# Dialogue Elements

Dialogue elements are common conversation patterns. We use three different levels of abstraction to discuss AI assistants. This can be helpful in a product team, so that you have a common language which designers, developers, and product owners can use to discuss issues and new features.

- highest level: user goals
- middle level: dialogue elements
- lowest level: intents, entities, actions, slots, and templates.

**Note**  
Some chatbot tools use the word `intent` to refer to the user goal. This is confusing because only some messages tell you what a user’s goal is. If a user says “I want to open an account” (`intent: open_account`), that is clearly their goal. But most user messages (“yes”, “what does that mean?”, “I don’t know”) aren’t specific to one goal. In Rasa, every message has an intent, and a user goal describes what a person wants to achieve.

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