DUET: How to make AI Reservation Agent via Telephony

KyoungTae Doh
NAVER Biz AI / DUET TF
https://linedevday.linecorp.com/jp/2019/sessions/A1-1

1. 2019 DevDay DUET: How To Make AI Reservation Agent via Telephony > KyoungTae Doh > NAVER Biz AI / DUET TF
2. DUET = Project AiCall = Product
4. Why We Started This Project
5. Does anyone call the restaurant to make reservations these days?
6. Which device do people use… …when making reservations?
7. 65 vs 35
8. Reality != Guesses, Assumptions Meet the user. Take a different approach. Data. Data. Data.
9. Before development began… We just called… So many times
10. 1. People are not good at answering phones • Human error is a factor in telephony • Not well trained for answering calls • We are not aiming for the sky Restaurants want to cut costs on answering calls
11. AI Speaker pattern - Command and Control Phone Call pattern - Build-up “Clova, Play songs of BTS” “Yes, playing the music” ( play the music) “Hello” “This is A Restaurant. May I help you?” “I would like to make a reservation” “Yes, When?” 2. Having a conversation over the phone with an AI is nothing like interacting with an AI Speaker
12. 3. Having a conversation over the phone with an AI is nothing like interacting with an Chatbot • Chatbot has Visual Display • User can see the entire conversation • User can not remember everything on the phone • Chabot use multi-modal interface • Phone call can use voice only
13. Conversational UX
14. UX Designer interview
15. Understand the Conversation Space
16. Conversation space Conversation space for AiCall Conversation Opening Conversation Closing Body User Request Agent Response Preclosing Signals Greeting + Cap. Check Phone call situation > No wake word context > Agent always says first > Users usually start conversations with a capability check > Need to detect preclosing signal > A conversation consists of an opening, body and closing > From the opening to the closing - time space
17. Understand the Characteristics of Spoken Dialogue
18. What Do Users Want in Spoken Dialogue? Consider time as a critical constraint Time Overlap Silence Balance Mind turn allocation • Conversations can overlap with each other • Turn allocation should be handled naturally in this context Mind the length of utterances • Balancing the length of an utterance is fundamental in spoken dialogue • Spoken prompts should be written considering the length of utterances Mind silence • There could be silence during a conversation • Find ways to minimize silence and get users back on track during silence > Users want natural, continuous conversations > Conversations in the Voice User Interface (VUI) need to consider time as a critical constraint
19. AiCall Conversation Design Framework
20. AiCall Conversation Design Framework Activity Task Turn Sequence
21. AiCall Conversation Design Framework 3 activities 1 task 8 turns 4 sequences A: Hello. This is OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE. What can I help you with? U: Hi. I’d like to make a reservation. A: Okay. When are you coming? U: 7 p.m. tomorrow. A: How many people in your party? U: Four, maybe. A: Okay. Let me see. We have a table for 4 at 7. Want to make a reservation? U: Yes, please. Opening Scheduling Confirmation Reservation Made
22. Sequence and Expansion
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24. U: How can I get there? A: You can find the store…ten-minute walk distance from the subway station. U: How can I get there? A: You can find the store…ten-minute walk distance from the subway station. U: From where? A: From the subway station. Partial Repeat Request Definition Request U: I am going with my parents, and um can you recommend something for them? A: I think tenderloin steak and Toowoomba pasta will be great for your parents. U: What is Towoomba pasta? A: Toowomba pasta is our premium pasta based on spicy cream sauce.
25. Activities
26. Definition Usage • Activity as a module • Customized for each task • Subset of task • Consists of sequences for completing one explicit action
27. Activity Graph "DUJWJUZ
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28. There’s No Failure in Conversation
29. AI Technology on Telephony
30. GATEWAY DM NLU ASR Stream Stream Request Text Voice User Speaker Wav Stream Response Text SYNTH
31. GATEWAY DM NLU ASR Stream Send Full Duplex Receive Request Text Voice User Phone Wav Stream Response Text SYNTH
32. Consider time as a critical constraint Time Overlap Silence Balance Barge-in
34. 8K 16K 24K Speech Recognition
35. Natural Tone via telephony Speaker Voice Actor Tone Synth Tone Speech Synthesis
36. Amount of discourse Pace Overlap Questions Stories Prosodic variation Loudness Gesture (Multimodal) High Considerateness High Involvement
37. Using Models for Telephony Contextual Hints Multi-turn Task Movement Barge-in
38. Multi-turn NLU vs Single-turn NLU Context Command & control
39. 72 vs 99
40. 2 weeks ago API problem Kanji to database
41. Call NLU
42. Single turn
43. Multi-turn
44. 72 vs 99
45. 72 vs 99
46. Engineering Issues
47. ( Engineer Interview video )
48. Twilio, Nexmo, Other Local Carriers PSTN VoIP WebSocket
49. Latency       6    6     6      6   
     Sensitive at latency Using mid result Realtime Duplex Stream AsyncIO GPU Optimization Network optimization Stream optimization Usimg mid result
50. Why UX Engineering is Important
51. Between design and engineering • Designed Path != What users really say • Understand the efficient way of improvement: Design or Engineering Finding a "realistic" path Activity 0 Opening Activity 10 Rescheduling Activity 5 Avail. Check Activity 7 Confirmation <Designed> Activity 0 Opening Activity 10 Rescheduling Activity 5 Avail. Check Activity 7 Confirmation <Real> Activity 1 Scheduling S%!#"  & U%
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52. Facing the Real Problem Task jump is real • Conversation without borders • Example: Reservation task with FAQ task Continue or not: Problem after task jump • Turn reconstruction • Sequence re-flow • Activity reconstruction Examples Reservation Reservation FAQ FAQ A,"()&  - U,
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53. Redesign both System and Conversation for Improvements Dialog management as a traffic light • Interface between UX designer and UX Engineers • DM can be a quick prototyping tool
54. Lessons Learned And More…