What is Conversational AI?

Conversational AI opens new dimensions of user engagement with the digital world, which will have far-reaching impacts on all the ways we work, live and play. AI is enabling a new generation of UI which allows humans to interact with digital systems through the medium most natural to them: Conversation (either through the spoken word or interactive, unscripted text chats). While humans have long "conversed" with computers, those interactions had to follow strict structured rules that the computers were pre-programmed to anticipate (e.g., "Enter the wizard's cave."). The ascendant generation of conversational AI solutions are able to discern a wide spectrum of user inputs including ones she wasn't specifically programmed to anticipate -- everything from "Hello, I'd like to reserve a hotel room on Tuesday," to "Hey, I'm going to be staying at your hotel in a few days, what room options do you have?" Amelia: Would you like to know the balance for your Savings or Checking account?