Build a Chatbot with Custom Slots

Jambo! 🌞 Hope everything’s going great. Today, we’re building on our last article, Build a Chatbot with Amazon Lex, by adding custom slots to create a more interactive chatbot.

You Ready? Let’s get started!

Aaah Before I forget A massive thank you to Nextwork.org. It’s an amazing platform!

Key Steps:

1. Set up a new Lex chatbot.
2. Create a custom slot for account types.
3. Set up the CheckBalance intent.

New Terms:

Slots — Pieces of information that a chatbot needs to complete a user’s request. We’ll use slots to store things like the user’s bank account type.

Photo by New Material on Unsplash

Step 1: Set Up a New Lex Chatbot

If you haven’t set up a Lex chatbot yet, check out our previous article Build a Chatbot with Amazon Lex for a quick start.

Step 2: Create a Custom Slot for Account Types

Here, we’ll create a slot to store the user’s bank account type, with options Lex can recognize.

1. In the Amazon Lex console, select Slot types from the left navigation panel.
2. Click Add slot type and select Add blank slot type.