When building a chatbot, there are many situations where you’ll need to gather multiple pieces of information from a user in a structured way.

For example:

• A constituent reporting a 311 issue to a city may need to provide their name, contact details, a description of the issue, and its location.
• A food ordering service may need to collect the customer’s choices for items, sizes, sides, and drinks.

Traditionally, you might design a chatbot flow that asks for this information step by step: “What’s your name?” → “What’s your phone number?” → “What issue are you reporting?” While effective, this approach can feel slow and rigid for users.

The OAI Form Capture activity simplifies this process. Instead of asking for each detail in a fixed sequence, the chatbot can request the required information in one step, and then intelligently prompt the user only for the missing details.

Because this activity uses Azure OpenAI (OAI), the chatbot can understand natural language and extract structured information intelligently.

Example

Suppose you need to collect an address: street number and name, city, state, and zip code.

• If a user enters: “123 Main Street. San Francisco, CA”
• The chatbot recognizes that the zip code is missing and follows up with: “What’s your zip code?”

Benefits

This approach provides two major advantages:

1. Faster Data Collection

   Users can provide multiple pieces of information in a single response, reducing the back-and-forth needed to complete a form. This streamlines the experience and shortens conversations.

2. Flexibility in Conversation Design

   Instead of forcing users down a rigid question-and-answer path, the chatbot adapts to whatever information the user provides. This allows for more natural interactions and makes it easier to handle incomplete or out-of-order responses.

How to Use the OAI Form Capture Activity in Your Conversation Workflow