Conversation Machines for Transaction Processing

We have built a set of integrated AI systems (called conversation machines) to enable transaction processing over the telephone for limited domains like stock trading and banking. The conversation machines integrate the state-ofthe-art technologies from computer telephony, continuous speech recognition, natural language processing and humancomputer interaction. Users can interact with these systems using natural language to process simple transactions. We are currently installing a prototype conversation machine at a customer site (a large bank), while continuing research on each of the modules mentioned above and their integration. In this paper, we describe the architecture of conversation machines and explain the design choices related to natural language dialog design, speech recognition errors, and human-computer interaction. We also discuss our experience with the new "market-driven research" methodology currently being tested at our company, of which the conversation ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: AAAI
• Authors: Wlodek Zadrozny, Catherine G. Wolf, Nanda Kambhatla, Yiming Ye
• Keywords: AAAI 1998, Conversation Machines, Intelligent Agents, Natural Language, Natural Language Dialog