Use Twilio Conversations as a Channel

If you don't have a Twilio Conversations service yet, start by creating a new service.

You will also need the Twilio CLI and Serverless Toolkit installed on your machine for this guide.

To trigger your AI Assistant based on incoming messages to your Twilio Conversations service, you will need to configure Twilio Conversation webhooks. The AI Assistants Samples GitHub repository contains a sample webhook service that you can deploy for your Twilio account.

You only have to deploy this webhook into your Twilio account once, regardless of how many AI Assistants or Conversations services you intend to use.

To deploy the webhooks, clone the AI Assistants Samples repository and deploy the Twilio Functions from the repository into your Twilio account.

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git clone git@github.com:twilio-labs/ai-assistants-samples.git
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cd ai-assistants-samples
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npm install
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cp .env.example .env
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# you can ignore editing the .env if you don't intend to use other tools in the project
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twilio serverless:deploy

After running the commands above, your output should look similar to this:

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Deployment Details
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Domain: ai-assistants-samples-1111-dev.twil.io
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Service:
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   ai-assistants-samples (ZSf3510841424c854e3f3b282550211111)
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Environment:
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   dev (ZE94900e7f2a2c330b15cf6e1c9fd11111)
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Build SID:
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   ZB2743d62d52d42ccd55873a0bcd511111
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Runtime:
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   node18
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View Live Logs:
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   https://www.twilio.com/console/functions/editor/ZSf3510841424c854e3f3b282550211111/environment/ZE94900e7f2a2c330b15cf6e1c9fd11111
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Functions:
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   [protected] https://ai-assistants-samples-1111-dev.twil.io/channels/conversations/messageAdded
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   [protected] https://ai-assistants-samples-1111-dev.twil.io/channels/messaging/incoming
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   [protected] https://ai-assistants-samples-1111-dev.twil.io/channels/conversations/response
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   [protected] https://ai-assistants-samples-1111-dev.twil.io/channels/messaging/response
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   https://ai-assistants-samples-1111-dev.twil.io/tools/flex-handover
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   https://ai-assistants-samples-1111-dev.twil.io/tools/google-maps
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   https://ai-assistants-samples-1111-dev.twil.io/tools/internet-search
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   https://ai-assistants-samples-1111-dev.twil.io/tools/studio-handover
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Assets:

Make sure you take note of the output behind Domain, which is your Functions URL.

Next, configure your deployed webhook as an onMessageAdded webhook on your Twilio Conversations service. You can do this either by opening your Conversations service in the Twilio Console and selecting Webhooks in the menu to define a service-wide webhook, or by running the following command using the Twilio CLI:

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twilio api:conversations:v1:services:configuration:webhooks:update \
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    --post-webhook-url=https://<your-functions-domain>.twil.io/channels/conversations/messageAdded?AssistantSid=<your-assistant-sid>
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    --chat-service-sid=<your-conversations-service-sid>
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    --filter=onMessageAdded

Make sure you replace <your-functions-domain>, <your-assistant-sid>, and <your-conversations-service-sid> with the respective values from the steps above. You can find your AI Assistant's SID in the Twilio Console under your Assistant's configuration.

If you've already been using Twilio Conversations with an existing application, you can test this configuration right away with that application. Your AI Assistant will respond in any conversation that has only one participant in it. Once another participant joins the conversation, your Assistant will automatically stop listening.

If you don't have an application yet, you can follow the instructions in the Conversations Quickstart to get started or check out the guide for using AI Assistants with React.

• Learn how to add an AI Assistant to your React application
• Learn how to have your AI Assistant transition a conversation to a Flex agent
• Learn how to have your AI Assistant transition a conversation to a Studio flow