Management of conversations
First Claim
1. A method comprising receiving an arbitrary natural language communication from a user, applying a concept recognition process to automatically derive a representation of concepts embodied in the communication, and using the concept representation to provide to a human agent information useful in responding to the natural language communication.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In one aspect, an arbitrary natural language communication is received from a user. A concept recognition process is applied to automatically derive a representation of concepts embodied in the communication. The concept representation is used to provide to a human agent information useful in responding to the natural language communication.
166 Citations
113 Claims
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1. A method comprising
receiving an arbitrary natural language communication from a user, applying a concept recognition process to automatically derive a representation of concepts embodied in the communication, and using the concept representation to provide to a human agent information useful in responding to the natural language communication.
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54. A method comprising
receiving an arbitrary natural language communication from a user, automatically deriving a representation of concepts embodied in the communication, and using the concept representation, automatically providing a response to the communication in a different mode of expression than the mode of expression used for the communication.
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57. A method comprising
initiating a dialog with a user by sending a first natural language communication to the user, in response to the first natural language communication to the user, receiving a second natural language communication from the user, applying a concept recognition process to automatically derive a representation of concepts embodied in the second communication, and using the concept representation to provide to a human agent information useful in responding to the second communication.
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58. A method comprising
receiving a set of recordings or transcripts of dialogs between users and human agents, recognizing the speech in the recordings, separating each of the dialogs into communications each of which is made by either a user or a human agent, applying a concept recognition process to derive a representation of concepts embodied in each of the communications, and automatically creating a body of state-transition-state or stimulus-response information from the concept representations that enables automated determination of appropriate responses to natural language communications received from users.
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59. A method comprising
receiving example dialogs each comprising a sequence of natural language communications between two parties, applying a concept recognition process to automatically derive a representation of concepts embodied in each of the communications, and using the sequences of communications to form a body of state-transition-state or stimulus-response information that enables a determination of an appropriate transition for any arbitrary communication that is received when in a particular one of the states.
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69. A method comprising
receiving an arbitrary natural language communication from a user, applying business rules to a concept representation of the communication to determine whether or not to refer the communication to a human agent for response, and if the business rules indicate that it is not necessary to refer the communication to the human agent, determining whether a confidence in an automatically generated response is sufficiently high to provide the response without referring the communication to the human agent.
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70. A method comprising
receiving an arbitrary natural language communication from a user, automatically selecting a level of response from among a set of different levels that differ in respect to the degree of involvement by the human agent in providing the response.
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80. A method comprising
enabling a user to access a contact service facility, receiving communications from the user at the contact service facility, providing responses to the user'"'"'s communications, and enhancing the user'"'"'s confidence in the contact service facility by causing at least one of the responses to be selected by a human agent based on the results of an automated concept matching process applied to the communications, the user being unaware that the human agent selected the response.
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83. A method comprising
maintaining a body of state-transition-state or stimulus-response information that represents possible sequences of natural language communications between a user and a response system, the information being generated automatically from historical sequences of communications, and using selected ones of the sequences of communications to manage human agents who provide responses to user communications.
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87. A method comprising
maintaining a body of state-transition-state or stimulus-response information that represents possible sequences of natural language communications between a user and a response system, the information being generated automatically from historical sequences of communications, and using the body of state-transition-state or stimulus-response information in connection with the operation of a user response system.
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90. A method comprising
maintaining a body of state-transition-state or stimulus-response information that enables automated determination of appropriate responses to natural language communications received from users, receiving other natural language communications from users for which appropriate responses cannot be determined, tracking actions taken by a human agent in connection with responding to the other natural language communications, and automatically inferring from the other natural language communications and the selected responses, information for inclusion in the body of state-transition-state or stimulus-response information.
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97. A method comprising
maintaining a body of state-transition-state or stimulus-response information that enables automated determination of appropriate responses to natural language communications received from users, the state-transition-state or stimulus-response information being associated with a contact center of an enterprise, updating the body of information based on communications received from users and responses provided by human agents of the contact center, and analyzing the body of information to infer knowledge about the operation of the enterprise.
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98. A method comprising
maintaining a body of state-transition-state or stimulus-response information that enables automated determination of appropriate responses to natural language communications received from users, the state-transition-state or stimulus-response information being based on concept representations derived from example natural language communications, the example natural language communications being predominantly in one language, and using the state-transition-state or stimulus-response information to provide appropriate responses to natural language communications received from users in a second language different from the one language.
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99. A method comprising
displaying to a human agent a user interface containing concept representation-based information useful in responding to natural language communications from users, the information including automatically generated possible natural language responses and indications of relative confidence levels associated with the responses.
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105. A method comprising
maintaining a body of state-transition-state or stimulus-response information that enables automated determination of appropriate responses to natural language communications received from users, the state-transition-state or stimulus-response information being based on concept representations derived from example natural language communications, each of the states having possibly multiple transitions leading to a later state, when in a predetermined one of the states, using information about the multiple transitions to improve the accuracy of recognition of a speech recognizer that is processing a spoken communication from a user.
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107. A method comprising
enabling two-way natural language communication between each pair of a user, a human agent, and an automated response system, and facilitating the communication by representing the natural language communication as concepts and maintaining a body of state-transition-state or stimulus-response information about sequences of communications between at least two of the user, the human agent, and the response system.
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108. A method comprising
receiving natural language communications from users, automatically considering possible responses to the communications and confidence levels with respect to the responses, providing automated responses to a portion of the users based on the confidence levels, and refraining from providing automated responses to another portion of the users.
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109. A method comprising
receiving natural language communications from users, automatically recognizing concepts contained in the communications, and distributing the communications to human agents for responding to the users, the distribution being based on the concepts recognized in the communications.
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110. A medium bearing a body of information capable of configuring a machine to support an automated communication system, the body of information comprising
state-transition-state or stimulus-response information that represents possible sequences of natural language communications occurring back and forth between a user and a response system.
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112. Apparatus comprising
a user interface for a human agent at a contact service facility, the user interface including a window containing information provided by a contact service process, the information including information about a user of the facility, and window elements embedded in the window provided by the contact service process, the elements including a list of possible natural language responses based on concept representations for an active communication of a user, and indications of relative confidence that the respective responses are appropriate for the communication of the user.
Specification