LAUNCH Festival talk on conversational agents

1. Cultivating
Cognitive
Experiences

2. Conversational Agents

3. Conversational UI. 2017.

5. Not every voice or
text interaction is a
conversation.

6. Human
Conversation
APIs
Conversational Systems
Speech to Text Text to SpeechNatural Language
Understanding
Dialog Management

7. Human
Conversation
APIs
Conversational Systems
Text to SpeechSpeech to Text Natural Language
Understanding
Dialog Management

8. How do we rethink
conversation?

9. A: Can you give me recommendations
for dinner?
B: For what?
A: Dinner.
B: Yes!
A: I need a restaurant within
walking distance
B: What kind of food are you looking for?
B: Around here, American, Japanese
or Mexican.
A: What are my choices?
A: Mexican.
B: Okay, Mañana’s is located at Fourth
and Winchester.
B: The restaurant, Mañana’s, is just two
blocks south on Fourth Street.
A: What do you mean?
A: Oh ok, thanks!
B: You’re welcome.
Closing
Dependency
Hearing Trouble
Dependency
Dependency
Understanding Trouble
BaseActionPair

10. Achieve
Mutual Understanding

12. Onboard your users.

13. Hello James, I’m Watson.
What can I help you with today?
Select one to get started.
Can you help me find a restaurant?
Do you sell movie tickets?
What can you do?
Type a message…

14. Use progressive disclosure.

15. Hello James, I’m Watson.
What can I help you with today?
Can you help me find a restaurant?
Sure! What kind of food are you
in the mood for?
Mexican
Within walking distance or a
short drive?
Walking distance

16. Give feedback.

17. Type a message…
Sure! What kind of food are you
in the mood for?
Mexican
Within walking distance or a
short drive?
Walking distance
Just a moment…

18. Show, don’t tell.

19. Type a message…
MexicanWalking distance
Mañana’s is located at Fourth
and Winchester.
How do I get there?
Mañana’s Mexican Cuisine
0.2 miles away
Here are directions to
Mañana’s:

20. Leverage history.

21. PLACE AN ORDER
Okay, the fish tacos
are tonight’s special.
Would you like to order that
or see a menu?
Type a message…
MexicanWalking distance
Mañana’s is located at Fourth
and Winchester.
Great, thanks!
You’re welcome.
Would you like to place
an online order?
Sure

22. Give your bot personality.

23. Hello James, I’m Watson.
What can I help you with today?
How are you?
You know, living the dream!
How about this weather?
Well, it’s always freezing in
the server room!
haha
Type a message…

24. Fail gracefully.

25. Type a message…
Can you help me find a restaurant?
Sure! What kind of food are you
in the mood for?
Actually—is the symphony performing?
I’m afraid I don’t have any
information on performing arts.
Would you still like a
restaurant recommendation?

26. ibm.biz/conversational-ux

27. How do we rethink
user experience?

28. How do we rethink
artificial intelligence?

30. rarar@us.ibm.com