about this book
The technology in this book goes by many names: conversational AI, virtual assistants, automated agents, chatbots, bots, or just “the AI.” No matter what you call it, this book will teach you how to effectively use the technology to meet your needs and satisfy your users. If you have an underperforming conversational AI, this book will teach you how to improve it.
Who should read this book
Effective Conversational AI is for people who currently maintain conversational AI solutions, including business sponsors, product owners, and conversational AI designers and developers. Software development experience may be useful for some technical resolutions, but is not required for many of the conceptual or design remediations recommended throughout the text (thanks in part to low-code/no-code conversational AI tooling). The pain points and resolution patterns described throughout this book should also be insightful to those who are considering building a conversational AI solution—an ounce of prevention, as they say.
How this book is organized: A road map
This book is divided into four parts and 12 chapters. The first part introduces conversational AI, the benefits and pain points of the technology, and a structured approach for improving conversational AI. The remaining parts each focus on a single pain point and offer a variety of ways to improve the AI by removing that pain point.
Part 1 introduces concepts fundamental for building and improving conversational AI.