Applications of Spoken Language Technology and Systems

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Applications of Spoken Language Technology and
Systems

• Mike Phillips

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Challenge of Dialog Systems
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Usability of Dialog Systems
Like a Human
Usability
Structured Dialog
Flexibility
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User Expectations

• User expectations of what they can say
• OK for fixed choices (you can say)
• OK for constrained input (please say your
  account number)
• But, if we expand it
• How do users know what they can say?
• Will the system understand them?
• What did it understand anyway?
• User expectations of dialog
• OK for structured dialog
• OK for single turn
• But, if we expand it
• How do users know what they can do?
• Does it really know what they want?
• There seems to be an error, now what?

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Avoiding the Abyss

• What the user can say
• Keep it simple
• Allow everything

• Dialog strategy
• Keep it simple
• Be as good as a human

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Simple Dialog
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Simple Dialog
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Simple Dialog

• Telephone applications
• Depends on application
• Personal Computers
• Who needs it?
• Mobile Devices
• Mobile devices and networks becoming more capable
• Other input modalities not so great
• Personal device
• Interface can learn about user
• User can learn about Interface

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What About Telephone Applications?
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Virtual Agent Telephony Applications

• User experiences what appears to be fully
  automated experience
• But, there are no constraints on what they can
  say
• Actual work is mix of automation and agents
• Usage data can be used to train SLMs, automated
  dialog managers, etc.
• Increase automation over time with same user
  experience

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Predictions

• Call centers will continue adoption of
  speech-based systems
• Incremental improvement of user experience
• Increased used of more flexible dialog strategies
• Better mix of automation and humans
• Mobile devices will be area of fastest growth
• Data-based services just taking off
• Broad agreement that there is a user interface
  problem
• All players scrambling for ownership of customer
  experience