A slit or narrow opening, especially one for receiving something, as a coin or letter. Also, a position or role within an organization or hierarchy.

In aviation, an airport time-slot allocation for an aircraft to take off or land, issued by the air traffic controller as part of flow and capacity management. An airline may purchase or lease slots, which allow them to operate on congested routes. Airlines that do not have slots risk waiting on the ground or flying with excess fuel. The concept is a critical component of central flow management, which has helped to reduce delays and fuel burn around the world.

The term ‘slot’ is also used in computer games to refer to the number of possible outcomes or combinations on a reel. In the past, slot machines could only have one or more symbols per reel; however, manufacturers soon incorporated electronics into their products and developed ways to weight particular symbols on each reel, allowing them to appear in multiple slots per reel.

This allowed a greater variety of potential combinations and increased jackpot size. It also improved player experience by reducing the time between spins, resulting in more consistent payouts.

The slot can be used without a specific intent in a self-service chat, and it is particularly useful when you need to collect customer data for identification or verification purposes. It is possible to access multiple slots from each intent, which improves efficiency and reduces the amount of work required to build a bot.