Understanding the Modern Oracle Digital Assistant (ODA) 

Shah began by clarifying what ODA is—and what it is not. While traditional chatbots were designed to answer narrow sets of questions within a single functional domain, today’s Digital Assistants represent a higher-order evolution. They combine multiple skill sets, harness AI-powered predictions, support multilingual interaction, and can communicate across channels including Slack, WhatsApp, Google, and Alexa.  

Unlike older chatbots, digital assistants: 

• Consolidate skills across HR, payroll, benefits, ERP, SCM, and more. 
• Initiate conversations proactively instead of waiting for a user prompt. 
• Use AI to interpret intent and deliver the right data. 
• Maintain conversational context through dialog flow memory. 
• Integrate seamlessly into PeopleSoft as a single-pane interface. 

This combination of capabilities allows customers to begin interacting with PeopleSoft data through natural language—without learning new navigation. 

Why Conversational Experiences Matter in PeopleSoft 

A conversational interface mirrors how employees already communicate. Instead of navigating menus or searching documentation, users ask simple, human-phrased questions like: 

• “What is my vacation balance?” 
• “Show me my pay slip.” 
• “How do I change my beneficiary?” 

Because the chatbot is available 24/7, 365 days a year, it eliminates wait times and reduces dependency on HR or support teams. As Shah emphasized, this instant-response model particularly benefits organizations facing staffing constraints or high call volumes.  

Industries already benefiting include: 

• Customer service — reducing wait times and increasing satisfaction 
• HCM — providing employees quick access to benefits, payroll, absence, or onboarding information 
• ERP/SCM — surfacing critical operational data 
• CRM — enabling sales to focus on strategy rather than manual lookups 

The assistant acts as a bridge between PeopleSoft and the user—responding instantly, interpreting nuances, and ensuring secure, role-based access to data. 

Inside the ODA + PeopleSoft Architecture 

The integration between PeopleSoft’s chatbot framework and Oracle Digital Assistant is powered by a structured and secure architecture. Shah outlined the key components, each playing a critical role in routing queries, understanding intent, and retrieving data.  

Key Components of ODA

1. Channel Configurator
   Determines where conversations happen—PeopleSoft web, Slack, WhatsApp, or voice channels. 
2. Dialog Flow Engine
   Maintains conversational context and state, ensuring fluid multistep interactions. 
3. Enterprise Data Integration
   Connects ODA to PeopleSoft’s exposed REST services—whether environments are on-premises or on OCI. 
4. Conversational AI Engine
   Combines NLP, machine learning, and cognitive services to understand user utterances and generate responses. 

On the PeopleSoft side, the integration framework handles: 

• Authentication using existing PeopleSoft security models 
• REST service calls 
• User role filtering 
• Application-level data retrieval 

This means customers can deploy the assistant without any new PeopleSoft licensing and without compromising security.  

A Unified Experience Through Multi-Skill Digital Assistants 

One of the strengths of ODA is its ability to unify multiple functional skills—benefits, payroll, job data, expenses, procurement—into a single conversational experience. As Shah showed, a user doesn’t need to know which skill handles which question; the assistant routes queries automatically.  

Example:
If an employee asks, “Show me my payslip” immediately after updating a beneficiary for a savings plan, the assistant seamlessly shifts from Benefits to Payroll without any manual switching. 

This creates an uninterrupted, intuitive experience for users. 

Live Demo Highlights: Benefits, Payroll, and Real-Time Updates 

Shah’s demo showcased the assistant’s ability to: 

• Display current enrollments 
• Navigate into 401(k) elections 
• Show beneficiary designations 
• Open PeopleSoft pages directly from the chat window 
• Perform real-time updates, such as changing beneficiary percentages
• Switch assistants (Benefits to Payroll) without losing context 
• Display paycheck details instantly 

When the user updated a 50/50 beneficiary split to 80/20, the chatbot confirmed the update and reflected it immediately in a refreshed query—demonstrating true transactional capability.  

Where Generative AI (GenAI) Changes Everything: RAG-Powered Document Search 

The most transformative enhancement is the integration of Generative AI using RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation). This allows PeopleSoft users to ask natural-language questions that reference information not stored in PeopleSoft itself—such as: 

• Employee handbooks 
• HR policies 
• Benefits summaries 
• Compliance documents 
• Organization-specific procedures 

These documents are uploaded into an OCI Object Storage bucket and indexed into a Knowledge Base that the GenAI Agent can search.  

How the RAG Search Works 

1. User asks a question 
2. ODA routes it to the GenAI agent 
3. The agent performs a contextual search (RAG) 
4. The specific snippet is returned along with citations 
5. Users can open the exact policy document with one click 

Shah demonstrated several examples: 

• “What is Oracle’s policy for equal employment and workplace inclusion?” 
• “What are the guidelines around workplace safety?” 
• “How can I become eligible for a 401(k) plan?” 
• “What is the company matching contribution?” 
• “What are the vacation and holiday policies?” 

The assistant returned accurate answers directly from policy documents—with optional citation links to view the originals.  

This dramatically reduces HR inquiry volume while providing employees with quick, compliant, and consistent answers. 

Deployment Overview: What Organizations Need to Implement 

Shah closed the session by walking through the configuration process on both the PeopleSoft and ODA sides.  

PeopleSoft Requirements 

• Deploy Web SDK 
• Create a PeopleSoft proxy user 
• Configure Integration Broker services (REST) 
• Update authentication settings 
• Set up firewall rules 
• Create the chatbot channel and identifier 

ODA Requirements 

• ODA cloud subscription 
• Download and deploy PeopleSoft Employee Digital Assistant skills 
• Configure connection parameters 
• Train and deploy assistant 
• Create channels for communication 
• Set up endpoint connections for GenAI agents 

GenAI RAG Configuration 

• Upload documents to OCI Object Storage 
• Create a Knowledge Base 
• Create a GenAI Agent with RAG capabilities 
• Configure REST API calls within ODA 
• Validate the agent through test prompts 

This modular approach allows organizations to adopt the assistant and scale up gradually as their needs evolve. 

Why This Matters for PeopleSoft Customers 

AI-powered digital assistants are no longer optional—they’re a critical component of modernizing the PeopleSoft user experience. With Oracle’s new framework integrating OpenSearch and GenAI Agents, customers can now combine transactional intelligence with robust knowledge search in a single interface.  

The results: 

• Faster user support 
• Lower HR, payroll, and IT workloads 
• Real-time updates directly within PeopleSoft 
• Accurate policy answers using enterprise-owned documents 
• A more modern, intuitive experience for employees 

As Shah demonstrated, the future of PeopleSoft is conversational, intelligent, and AI-driven. 

Want more?  

Explore more content and resources to help you get the most from your PeopleSoft investment:  

• Be sure to check out the RECONNECT Dive Deep Event Hub for presentation slides – available exclusively to Quest members.  
• Visit the Quest Learn Library for blogs, how-to demos, and on-demand sessions.  
• Connect with peers in one of our Quest PeopleSoft Community User Groups to swap stories, ask questions, and share tips with other users facing the same challenges.  

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