Platform
Conversation flow
A conversation flow is the designed path through greeting, intent capture, qualification, actions, routing, fallback, and closing.
A conversation flow is the designed path through greeting, intent capture, qualification, actions, routing, fallback, and closing.
What Conversation flow means
A conversation flow is the designed path through greeting, intent capture, qualification, actions, routing, fallbackFallbackA fallback is a safe alternate path used when input is unexpected, a tool fails, or the agent cannot complete the intended step confidently., and closing.
The flow describes what the agent needs to accomplish and how it responds when the caller takes different paths. It should include expected goals, interruptions, corrections, ambiguous answers, requests for a human, integration failures, and completion states.
How it works
Designers arrange prompts, decision nodes, variables, actions, and transitions. The agent captures information, selects branches, calls tools or integrations, and moves toward an outcome. Testing uses representative conversations to find missing paths and unclear instructions.
Practical use cases
Building an inbound qualification and booking flow
Routing multiple caller intents from one number
Escalating sensitive or unsupported requests
Design around caller goals, not an internal questionnaire. The agent should explain why it asks, reuse known information, and recover when the conversation does not follow the planned order.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Conversation flow matter?
Design around caller goals, not an internal questionnaire. The agent should explain why it asks, reuse known information, and recover when the conversation does not follow the planned order.
How detailed should a conversation flow be?
Detailed enough to define outcomes, required information, guardrailsGuardrailsAI guardrails are instructions, rules, data boundaries, and escalation paths that constrain what an agent may say or do., handoffs, and failure behavior, without scripting every possible sentence. Test real variations to refine it.
Source: Thoughtly’s Agent Builder overview.
Related concepts: decision treeDecision treeA decision tree is a branching structure that selects the next conversation step from answers, rules, data, or events., fallback, happy pathHappy pathThe happy path is the ideal route where expected inputs are available and the conversation reaches its intended outcome without detours., variableVariableA variable is a named value captured, calculated, or retrieved during a conversation and reused in logic, messages, actions, or integrations..