Introduction to the Microsoft Conversational AI Platform
Stephan Bisser · Apress eBooks · 2021
Conversational AI (short for artificial intelligence) is a term which can be described as a subfield or discipline of artificial intelligence in general. This area deals with the question on how to expose software or services through a conversational interface, enhanced by AI algorithms. Those conversational interfaces usually range from simple text-based chat interfaces to rather complex voice and speech interfaces. The primary goal is to let people interact with software services through those conversational interfaces to make the interaction between humans and machines more natural. An example of that would be the following:Imagine you sit in your car and want to regulate the heating. In the present you would likely need to push a button or turn a switch within your car to turn the heating either up or down. In a more modern scenario, it would be far more natural to just say something like “Car, please turn the heating to 22 degrees Celsius” to achieve the same. In that second case, you would not need to push a button which distracts you from driving; you would only need to speak and tell the device what it should do. Therefore, you would not only have the possibility to stay focused on the main thing you do which is driving, but this could also be beneficial as it may be faster to say something rather than to control a system via buttons or switches.