<style>p { margin: 0; }span.fr-emoticon.fr-emoticon-img { background-repeat: no-repeat !important; font-size: inherit; height: 1em; width: 1em; min-height: 20px; min-width: 20px; display: inline-block; margin: -0.1em 0.1em 0.1em; line-height: 1; vertical-align: middle; } span.fr-emoticon { font-weight: normal; font-family: "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "NotoColorEmoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", "EmojiSymbols"; display: inline; line-height: 0; } blockquote { border-left: solid 2px #5e35b1; color: #5e35b1; margin-left:0; padding-left:5px;}blockquote blockquote{ border-color: #00bcd4; color: #00bcd4;}blockquote blockquote blockquote{ border-color: #43a047; color: #43a047;} table.grid{ border-collapse: collapse;} table.grid td, table.grid th { border: 1px solid #ddd;} .fr-fic.fr-dib{ display: block; margin: 5px auto;}.fr-fic.fr-dib.fr-fir{ text-align: right; margin: 5px 0 5px auto;}.fr-fic.fr-dib.fr-fil{ text-align: left; margin: 5px auto 5px 0;}.fr-fic.fr-dii{ float: none; margin: 5px auto;}.fr-fic.fr-dii.fr-fil{ float: left; margin: 5px auto;}.fr-fic.fr-dii.fr-fir{ float: right; margin: 5px auto;}img.fr-dib.fr-fir { margin-right: 0; text-align: right;}img.fr-dib.fr-fil { margin-left: 0; text-align: left;}img.fr-dib { margin: 5px auto; display: block; float: none;}img.fr-bordered { box-sizing: content-box; border: solid 5px #CCC;}img.fr-shadow { box-shadow: 10px 10px 5px 0px #cccccc;}img.fr-rounded { border-radius: 10px; -moz-border-radius: 10px; -webkit-border-radius: 10px; -moz-background-clip: padding; -webkit-background-clip: padding-box; background-clip: padding-box;}</style><p data-pasted="true"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt;">In this guide we will cover:</span></strong></p><p><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><strong>- What are AI Abilities?</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><strong>- Creating AI Abilities </strong></span></p><p data-pasted="true"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><strong>- AI Abilities in Virtual Agents </strong></span></p><p data-pasted="true"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><strong>- AI Abilities in Runbooks</strong></span></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p data-pasted="true"><strong>Configuration Settings:</strong></p><ul><li><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2328" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>AI</strong></a></span></li></ul><p><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><strong>Related Guides:</strong></span></p><ul><li><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2385" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Connecting AI to Halo</strong></a></span></li><li><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2137" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Leveraging AI in Halo</strong></a></span></li><li><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2336/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Virtual Agents in the Chat Bot</strong></a></span></li><li><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/1630/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Custom Integrations/Runbooks</strong></a></span></li><li><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2783" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>AI Agents</strong></a> </span><a href="http://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2783" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><br></a></li></ul><p><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><strong><br></strong></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.4285em;" data-pasted="true"><strong><em><span style="color: rgb(226, 80, 65);">Note: If you are looking for information on each of the AI features Halo has available, this can be found in our guide on </span></em></strong><a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2699/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong><em>Contents of AI Guides</em></strong><strong><em>.<span style="color: rgb(226, 80, 65);"> </span></em></strong></a></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.4285em;"><br></p><p data-pasted="true"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>What are AI Abilities?</strong></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.4285em;">An AI Ability allows you to configure a prompt to be sent to an AI model to instruct AI to evaluate the data provided and generate a response. Each ability can be used as a function of a <a href="https://www.usehalo.com/guides/2336" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">virtual agent</a>/operations agent and within <a href="https://www.usehalo.com/guides/1630" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">integration runbooks</a>. This makes it easier to leverage AI in your Halo instance as you only need to configure the ability and plug this in where needed. Runbooks/virtual/opertations agents will handle when the ability is executed and what happens with the response returned.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.4285em;"><br></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.4285em;">Additionally, AI Abilities can be utilised using Halo's built in OpenAI connection, available to everyone out of the box. Allowing everyone to create their own custom AI integrations without the need for their own AI connection. </p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.4285em;"><em><strong> </strong></em></p><p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Creating AI Abilities</strong></span></p><p>To create your AI Abilities head to Configuration > AI and click the "AI Abilities" button.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6Ijg3OTZiNjIzLWE1MmEtNDNkYS1iN2MyLTI0MWI3ZDE3ODFjOSJ9.yuhB1q0xKLJoHvPhqu7IKNm1XeLybZtzV1m6R_D_CiQ" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1142" style="width: 1144px; height: 188.377px;" height="188"></p><p data-pasted="true"><strong data-pasted="true"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 1. AI Abilities button</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>This will open a screen where you can view your existing and create new AI Abilities. </p><p><br></p><p>When you create a new AI Ability you will need to set a name and choose the connection method you would like to use. </p><p><br></p><p data-pasted="true">For more information on setting your AI connection see our guide on <a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2385/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">connecting AI to Halo</a>. The Amazon Bedrock connection will be available for use in AI Abilities from v2.244+.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjdkM2E2M2Q1LTFlZDktNDUwOS05YmYzLTk4ZWMwMTBkYzcyZCJ9.KBwqHXLxEXzJmjhwACfNsFkEDV_OIO5gGdMvAh1L1hU" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1719" style="width: 1721px; height: 901.327px;" height="901"></p><p data-pasted="true"><strong data-pasted="true"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 2. Configuring AI Abilities </span></strong></p><p><br></p><p data-pasted="true">Then you can set the prompt that will be passed to the AI model in the "Instructions" field. </p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Using Variables in the Prompt</span></strong></p><p>If your AI Ability was triggered from a runbook, the prompt can include variables to have the instructions populate with data dynamically based on the event that triggered the ability. Variables will need to be in the format <<variable_name>>, which each need to have their name specified in the "Input Variables" table, and be mapped to a <a href="https://www.usehalo.com/guides/2736" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">runbook level variable</a> present in the runbook triggering the Ability. </p><p><br></p><p>If you are using your AI Ability in a Runbook ensure you select "Force JSON response". This will make sure the response provided is in JSON format, allowing variables to be resolved correctly. If you force a JSON response you will also need to specify in the prompt that you would like the response to be returned in JSON, including the word 'JSON' exactly.</p><p><br></p><p>To use any variables in the prompt, these will need to be added to the Input Variables table. Click "Add" and enter the name and data type for your variable.</p><p><strong><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjhkOTdiZDFhLWQ3YmQtNGZiZS04MjMyLWUzZjhmMzM4YzFiYiJ9.cTh3DRvZnHPu8xC4xZEPY5T6yGpCrAnQiJd01tgLt2w" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1183" style="width: 1185px; height: 539.68px;" height="540"></strong></p><p data-pasted="true"><strong data-pasted="true"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 3. Input Variables table </span></strong></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjFiMDFmYjFlLWM4ZjEtNDY4Yi1hMTI5LThkOGE2NWExY2QyNCJ9.7cTL8yX8EEiSAZYgyo1dqHiJgmGYaxw9Jn8YgoUehbQ" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="597" style="width: 599px; height: 506.458px;" height="506"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 4. New Input Variable</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Name - </strong>Must be the name of the variable as it is declared in your runbook.</p><p><strong>Data Type - </strong>Must be the type of data the variable contains.</p><p><strong>Mandatory -</strong> When checked, this variable must be resolved in the prompt for the ability to be used. </p><p><strong>Description -</strong> Here you can add a summary of the information the variable should contain/resolve, this is just for your own reference. </p><p><br></p><p>Now you have created your AI Ability click "Save". This AI Ability can now be used in a <a href="https://www.usehalo.com/guides/2336" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Virtual Agent</a> or <a href="https://www.usehalo.com/guides/1630" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Runbook</a>. </p><p><br></p><p data-pasted="true"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Use AI Abilities in Virtual Agents</strong></span></p><p>AI Abilities can be added as a function to each of your <a href="https://www.usehalo.com/guides/2336" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">virtual agents</a>. This allows the prompt outlined in the ability to be evaluated by AI when the virtual (AI) agent executes the function, giving you more flexibility and customisation over what and how AI analyses the chat conversation. </p><p><br></p><p data-pasted="true">When an AI Ability is triggered/used by a virtual agent, the entire chat conversation is sent to the AI model along with the prompt. This means the ability has access to the full conversation as context and can analyse any part of it. This differs from when an Ability is triggered via a runbook, where variables are required to extract the relevant data and include it in the prompt. With Agent-triggered Abilities, variables aren't needed, since the whole conversation is already sent as context, instead, you can simply instruct the AI (in plain English) which parts of the conversation the Ability should focus on as part of your prompt.</p><p><br></p><p>To add your AI Ability to a Virtual Agent as a function, head to Configuration > AI, and click the "Virtual Agents" button.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImZmMjc1OGExLWJkZGMtNDRhNy05MDM3LTVkNTcyMjM1MGEzZSJ9.FyJx-zbkux46FnUK69aOtRlc-c69VXRwqhNpbF7puR8" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1203" style="width: 1205px; height: 226.737px;" height="227"></p><p data-pasted="true"><strong data-pasted="true"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 5. Virtual Agents button</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>Here choose, or create a new, Virtual Agent. </p><p><br></p><p><em><strong>Note: Out of the box Virtual Agents cannot use custom functions, so they cannot make use of AI Abilities. However new AI agents can be created using the built-in Halo AI connection. </strong></em></p><p><br></p><p>When adding a function to your Virtual Agent you can add a function with the use "AI Ability". This will show another dropdown where you can select the AI Ability to use. </p><p><br></p><p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImU4MzRlOGVhLTViNmYtNDlhZS05ZmZmLTAzOGU4YjJkNTZhZCJ9.CWLUJQgCpPJ0nBdLtYgNIeNupLBl7X6cQtAXiy-ISJE" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 1205px; height: 678.246px;" width="1203" height="678"></strong></span></p><p data-pasted="true"><strong data-pasted="true"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 6. AI Abilities in a Virtual Agent</span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></strong></p><p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Make sure you describe when the function (this AI Ability) should be used in the "Description" field. This will be used to instruct the virtual agent when to use the Ability. Also ensure you include instructions as to when this function should be executed in the "Instructions" of the virtual agent. </span></p><p><br></p><p>When the Virtual Agent decides it needs to call the AI Ability function, it will send the prompt to AI which returns a response. The Virtual Agent reads this response and acts accordingly, if you would like information to be returned to the user in the chat, ensure you specify this in the Ability prompt, and function description. </p><p><br></p><p data-pasted="true"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>AI Abilities in Runbooks</strong></span></p><p data-pasted="true">Adding your AI Ability to a Runbook automates and simplifies the creation of Runbook methods. Rather than needing to create a custom integration method to send a a request containing a prompt to an AI model, you can just set the runbook to trigger an ability when it reaches a set step. For example, an ability can be used to have AI triage a ticket, suggesting and populating category and priority ticket fields for you. Information about the ticket can be extracted by the runbook, then an AI Ability can send this information to AI to be analysed and triaged, the response received can then be used in subsequent steps of the runbook to populate the ticket's field with the relevant triage information. </p><p><br></p><p>To have an AI Ability used in a Runbook step, head to Configuration > Integrations > Custom Integrations, select the "Integration Runbooks" button. Click a Runbook to edit, or create a new one using the "Add" button.</p><p><br></p><p>When adding a step of type "Action" to your runbook flow you will be able to choose the action type "AI Ability" an additional dropdown will show, allowing you to select an AI Ability to use. </p><p> </p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImUxNDcyZmFiLWViZjEtNGQzMC1hYTJiLTMzMDQ3MTk3ZjAzOSJ9.XnCs57LldEshsshNsRPoBtvsFlm0VDDZafKBBNdatvU" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1208" style="width: 1210px; height: 545.319px;" height="545"></p><p data-pasted="true"><strong data-pasted="true"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 7. AI Abilities in a Runbook</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">If the Ability contains any input variables, these will automatically populate the variable table on the runbook step. You will need to map the variables used in the AI Ability to existing runbook level variables to set the value that will populate the variables. </span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Worked Example- Creating an AI Ability for Triaging tickets</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">In this example we will work through how to create an AI Ability to assist in automatically triaging your tickets. In this example the AI Ability is plugged into a custom integration runbook.</span></p><p><br></p><p>I will start by creating a new AI Ability called "Triage Ability" and set the connection to be the built-in Halo connection. </p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImM3MjFmNzlhLThkMTYtNDI2Ny04NDQzLTk3ODhjOTEyMjNkOCJ9.7FzpMRmJyPSRsyklnLisdtBZOMBaXToo6uy89j4LZ2w" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1045" style="width: 1047px; height: 567.162px;" height="567"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 8. New AI Triage Ability</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Set the Prompt/Instructions </span></strong></p><p>Then in the instructions field I enter a prompt, giving the AI context on the information it is being provided, in this case it is being provided with a list of the available categories, impact levels and urgency levels. I then instruct it to select a category, impact, and urgency from the provided lists. </p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImNlMjYzYmNmLTk5ZDktNDFiYS1hNTlkLTU5MWE5ZjBiNTdhNyJ9.zyup1unGmz0nSKPehW0pA5isiaB2XTRtbfU-jDauxxw" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1974" style="width: 1976px; height: 444.508px;" height="445"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 9. Ability Instructions/Prompt </span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>I would like to extract the category, impact and urgency AI gives me from the response and post these into separate fields in Halo. Therefore I need the response to be returned as a correctly formatted JSON array object with 'category', 'urgency', and 'impact' parameters, so this can be processed by subsequent steps of my runbook. Therefore, I have prompted the AI to return the response in this format, I have also enabled "Force JSON response". </p><p><br></p><p>Variables are used to take data from the ticket I would like to be triaged and include these in the prompt. The variables <<ticket_summary>> and <<ticket_details>> will provide the summary and details of the ticket that triggered the runbook, and the variable <<available_categories>> will provide the list of categories I have in my instance. </p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Using Variables in the Prompt</span></strong></p><p>As I am using variables in my prompt I will declare these in the "Input Variables" table. I name the variables I am using to pull in the ticket summary, details and category list. </p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjVkNmFkYTE0LThjMjEtNDNlYS04ODMyLTVhNzExNjQ4NzRlNyJ9.8Q4NsKIhFXd--V7LAEf3NlgKEyOUoGKhcq8tXL33e0A" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1931" style="width: 1933px; height: 481.199px;" height="481"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 10. Input Variables</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>All the variables I am using have the data type string as the value the variables resolve to will be a string. </p><p><br></p><p>The names need to match the names of the variables as they are used in the prompt, they do not need to match the name of the variables as they appear in my runbook as these will be mapped together later.</p><p><br></p><p>I have not wrapped the variable names in <<>> when declaring them in the table. But when they are used in the prompt they will need to be wrapped in <<>>. </p><p><br></p><p>Now the Ability is configured it can be plugged into a runbook. The runbook will, control when the ability is used, will populate the variables and will process the response. </p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjlkYjU1Yjk1LTQ3NTEtNDFkOS1hMDhkLWM0ZjQ3YzVkYjU0YSJ9.EFvba4pc7hcZT4GBwOu5-nvQy3L9GACZ3nmGViInPZk" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1834" style="width: 1836px; height: 1028.97px;" height="1029"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 11. Configured AI Ability</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Plugging the Ability Into a Runbook</span></strong></p><p>Now the AI Ability is created I can plug this into my runbook. </p><p><br></p><p><strong><em>Note: This example uses a pre-made runbook, the configuration of which will not be configured in this guide. </em></strong></p><p><br></p><p>I create a new action step on my runbook with the action type, AI Ability, then choose the ability I have just created. Once the ability is selected the table below will populate with the input variables configured against the Ability. </p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImMwZmQ3OWM4LTgxODktNDk5Mi1hOTRkLWE0MGNkNjI0NWEwMSJ9.gU3mie7zr8RiXX5o_8_CTTXMZLRQgiEWpoVQJeIhoEU" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1498" style="width: 1500px; height: 811.713px;" height="812"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 12. AI Ability runbook step</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>Now, I need to map the variables I declared in my Ability to the ones in my runbook that actually hold the data I want to include my my Ability's prompt. For information on runbook variables see our guide <a href="https://www.usehalo.com/guides/2736" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>. </p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjY2OWRhMTlkLWJhZGYtNDc1ZC1iMWI0LTgzNjU3NmQyMWEwMyJ9.vE1D-R1HycNdoB5W41Z3h68jjBTZ0Iogt6E-DD2Pkxw" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1756" style="width: 1758px; height: 591.452px;" height="591"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 13. Ability variables mapped to Runbook variables </span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>The runbook variables I am mapping to have been created in earlier steps of the runbook. </p><p><br></p><p>As I am using the AI response to obtain category, impact and urgency suggestions, I will also create new <a href="https://www.usehalo.com/guides/2736" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">runbook level variables</a> on this runbook step. These will extract the required values from the response AI gives me, storing them in variables, so I can use them in later steps of the runbook. </p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImIwZWE5M2U0LTcxZTUtNGZiNC1hODY0LTA1ZmVkMjI3NjdhMiJ9.JlwPTKHwuEj9GXyZmpGq-wBBxJ9w_Rc2D6QOc4GuKgk" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1701" style="width: 1703px; height: 404.956px;" height="405"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 14. New Runbook Level Variables </span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>Now, my AI Ability can be successfully used to have an AI suggest category, impact and urgency values for a ticket based on the ticket's summary and details. </p><p><br></p>
