF): Processes text or structured data from documents.
  • Web Crawler: Extracts relevant HTML content from your website.
  • Databases: Connects with PostgreSQL/MySQL databases.
  • OpenAPI Specification: Allows integration of REST APIs by uploading a valid OpenAPI specification in JSON format.

Additional or custom data sources are available upon request, with further integrations planned in the near future. Most data sources can be scheduled for content updates using a cron schedule.

Tool​

Tools represent a novel concept in branchly. They are utilized within the chat functionality of your Navigator. Tools must be activated for use, and you can choose between the standard_rag or agent setting. Standard RAG is the existing branchly AI process.

The agent approach is advantageous as it employs a suite of tools, each with a defined purpose, to address user queries. By default, the knowledge base tool conducts searches, but tools can also execute actions and handle events, such as retrieving dynamic information from a REST API or managing customer service requests. Tools must be activated for use, and you can choose between the standard_rag or agent methods. Note that only certain tools are compatible with the Search Navigator, including those for contact options, forms, and OpenAPI integrations.