The web console gives the end users of your Ubidots App a GPT-like console: a chat inside the app where they ask questions about their devices in plain language and get answers from your AI agents. To set it up, go to AI Center → Channels, click Add channel, choose Web console and decide which users get which agents.
Each end user only gets answers about the devices and data they can already see in the app, because the agent always works with that user's permissions.
To reach your end users on WhatsApp instead, see Talk to Your Industrial AI Agents through WhatsApp.
Requirements
A plan that includes AI Center. See AI Center: Overview, Plans and AI Credits.
An account owner or admin user.
At least one agent. See Create and Configure AI Agents.
A Ubidots App with end users. See Ubidots App(s).
1. How the web console works
One console per app. Each app can have one web console. The app is locked once the channel is created: to move the console to another app, delete it and create a new one there.
Access rules decide who gets which agents. Each rule pairs an audience (all end users, specific users or a tag) with one or more agents.
Permissions carry over. The agent answers with the permissions of the user it's talking to, so nobody sees data through the console that they can't see in the app.
Owners and admins always get every agent. Access rules apply to end users only.
2. Create the web console
Go to AI Center → Channels and click Add channel.
In Add a channel, choose Web console. The New web console channel page opens on the Setup tab.
Check the App. If your account has several apps, pick the one whose end users get the console. With a single app, it's already set.
Enter a Channel name. It's suggested as "App name Console", and its identifier is generated from it. Optionally, add a one-sentence Description for your team (up to 200 characters).
Click Next and add at least one rule in the Access tab (see the next section).
Click Create channel.
The console is live as soon as you create it, and the end users covered by its rules can start using it. You land on the channel's page, where you can change it later.
3. Choose who can use which agents
The Access tab, Who can use which agents, lists the console's rules. Everyone in a rule's audience sees the rule's agents in the console's agent menu.
Add a rule
Click Add rule and choose who the rule covers.
If the rule needs them, pick the users or tags (see below).
In the rule's Agents column, open Select one or more agents and check the agents its audience can use.
All end users: everyone in the app, including users added later. A console can have one rule of this kind.
Specific users: in Select users, search by name or email, check the users and click Apply. Only the app's end users are listed. To change them later, click the pencil next to their names.
By tag: in Pick tags for this rule, type a tag and press Enter, add as many as you need and click Apply. The rule covers every end user who carries at least one of the tags. Tags aren't case-sensitive.
Every rule needs at least one agent; until then, Create channel stays disabled. To remove a rule, click its bin icon.
How rules combine
An end user covered by several rules gets every agent from all of them. In the example above, Laura gets Plant Assistant, IoT Fleet Assistant and AC Sentinel, and every other end user gets Plant Assistant and IoT Fleet Assistant.
End users who aren't covered by any rule get no agents, and the console's link doesn't appear in their app menu.
Account owners and admins aren't limited by the rules: they always get every agent.
4. What your end users see
End users open the console from AI Chat in the app's sidebar menu, or from AI Center → Chat if the app uses the top navigation bar. If your app uses a custom sidebar menu, add a link to /app/ai-center/chat. See App Builder: Custom Sidebar Menu.
The console works like the GPT-style chats they already know:
Agent menu. Below the message box, they pick one of the agents their rules allow. Agents you created appear under My Agents, and the ones Ubidots provides, such as IoT Fleet Assistant, under System Agents.
Conversations. New chat starts a conversation. Earlier ones stay in the sidebar, grouped by date, and Delete conversation removes one.
Answers. Answers can include headings, lists and tables. Copy message copies an answer, and the thumbs up and thumbs down send feedback with an optional comment.
Shortcuts. With IoT Fleet Assistant, the welcome screen suggests questions under Try asking:, and Add Device attaches specific devices to a question.
If you take an agent away from a user, their conversations with it stay readable, but they can't send it new messages. They start a new chat with another agent instead.
5. Edit or delete the console
Edit: in AI Center → Channels, click the console's card. On the Edit channel page, change its name, description or access rules and click Save. The app can't be changed.
Delete: open the card's ⋮ menu, click Delete and confirm. This removes the console and disconnects its agents, and can't be undone.
FAQ
Do my end users' conversations use AI credits?
Yes. Every message an agent answers uses AI credits from your account, whoever sends it. See AI Center: Overview, Plans and AI Credits.
Can different users get different agents?
Yes. An app has one web console, and its access rules give each audience its own agents: for example, one agent for all end users and another for a tag such as "maintenance".
Can I put the web console on my own website?
No. The web console runs inside your Ubidots App. To reach users outside the app, use WhatsApp: see Talk to Your Industrial AI Agents through WhatsApp.
Can an end user see other users' data through the agent?
No. The agent uses the permissions of the user it's talking to.
Related articles