Signal analysis in a conversational scheduling assistant computing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019095424-A1
Application number	US-201715714077-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 25, 2017
Priority date	Sep 25, 2017
Publication date	Mar 28, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

A software agent, that is used to assist in providing a service, receives communications from a set of users that are attempting to use the software agent. The communications include communications that are interacting with the software agent, and communications that are not interacting with the software agent. The software agent performs natural language processing on all communications to identify such things as user sentiment, user concerns or other items in the content of the messages, and also to identify actions taken by the users in order to obtain a measure of user satisfaction with the software agent. One or more action signals are then generated based upon the identified user satisfaction with the software agent.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computing system, comprising:
a messaging system that sends and receives group messages among a plurality of different users in a group of users; an assistance computing system that receives a natural language request message from the messaging system, indicative of a user request, from a requesting user in the group of users, for interaction with the assistance system and that conducts a dialog with a user, using the messaging system, to render a service in response to the natural language request message; an analyzer system that detects other natural language messages, in addition to the natural language request message and messages in the dialog, from the plurality of different users in the group of users, generates satisfaction indicia indicative of user satisfaction corresponding to the assistance computing system based on a content of the other natural language messages, the natural language request message and messages in the dialog; and control signal generator logic that generates a control signal to control the computing system based on the satisfaction indicia.

2 . The computing system of claim 1 wherein the control signal generator logic is configured to generate the control signal to control the messaging system to prompt the requesting user to recommend the assistance computing system to another user.

3 . The computing system of claim 1 wherein the analyzer system comprises:
feature discovery engagement logic configured to identify a feature discovery natural language message inquiring about additional functionality offered by the assistance computing system and generating a feature discovery engagement indicator indicative of the feature discovery natural language message; and
satisfaction level detection logic configured to generate the satisfaction indicia based on the feature discovery engagement indicator.

4 . The computing system of claim 1 wherein the assistance computing system comprises a scheduling assistant configured to render a scheduling assistance service, and wherein the analyzer system comprises:
calendar mining logic configured to access calendar information corresponding to the requesting user to identify a usage level indicative of a level of usage of the scheduling assistant by the requesting user; and
satisfaction level detection logic being configured to generate the satisfaction indicia based on the usage level.

5 . The computing system of claim 4 wherein the calendar mining logic comprises:
service coverage determination logic configured to access the calendar information and identify how often the requesting user used the scheduling assistant in performing the scheduling operations relative to how often the user performed the scheduling operations without using the scheduling assistant to obtain a coverage indicator, the satisfaction level detection logic generating the satisfaction indicia based on the coverage indicator.

6 . The computing system of claim 5 wherein the calendar mining logic comprises:
meeting categorization logic configured to access the calendar information and identify different categories of scheduling items for which the requesting user has performed the scheduling operation.

7 . The computing system of claim 6 wherein the service coverage determination logic is configured to obtain the coverage indicator corresponding to each category of scheduling items.

8 . The computing system of claim 5 wherein the calendar mining logic comprises:
trend identifying logic configured to identify a trend in how often the requesting user used the scheduling assistant in performing the scheduling operations relative to how often the user performed the scheduling operations without using the scheduling assistant.

9 . The computing system of claim 3 wherein the analyzer system comprises:
user recommendation detection logic configured to detect whether the requesting user recommended the assistance computing system to other users and to generate a recommendation detected indicator, the satisfaction level detection logic being configured to generate the satisfaction indicia based on the recommendation detected indicator.

10 . The computing system of claim 3 wherein the analyzer system comprises:
sentiment analysis logic configured to identify sentiment of the requesting user in the content of the messages and identify a correlation between the identified sentiment and the assistance computing system, the satisfaction level detection logic generating the satisfaction indicia based on the identified sentiment and the correlation to the assistance computing system.

11 . The computing system of claim 10 wherein the sentiment analysis logic is configured to identify the sentiment of the requesting user in the content of the messages and identify a correlation between the identified sentiment and an individual feature of the assistance computing system, the satisfaction level detection logic generating the satisfaction indicia based on the identified sentiment and the correlation to the individual feature of the assistance computing system.

12 . A computer implemented method, comprising:
receiving, at an assistance computing system, a natural language request message from a messaging system that sends and receives group messages among a plurality of different users in a group of users, the natural language request message being indicative of a user request, from a requesting user in the group of users, for interaction with the assistance system; controlling the messaging system to conduct a dialog with a user to render a service in response to the natural language request message; detecting other natural language messages, in addition to the natural language request message and messages in the dialog, from the plurality of different users in the group of users; generating satisfaction indicia indicative of user satisfaction corresponding to the assistance computing system based on a content of the other natural language messages, the natural language request message and messages in the dialog; and generating a control signal to control the computing system based on the satisfaction indicia.

13 . The computer implemented method of claim 12 wherein generating the control signal comprises:
generating the control signal to control the messaging system to prompt the requesting user to recommend the assistance computing system to another user.

14 . The computer implemented method of claim 12 wherein generating satisfaction indicia comprises:
identifying a feature discovery natural language message inquiring about additional functionality offered by the assistance computing system;
generating a feature discovery engagement indicator indicative of the feature discovery natural language message; and
generating the satisfaction indicia based on the feature discovery engagement indicator.

15 . The computer implemented method of claim 14 wherein the assistance computing system comprises a scheduling assistant configured to render a scheduling assistance service, and wherein generating satisfaction indicia comprises:
accessing calendar information corresponding to the requesting user;
identifying a usage level indicative of a level of usage of the scheduling assistant by the requesting user; and
generating the satisfaction indicia based on the usage level.

16 . The computer implemented method of claim 15 wherein identifying a usage level comprises:
identifying the level of usage, from the calendar information, by identifying how often the requesting user used the schedulin

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Cheung Benjamin Gene
• Monroy-Hernandez Andres
• Newman Todd Daniel
• Carvalho Neto Mayerber Loureiro De
• Palmer Michael Brian
• Bhattacharya Pamela
• Cranshaw Justin Brooks
• Lee Charles Yin-Che

Classifications

• G06F40/30 Primary

  Semantic analysis · CPC title

• H04L51/046

  Interoperability with other network applications or services · CPC title

• G06Q10/109 Primary

  Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting · CPC title

• H04L51/02

  using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages · CPC title

• G06Q10/107

  Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing] · CPC title