Systems and methods for providing automated natural language dialogue with customers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11004440-B2
Application number	US-202016807192-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 3, 2020
Priority date	Mar 9, 2017
Publication date	May 11, 2021
Grant date	May 11, 2021

Abstract

A system includes one or more memory devices storing instructions, and one or more processors configured to execute the instructions to perform steps of providing automated natural dialogue with a customer. The system may generate one or more events and commands temporarily stored in queues to be processed by one or more of a dialogue management device, an API server, and an NLP device. The dialogue management device may create adaptive responses to customer communications using a customer context, a rules-based platform, and a trained machine learning model.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for automating natural language dialogue with a customer, comprising:
one or more processors; and
memory in communication with the one or more processors and storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, are configured to cause the system to:
responsive to receiving an incoming customer dialogue message via an automated dialogue interaction channel, generate a first event to be placed in an event queue, the event queue being monitored by a dialogue management device;
responsive to processing the first event and based on data indicative of a customer context, the data derived from customer interaction history information, generate, by the dialogue management device, a first command to be placed in a command queue, the first command representing a command to a natural language processing device to determine the meaning of the incoming customer dialogue message based on the customer context;
responsive to the execution of the first command by the natural language processing device, generate a second event to be placed in the event queue, the second event representing a determined meaning of the incoming customer dialogue message;
responsive to processing the second event, generate, by the dialogue management device and based on the customer context, a second command to be placed in the command queue, the second command being a command to retrieve customer data; and
responsive to processing the customer data, generate, by the dialogue management device and based on one the customer context, a response dialogue message based at least in part on retrieved customer data as processed by the dialog management device.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the response dialog message comprises unrequested information based on a predictive analysis of one or more determined needs of the customer.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the first event comprises an indication that the incoming customer dialogue message was received via one of the following types of channels: SMS, an instant messaging program, a website-based chat program, a mobile application, a voice-to-text device, or an email.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the dialogue management device generates the response dialogue message based on the type of channel the incoming dialogue message was received on.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the customer context is further derived from customer information associated with a particular customer stored in a database, the customer information comprising one or more of: account types, account statuses, transaction history, people models, an estimate of customer sentiment, customer goals, and customer social media information.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the customer context is updated each time the dialogue management device receives an event.

7. A system for automating natural language dialogue with a customer, comprising:
one or more processors; and
memory in communication with the one or more processors and storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, are configured to cause the system to:
responsive to receiving an incoming customer dialogue message via an automated dialogue interaction channel, generate a first event to be placed in an event queue, the event queue being monitored by a dialogue management device, the dialogue management device comprising a trained machine learning model;
responsive to processing the first event and based on data indicative of a customer context, the data derived from customer interaction history information, generate, by the dialogue management device, a first command to be placed in a command queue;
responsive to processing the first command, determining the meaning of the incoming customer dialogue message based on the customer context;
responsive to determining the meaning of the incoming customer dialogue message, generate, by the dialogue management device and based on one or more of trained machine learning model or the customer context, a response dialogue message based on a predictive analysis of one or more determined needs of the customer; and
transmit the response dialogue message via a communication channel that was used to deliver the incoming customer dialogue message.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the command queue comprises one or more commands for execution by one or more of a natural language processing device, an API server, or a communication interface.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the first command comprises a command to the natural language processing device to determine the meaning of the incoming customer dialogue message.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the first command is one of a command to retrieve customer data, a command to perform an account action, a command to authenticate a customer, or an opt-in/opt-out command.

11. The system of claim 7 wherein the customer context is further derived from customer information, the customer information comprising one or more of: account types, account statuses, transaction history, people models, an estimate of customer sentiment, customer goals, or customer social media information.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the customer context is updated each time the dialogue management device receives an event.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the customer context is updated by receiving updated customer information.

14. The system of claim 12 , further comprising outputting, from the dialogue management device, a record of a customer interaction related to the event.

15. The system of claim 8 , wherein the natural language processing device determines the meaning of an incoming customer dialogue message by utilizing one or more of the following artificial intelligence techniques: intent classification, named entity recognition, sentiment analysis, relation extraction, semantic role labeling, question analysis, rule extraction and discovery, or story understanding.

16. The system of claim 8 , wherein the natural language processing device generates natural language by utilizing one or more of the following artificial intelligence techniques: content determination, discourse structuring, referring expression generation, lexicalization, linguistic realization, or explanation generation.

17. A method for providing automated natural language dialogue with a customer, comprising:
receiving a first event to be placed in an event queue, the event queue being monitored by a dialogue management device via an automated dialogue interaction channel, the dialogue management device comprising a trained machine learning model;
responsive to processing the first event and based on data indicative of a customer context, the data derived from customer interaction history information, generating, by the dialogue management device, a first command to be placed in a command queue, wherein the command queue comprises one or more commands for execution by one or more of a natural language processing device, an API server, or a communication interface;
responsive to receiving the first command, determining a meaning of an incoming customer dialogue message based on the customer context;
responsive to execution of the first command by one of a natural language processing device or the API server, generating a second event to be placed in the event queue; and
responsive to processing the second event, generating, by the dialogue management device and based on one or more of the trained machine learning model or the customer context, a response dialogue message based at least in part

Assignees

• Capital One Services Llc

Inventors

• Zoller Gregory W
• Karp Scott
• Jacob Sujay Eliphaz
• Mueller Erik
• Hay Stephanie
• Paynter Adam Roy

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G10L13/027 Primary

  Concept to speech synthesisers; Generation of natural phrases from machine-based concepts (generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text G10L13/08) · CPC title

• G06N5/046

  Forward inferencing; Production systems · CPC title

• G06F9/542

  Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications · CPC title

• G06Q30/016

  After-sales · CPC title