Overview 

Knowledge Discovery for End Users introduces the Helpdesk Assistant chatbot for users of the Self Service Portal. Depending on the configuration, the Helpdesk Assistant interacts with portal users and suggests answers to their questions based on information from various sources, such as Matrix42 Enterprise Knowledge Bases, external online help resources, or platforms like SharePoint and Confluence.

If support agents are available, users can switch from interacting with the Helpdesk Assistant to chatting with a live agent.

For more details, see also Knowledge Discovery for End Users: Installation and Configuration.

Self Service Portal: Helpdesk Assistant

To open the Helpdesk Assistant chat window, click on the message icon at the bottom right side of the Self Service Portal:

Self Service Portal: open Helpdesk Assistant chatbot

The Helpdesk Assistant is an AI-powered chatbot integrated into the Self Service Portal. It helps users quickly find answers to their questions without needing to contact support directly. The flow is as follows:

  1. Question: users type a question or describe an issue in the chat window within the Self Service Portal.
  2. Data processing: the Helpdesk Assistant processes the input and searches for relevant information. The chatbot uses a knowledge discovery engine to locate the most relevant answers from multiple sources.
  3. Answer: the Helpdesk Assistant displays suggested answers and instructions directly in the chat.  If the provided answers are not helpful, the user can refine the query or continue the conversation for more results.
  4. Live Agent Escalation: when support agents are online, users can choose to switch from the chatbot to a live chat session.
Knowledge Discovery for End User: end user conversation with Helpdesk Assistant chatbot

Service Desk: Live Chat with Agents

Live Chat

When a user switches from the AI Assistant to a Live Chat, the request is processed by real Human Agent who sees Live chat tab in Service Desk M42 Neo panel.

  1. The conversation history is passed to the agent, allowing for a smooth transition without repeating information:
    Service Desk Agent Console: Live Chat notification and chat history with the Helpdesk Assistant chatbot

User Identification in Live Chats

Depending on the configuration, live agents can see the names of Self Service Portal users in their chat sessions.

  • When authentication is not enabled, each new chat session starts as a separate conversation. In this case, the user appears as “User #1234” (with a randomly assigned number), and previous chat history is not linked to the new session:
  • When authentication is enabled, the user’s name is displayed in the Agent Console, and all their previous chat conversations are combined into a single continuous chat history. This allows the agent to view past interactions and provide more personalized support:

For more details about authentication configuration, see also Knowledge Discovery for End Users: Installation and Configuration.