Lab 1: Create an instance of Watson Assistant

In this course, we'll use the Watson Assistant service hosted on the IBM Cloud platform. As a
result, before we progress further, we'll need to ensure that you are set up with an account.
Follow the instructions below to get your own instance of Watson Assistant and start building
chatbots.

Note: If you already have an IBM Cloud account, simply login and skip to Exercise 2.

Exercise 1: Register with IBM Cloud

1. Register on IBM Cloud by clicking on this link. Start by entering your professional or student
email. (If you don't have access to a business email, feel free to use your personal email,
however.)
2. You'll be asked to log in if you already have an account with [Link]. If you do, log in and
skip to Exercise 2. If you don't, provide the rest of the information requested (e.g., your
name, country, etc.) and click on Create an account to proceed with the creation of an
account.
3. If you created an account in step 2, you'll be asked to verify your email. Check your inbox
for the verification email (and for good measure, be sure to check your spam folder as well).
Click on the confirmation button as illustrated in the image below.
 Lab 1: Create an instance of Watson Assistant

4. Upon successful verification of your email, you'll see a Log In button. Click on it, log in, and
accept the privacy notices. At this point, you'll be logged in with your IBM ID and ready to
work with the IBM Cloud platform.

You’ll either be redirected to a Watson Assistant creation page (as shown in the image
below) or to your IBM Cloud dashboard. In either case, close your browser tab and proceed
to Exercise 2 below.

Exercise 2: Create a Watson Assistant service

Now that you have an IBM Cloud account, it's time to create an instance of IBM Watson
Assistant. Visit your IBM Cloud dashboard or simply type [Link] in your browser’s
address bar. Next, follow these simple steps.

Note that you can always create new services (Watson Assistant or any other service available in
the IBM Cloud catalog) by clicking on the Create resource button on your dashboard.

1. Click on the Create resource button on your dashboard.

3. You should see a Watson Assistant creation page similar to the image below.

You can leave everything to default or customize the service instance name to your liking
(e.g., Watson Assistant Flower Shop). If you are not in the USA or Canada, you might want to
switch the region/location for optimal performance. It may take up to a minute before the UI
 Lab 1: Create an instance of Watson Assistant

will allow you to select a different data center. Give it a moment to finish loading the page if
you don't see the option.
4. Take note of the differences between the free Lite plan (which you'll be using) and the other
plans available, towards the end of the page.
5. With the Lite plan selected, click on the Create button at the bottom to create your instance.
6. You'll be redirected to the launch page for the service you just created. Click on the Launch
Watson Assistant button to access the web application that will allow you to create chatbots.
 Lab 1: Create an instance of Watson Assistant

7. A default Assistant and Skill will be created for you as shown in the image below.

You can think of the assistant as the actual chatbot. And a chatbot will have one or more skills.
Typically, a chatbot will have at least one dialog skill. In our case, My first assistant is our
chatbot, and My first skill is its dialog skill which enables it to hold conversations.

If My first assistant and My first skill were not created for you, and instead you see an error
pop up on the screen, clear your browser cache and log back in on [Link]. From your
dashboard, click on Services, and then on the Watson Assistant instance you created (e.g.,
Watson Assistant Flower Shop). Then repeat step 6.

8. Let’s rename our assistant. Click on the three vertical dot icon to the right of the page, above
Integrations and then click on Settings.
Lab 1: Create an instance of Watson Assistant

Here, change the name of our assistant to Flower Shop Chatbot and optionally change the
description too.

Once you’re done, click on the X at the top to return to our assistant.

9. While we are here, let’s rename its dialog skill as well. To do so, click on the Skills tab on the
top left, as shown below.
Lab 1: Create an instance of Watson Assistant

Here, click on the vertical three dot icon next to My first skill, and then click on Rename as
shown below.
Lab 1: Create an instance of Watson Assistant

Change the name of this dialog skill to Flower Shop Skill and click Rename. Optionally add a
description if you wish.

Watson doesn’t really care about these labels and descriptions, but they help humans working
on the chatbot better understand how things are organized and why.

10. Now that you renamed the skill, we can go back to the assistant by clicking on the Assistants
tab as shown in the figure below.
Lab 1: Create an instance of Watson Assistant

Notice how a list of assistants is shown. In our case there is only one, our Flower Shop Chatbot.
If you look closely, you’ll see that it includes our Flower Shop Skill under its Skills section.

Click on the tile containing our chatbot (i.e., Flower Shop Chatbot). You’ll be sent back to the
familiar view we’ve encountered before, but this time with a properly named assistant.
Lab 1: Create an instance of Watson Assistant

If this is what you see, we are all set for now. 😊

Exercise 3: Opt out of the Preview

In order to improve its service, IBM runs so-called A/B tests where a portion of new users are shown
a newer, experimental user-interface. This is great for the product but can be quite confusing when
following along a course.

So, if you see the pink Preview icon at the top of your Watson Assistant interface, it means that you
are currently enrolled in the preview and need to opt out in order to have an easier time following
along the instructions in the next labs.
Lab 1: Create an instance of Watson Assistant

If you don’t see the Preview icon as shown in the figure above, you’re all done with this lab and
can proceed to the next section of this course.

If you see the Preview icon, please follow these instructions to revert to the standard interface:

1. Click on the account icon in the top right of the page.

2. From the menu that appears, click on the revert icon next to your Watson Assistant instance
as shown in the figure below.
Lab 1: Create an instance of Watson Assistant

3. Next, click on the Revert to standard button in the pop-up dialog that appears.

This will revert your instance to a standard UI that will make your life a lot easier as you follow
along my course.