Start testing your WhatsApp bot!

Short explanation

If you are reading this article it means that you've been added to a WhatsApp group where you can use a CogniVis.AI bot, that will answer questions about your organization. In this tutorial, we will show you how to start testing your bot with ease.

Caveat

This solution uses the CogniVis AI tool.

CogniVis allows you to connect your data sources to various LLMs, create custom AI assistants, and deploy them on WhatsApp, Slack, your website, or seamlessly integrate them into your applications and systems for use anywhere you need.

The founders of the company behind CogniVis AI ( Michal Szymanski and Dawid Adach ) are members of EO Poland and offer this solution free of charge to EO and YPO chapters as part of their commitment to the community.

There are no hidden costs that CogniVis AI charges EO and YPO chapters. There is also no other purpose than to help chapters who have approached us for help with implementing AI.

We provide our software and time for free, aiming to contribute to the growth of our entrepreneurial community.


How to start testing

At this point of the implementation there should be a spreadsheet with some basic, publicly available data about your organization members added to the bot.

Start by asking a question about yourself, for example:

Message: @CogniVis.AI can you write an exciting introduction for John Doe?

The key thing you need to remember is to correctly tag the bot in your messages.

Input the @ character, start typing the bot's name, and select it from the list of suggestions. When tagged correctly, the name of the bot should be highlighted in blue.

After you send the message, the bot will react with an 👀 eyes emoji - this is an indication that CogniVis is reading your message and will provide an answer shortly.

Other example questions you could ask the bot (depending on the data you provided):

Message: @CogniVis.AI do we have any members from the tech industry?

Message: @CogniVis.AI what is the LinkedIn profile of Jane Doe?

Message: @CogniVis.AI who is the chair of finance in our organization?


Things to keep in mind

Since WhatsApp is just a messaging platform, there are some limitations to what you can do with your bot.

CogniVis doesn't see previous WhatsApp messages

Due to privacy reasons, CogniVis.AI can't see any messages that were sent before you tagged the bot. This means that if you want to ask a question, you need to include the full context in the message in which you tag the bot.

Bad context example:

Good context example:

You need to tag @CogniVis.AI in every question

As explained in the previous section, you need to tag the bot in every question you ask. If you don't tag the bot, it won't be able to provide an answer. Also - editing the message after sending it will not work, so make sure to tag the bot correctly before sending the message.

CogniVis can only rely on data you provide to it

Most implementations of CogniVis start with a very basic source setup that includes:

  • A "Members" spreadsheet with some publicly available data about your organization members - so that you can start testing the bot quickly
  • A Google Drive folder, so that you are able to easily add more data to the bot

CogniVis won't know anything outside of this data, so don't expect it to know anything about your organization that you haven't provided to it.

Many questions at once might confuse the bot

If you ask the bot multiple questions at once, it might get confused and not provide an answer to any of them.

This is a limitation related strictly to WhatsApp. When you ask the bot a question, it needs to send it out of WhatsApp, process it, and then send the answer back to WhatsApp. WhatsApp API takes a few seconds to send the message, so if you ask another question, before the previous one has been answered - it may cause a lack of response.


How to add new sources

If you want to add more data to the bot, you can do it by adding new sources to the Google Drive folder.

The bot will automatically update its knowledge base with the new data you provide within 10 minutes.

You can add more spreadsheets, PDFs, or other files that you want the bot to know about.

The link to the Google Drive folder for your organization should be provided in the WhatsApp group where you are testing the bot.


Michal Szymanski
About author
Michal Szymanski

Co Founder at MDBootstrap , CogniVis AI and AIFor.Biz / Listed in Forbes „30 under 30" / EOer / Open-source and AI enthusiast / Dancer, nerd & bookworm.

Author of hundreds of articles on AI, programming, UI/UX design, business, marketing and productivity. In the past, an educator working with troubled youth in orphanages and correctional facilities.