---
name: watson-assistant-getting-started
title: Getting started with watsonx Assistant
description: IBM® watsonx™ Assistant, which focuses on **actions** to build customer conversations, is simple enough for *anyone* to build a virtual assistant. Building, testing, publishing, and analyzing your assistant are all done in one simple and intuitive interface.
last-updated: 2025-01-22
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Getting started with watsonx Assistant
{: #getting-started}

IBM® watsonx™ Assistant, which focuses on **actions** to build customer conversations, is simple enough for *anyone* to build a virtual assistant. Building, testing, publishing, and analyzing your assistant are all done in one simple and intuitive interface.

- The new assistant **architecture** enables simple navigation to specific parts of your assistant.

- The **navigation** provides a workflow for building, previewing, publishing, and analyzing your assistant. 

- The assistant has its own **home page** with a task list to help you get started.

- Build conversations with **actions** that represent the tasks you want your assistant to help your customers with. Each action contains a series of steps that represent individual exchanges with a customer.

- **Publish** reviews and debugs your work in a draft environment before your assistant goes live to your customers.

- Use **analytics** to improve your assistant. Review which actions are being completed, determine whether your assistant understands and addresses customer needs, and identify ways to enhance your assistant's performance.

## Home page
{: #getting-started-home-page}

The **Home page** of watsonx Assistant provides you a complete overview of your assistant, settings, and configuration. In addition, you can quickly navigate to the following useful links from the **Home page**:

- [Build actions](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-build-actions-overview&format=markdown)
- [Customize your greeting](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-start-conversation&format=markdown)
- [Set up search](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-conversational-search&format=markdown)
- [Preview & debug](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-call-extension&format=markdown)
- [Customize web chat](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-web-chat-config&format=markdown)
- [Set up a channel](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-deploy-integration-add&format=markdown)
- [Set up live agent](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-human-agent&format=markdown)
- [Publish your AI assistant](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-publish-overview&format=markdown)
- [Check analytics](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-analytics-overview&format=markdown)
- [Create a fallback plan](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-dynamic-options&format=markdown)

![Enhanced home page](images/about-enhanced-homepage.png){: caption="enchanced-homepage" caption-side="top"}

In the **Assistant architecture** section, you can view the complete structure of your assistant with links to actions that are created by you. In addition, you get a quick summary of your configuration that includes the number of actions that are created, the configured search integration, the integrated live agent, and the fallback configuration. 

![Assistant architecture](images/about-assistant-architecture.png){: caption="assistant-architecture" caption-side="top"}

## Tutorial
{: #getting-started-tutorial}

The following series of blog articles provide a tutorial to help you get started:

- [Plan it](https://www.ibm.com/products/blog/getting-started-with-the-new-watson-assistant-plan-it){: external}
- [Part I: The build guide](https://www.ibm.com/products/tutorials/getting-started-with-the-new-watson-assistant-part-i-the-build-guide){: external}
- [Part II: Refine your assistant](https://www.ibm.com/products/tutorials/getting-started-with-the-new-watson-assistant-part-ii-refine-your-assistant){: external}
- [Part III: Test and deploy](https://www.ibm.com/products/tutorials/getting-started-with-the-new-watson-assistant-part-iii-test-and-deploy){: external}
- [Part IV: preview, draft, publish, live](https://www.ibm.com/products/tutorials/getting-started-with-the-new-watson-assistant-part-iv-preview-draft-publish-live){: external}

Some more starting points in the documentation to also help you get started:
- [About watsonx Assistant](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-about&format=markdown)
- [Planning your assistant](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-plan-assistant&format=markdown)
- [Overview: Editing actions](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-build-actions-overview&format=markdown)
- [Building actions from a template](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-actions-templates&format=markdown)

For more information on FAQs, see [FAQs about watsonx Assistant](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-watson-assistant-faqs&format=markdown#faqs-new-experience).

## Working with your assistant

Assistants are created within a watsonx Assistant service instance. To continue working with your assistant, open the service instance that contains the assistant. If you can't remember the service instance name, you can switch between instances from within the watsonx Assistant user interface by doing the following steps:

1.  Go to the IBM Cloud Resource list
1.  Log in.

A list of the service instances that you own or were given access to is displayed.

3.  Click a service instance to open it.
1.  Click **Launch Watson Assistant** from the service instance details page to open the product in a new browser tab or window.
1.  Click the following icon from the navigation pane to see a list of your assistants.

   - ![Nav icon](images/nav-ass-icon.png) Assistants

If you do not see the assistant you are looking for, you can look for it in a different service instance.

### Switching the service instance

To switch to a different Watson Assistant service instance, complete the following steps:

1.  Go to **Home**> **View all assistants**
1.  You can see the list of the available service instances. Click on a different service instance of your choice to open.