English

Designing Explainable Conversational Agentic Systems for Guaran\'i Speakers

Computation and Language 2026-04-21 v3

Abstract

Although artificial intelligence (AI) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) systems are often presented as universal solutions, their design remains predominantly text-first, underserving primarily oral languages and indigenous communities. This position paper uses Guaran\'i, an official and widely spoken language of Paraguay, as a case study to argue that language support in AI remains insufficient unless it aligns with lived oral practices. We propose an alternative to the standard "text-to-speech" pipeline, proposing instead an oral-first multi-agent architecture. By decoupling Guaran\'i natural language understanding from dedicated agents for conversation state and community-led governance, we demonstrate a technical framework that respects indigenous data sovereignty and diglossia. Our work moves beyond mere recognition to focus on turn-taking, repair, and shared context as the primary locus of interaction. We conclude that for AI to be truly culturally grounded, it must shift from adapting oral languages to text-centric systems to treating spoken conversation as a first-class design requirement, ensuring digital ecosystems empower rather than overlook diverse linguistic practices.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.05743,
  title  = {Designing Explainable Conversational Agentic Systems for Guaran\'i Speakers},
  author = {Samantha Adorno and Akshata Kishore Moharir and Ratna Kandala},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.05743},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Accepted at HCXAI conference, ACM CHI 2026

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:05:52.263Z