Core Concepts
This paper proposes a conceptual framework to model the actions and decisions of users and agents during the conversational search process. The framework outlines the different actions that users and agents can perform, as well as the key decision points the agent needs to navigate to facilitate a successful and satisfactory conversational search experience.
Abstract
The paper presents a conceptual framework for modeling the interactions between users and agents during the conversational search process. It first provides background on the capabilities required for conversational agents and the actions and intents identified in prior work.
The core of the framework enumerates the different actions that users and agents can perform during the conversation. On the user side, these include revealing information about their needs, refining or expanding their requirements, inquiring about the available options, navigating the search results, and interrogating the agent's understanding.
On the agent side, the key actions include eliciting information from the user, revealing and summarizing the available options, suggesting alternatives, explaining its reasoning, and managing the flow of the conversation.
The framework also outlines the key decisions the agent needs to make, such as determining the appropriate dialog policy, identifying the user's intent, selecting the best questions to ask, deciding when to elicit more information versus revealing options, and how to best present the available information to the user.
The conceptual framework provides a structured way to think about the conversational search process and the various components involved. It serves as a starting point for more formal modeling, implementation, and empirical evaluation of conversational search agents.
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Quotes
"The conversational search task aims to enable a user to resolve information needs via natural language dialogue with an agent."
"The goal of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework of different actions and intents, along with the key decision points within the conversation."
"Essentially, this paper provides a conceptualization of the conversational search process between an agent and user, which provides a framework and a starting point for research, development and evaluation of conversational search agents."