How to let a Discord bot answer recurring questions with AI
Smart Answers lets the bot answer the questions your team answers every day. You write each answer once. An AI only picks which of them fits what a member asked, and when it is not sure, the bot stays silent.
Takes about 5 minutes
What you will end up with
A member opens a ticket and asks why they still do not have the VIP role. A second later the bot posts your answer, with two buttons beneath it: That helped and Get a human. Your team only steps in when the member asks for it.
ticket-0042
A
AlexToday at 14:32
hey, why do I still not have the vip role?
ZombyIOAppToday at 14:32
How do I get the VIP role?
You get it automatically at level 10. See #roles for the details.
Automatic answer, picked by AI from the answers this server wrote.
That helpedGet a human
Step by step
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Step 1: Check that the server has Premium
Smart Answers is the one feature that needs Premium. Every question the bot checks is a paid request to an AI service, so a free version would cost more the busier a server is.
Premium includes 100 answers and 2,000 checked questions a month. On the free plan the page shows everything, read-only. Triggers, the keyword answers, stay free.
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Step 2: Agree to the data use
Open Smart Answers in the dashboard and switch on the agreement under Agree to the data use.
To pick an answer, the question a member wrote is sent to TypeSafe AI in the USA. Only the text goes there: not who wrote it, not which server, and never your answers. Links, e-mail addresses and long numbers are replaced before it is sent. Ordinary chat messages are not sent at all.
Without it nothing is sent and the bot answers nothing. Switching it off later stops everything again with the next save.
Important
Tell your members. If your server has rules or a privacy note of its own, say there that questions in tickets and help posts are matched by an AI service.
zomby.io/dashboard/…/answersAgree to the data useTo pick an answer, the question a member wrote is sent to TypeSafe AI in the USA. Only the text goes there: not who wrote it, not which server, and never your answers. Links, e-mail addresses and long numbers are replaced before it is sent.I agree that questions from the places chosen below are sent to TypeSafe AI to find the fitting answer.
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Step 3: Write your answers
Press Add an answer. Type the Question the way a member would ask it, and the Answer you want them to get. The answer is sent word for word. Mentions of channels and roles are shown but ping nobody.
One question per entry works best. Start with the three questions your team answers most often.
Tip
Keep the questions clearly different. Two entries that read almost the same make the bot unsure, and it then stays silent on both. The page warns you when that happens.
zomby.io/dashboard/…/answersYour answers3 of 100 answersHow do I get the VIP role?When is the next stream?I was banned. How can I appeal?QuestionHow do I get the VIP role?AnswerYou get it automatically at level 10. See #roles for the details.Add an answer
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Step 4: Choose where the bot answers
Where the bot answers has three places:
In new tickets: the bot reads what the member wrote when opening the ticket, or their first message, and answers once. If staff write first, it stays out.
In new posts of a help forum: pick up to five forum channels. The bot answers a new post once, as its first reply.
With the /ask command: a member types /ask and their question, and only they see the answer.
Nothing else is read. A normal chat message never reaches the AI.
zomby.io/dashboard/…/answersWhere the bot answersOnly in these places. Ordinary chat messages are never sent to the AI.In new ticketsIn new posts of a help forum#helpWith the /ask command
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Step 5: Try it out
Save, then type a message into Try it out the way a member might write it and press Test. The page asks the real AI against your saved answers and says exactly what the bot would do: which answer it would send and how sure it is, or that it would stay silent.
If a message you expect to work stays silent, reword that entry’s Question closer to how people really ask.
Tip
Tests have their own allowance of 50 a day and never use up your members’ questions.
zomby.io/dashboard/…/answersTry it outTry it outwhy do I still not have vipTestThe bot would answer with “How do I get the VIP role?”. It is sure enough to send (97 %).
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Step 6: Switch it on
Turn on the switch in the banner at the top and press Save. From now on a member who asks one of your questions gets your answer, with That helped and Get a human beneath it.
Get a human pings the ticket’s own team. In a forum it pings the role you chose under Who to ping when somebody in a forum asks for a human.
This month shows how many questions were checked, how many the bot answered and how often members said it helped.
zomby.io/dashboard/…/answersThis monthA question counts as soon as the bot checks it, whether or not it found an answer. The count starts again on the first of each month.
ticket-0042
A
AlexToday at 14:32
hey, why do I still not have the vip role?
ZombyIOAppToday at 14:32
How do I get the VIP role?
You get it automatically at level 10. See #roles for the details.
Automatic answer, picked by AI from the answers this server wrote.
That helpedGet a human
Something not working?
The problems people run into most often, and how to fix each one.
The bot does not answer a question it should know
Check these in order:
The switch in the banner is off, the agreement under Agree to the data use is off, or the page was not saved.
The place is switched off under Where the bot answers, or the forum is not on the list.
The bot is not sure enough. Type the message into Try it out: it shows the closest answer and how sure the bot is. Reword that entry’s Question, or split an entry that covers two things.
In a ticket, a staff member wrote before the member’s first real message, or the ticket is older than a day. The bot then leaves the ticket to the team.
The entry is switched off, or marked Paused because it is past what your plan runs.
The bot gave an answer that did not fit
It picks the entry whose question is closest to what the member wrote. If two entries are close to each other, make their questions clearly different or merge them. The member can press Get a human at any time, and the list shows for every answer how often it was sent and how often it helped.
All questions of this month are used
Premium includes 2,000 checked questions a month. A question counts as soon as the bot checks it, whether or not it found an answer. The count starts again on the first of each month, by UTC. Until then the bot stays silent in tickets and forums, and /ask says the month is used up. Taking a busy forum off the list under Where the bot answers saves questions.
My channel is not in the forum list
Only forum channels can be picked, because only there does a post start with a question. Text channels are not offered. ZombyIO also has to see the forum and be allowed to send messages in its posts. Server Check names what is missing.
/ask says Smart Answers is not switched on
One of these is true: the feature is off, nobody has agreed to the data use, there is no complete answer, With the /ask command is off, or the server has no Premium. /ask exists on every server ZombyIO is on, so members can see it even where it does nothing.
Premium ended. What happens to my answers?
They stay saved. The bot stops answering and the page becomes read-only, though you can still remove answers, switch the feature off and take back your agreement. With Premium again, everything works as before.
What exactly is sent to the AI service?
The text of the question, cut to 1,000 characters, and the questions on your list. Not who wrote it, not which server, and never your answers. Mentions, links, e-mail addresses and long numbers are replaced by plain words first. From a ticket form only the longest answer is read, because that is where the question is. What members read is always the text you wrote.
Ask in the ZombyIO support server. Bring your support ID, your server’s support ID and a sentence about what you expected to happen, and someone will look at it with you.
