System for focused conversation context management in a reasoning agent/behavior engine of an agent automation system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12086550-B2
Application number	US-202117304918-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 28, 2021
Priority date	Mar 23, 2018
Publication date	Sep 10, 2024
Grant date	Sep 10, 2024

Abstract

An agent automation system includes a memory configured to store a reasoning agent/behavior engine (RA/BE) including a first persona and a current context and a processor configured to execute instructions of the RA/BE to cause the first persona to perform actions comprising: receiving intents/entities of a first user utterance; recognizing a context overlay cue in the intents/entities of the first user utterance, wherein the context overlay cue defines a time period; updating the current context of the RA/BE by overlaying context information from at least one stored episode associated with the time period; and performing at least one action based on the intents/entities of the first user utterance and the current context of the RA/BE.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An agent automation system, comprising:
at least one memory configured to store a reasoning agent/behavior engine (RA/BE) comprising a plurality of personas, each configured to manage episodic context information using a respective plurality of frames; and
at least one processor configured to execute stored instructions to cause the RA/BE to perform actions comprising:
receiving intents or entities of a first user utterance of a user;
determining a start of an episode in response to receiving the intents or the entities of the first user utterance;
selecting a first persona of the plurality of personas to respond to the first user utterance;
generating, via the first persona, a first response to the first user utterance based at least in part on the intents or the entities;
providing, via the first persona, the first response to the user; and
storing, via the first persona, conversational context information in one or more local frames of the first persona for the episode, wherein the first persona is configured to use at least a portion of the conversational context information stored in the one or more local frames when generating a subsequent response to a subsequent user utterance of the user within the episode.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the conversational context information comprises a user information, topic information, the first user utterance, the first response, or any combination thereof.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the stored instructions to cause the RA/BE to perform actions comprising:
before generating the first response, performing, via the first persona, at least one action based on the intents or the entities of the first user utterance, wherein the conversational context information comprises a description of the at least one action.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the stored instructions to cause the RA/BE to perform actions comprising:
requesting and receiving, via the first persona, service-based context information that is contemporaneous with the episode from one or more external services; and
storing, via the first persona, the service-based context information in one or more service-based frames of the first persona for the episode, wherein the first persona is configured to use at least a portion of the service-based context information stored in the one or more service-based frames when generating the subsequent response to the subsequent user utterance of the user within the episode.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the one or more external services comprise an external weather service, an external stock service, an external news service, an external retail service, or any combination thereof.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the stored instructions to cause the RA/BE to perform actions comprising:
requesting and receiving, via the first persona, cross-persona context information from a second persona of the plurality of personas; and
storing, via the first persona, the cross-persona context information in one or more cross-persona frames of the first persona for the episode, wherein the first persona is configured to use at least a portion of the cross-persona context information stored in the one or more cross-persona frames when generating the subsequent response to the subsequent user utterance of the user within the episode.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the cross-personal context information is retrieved by the second persona from one or more local frames of the second persona for the episode and provided to the first persona via one or more cross-persona scripts.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one memory is configured to store a respective persona context database that stores the respective plurality of frames for each of the plurality of personas, wherein the respective plurality of frames are frames of the episodic context information.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the stored instructions to cause the RA/BE to perform actions comprising:
receiving intents or entities of a second user utterance of the user;
determining an end of the episode and a start of a new episode in response to receiving the intents or the entities of the second user utterance;
selecting a second persona of the plurality of personas to respond to the second user utterance;
generating, via the second persona, a second response to the second user utterance based at least in part on the intents or the entities of the second user utterance;
providing, via the second persona, the second response to the user; and
storing, via the second persona, additional conversational context information in one or more additional local frames of the second persona for the new episode, wherein the first persona is configured to use at least a portion of the additional conversational context information stored in the additional one or more local frames when generating another subsequent response to another subsequent user utterance of the user within the new episode.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the end of the episode and the start of the new episode is determined based on an amount of time that has passed between receiving the intents or the entities of the first user utterance and receiving the intents or the entities of the second user utterance, based on a change in topic as determined from the intents or the entities of the first user utterance and the intents or the entities of the second user utterance, or any combination thereof.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the stored instructions to cause the RA/BE to perform actions comprising:
receiving intents or entities of a second user utterance of the user;
determining that the episode is still in progress in response to receiving the intents or the entities of the second user utterance;
selecting the first persona of the plurality of personas to respond to the second user utterance;
generating, via the first persona, a second response to the second user utterance based at least in part on the intents or the entities of the second user utterance and at least a portion of the conversational context information stored in the one or more local frames of the first persona;
providing, via the first persona, the second response to the user; and
storing, via the first persona, additional conversational context information in one or more additional local frames of the first persona for the episode, wherein the first persona is configured to use at least a portion of the additional conversational context information stored in the additional one or more local frames when generating another subsequent response to another subsequent user utterance of the user within the episode.

12. A method of operating a reasoning agent/behavior engine (RA/BE) of an agent automation system, comprising:
receiving intents or entities of a first user utterance of a user;
determining a start of an episode in response to receiving the intents or the entities of the first user utterance;
selecting a first persona of a plurality of personas of the RA/BE to respond to the first user utterance;
generating, via the first persona, a first response to the first user utterance based at least in part on the intents or the entities;
providing, via the first persona, the first response to the user; and
storing, via the first persona, conversational context information in one or more local frames of the fir

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Sapugay Edwin
• Madamala Anil Kumar
• Naboka Maxim
• Sunkara Srinivas Satyasai
• Santos Lewis Savio Landry
• Subbarao Murali B

Classifications

• G06F40/295

  Named entity recognition · CPC title

• G06F40/35 Primary

  Discourse or dialogue representation · CPC title

• G10L15/26

  Speech to text systems (G10L15/08 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G10L15/22

  Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue · CPC title

• G06F40/30 Primary

  Semantic analysis · CPC title