Related papers: Convivial Conversational Agents -- shifting toward…
Conversational agents are exploding in popularity. However, much work remains in the area of social conversation as well as free-form conversation over a broad range of domains and topics. To advance the state of the art in conversational…
Conversational counselor agents have become essential tools for addressing the rising demand for scalable and accessible mental health support. This paper introduces CAMI, a novel automated counselor agent grounded in Motivational…
We will demonstrate a conversational products recommendation agent. This system shows how we combine research in personalized recommendation systems with research in dialogue systems to build a virtual sales agent. Based on new deep…
Persuasion is a fundamental aspect of communication, influencing decision-making across diverse contexts, from everyday conversations to high-stakes scenarios such as politics, marketing, and law. The rise of conversational AI systems has…
Conversational AI is increasingly deployed in emotionally charged and ethically sensitive interactions. Previous research has primarily concentrated on emotional benchmarks or static safety checks, overlooking how alignment unfolds in…
The remarkable advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), primarily driven by deep neural networks, have significantly impacted various aspects of our lives. However, the current challenges surrounding unsustainable computational…
Social interactions promote well-being, yet barriers like geographic distance, time limitations, and mental health conditions can limit face-to-face interactions. Emotionally responsive AI systems, such as chatbots, offer new opportunities…
Current AI counseling systems struggle with maintaining effective long-term client engagement. Through formative research with counselors and a systematic literature review, we identified five key design considerations for AI counseling…
Conversational AI (ConvAI) agents increasingly maintain structured memory to support long-term, task-oriented interactions. In-context memory approaches append the growing history to the model input, which scales poorly under context-window…
Generative AI offers significant opportunities for language learning. Tools like ChatGPT can provide informal second language practice through chats in written or voice forms, with the learner specifying through prompts conversational…
Many businesses and consumers are extending the capabilities of voice-based services such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Microsoft Cortana, and Apple Siri to create custom voice experiences (also known as skills). As the number of these…
Recent studies have discussed how users are increasingly using conversational AI systems, powered by LLMs, for information seeking, decision support, and even emotional support. However, these macro-level observations offer limited insight…
Remarkable advancements in modern generative foundation models have enabled the development of sophisticated and highly capable autonomous agents that can observe their environment, invoke tools, and communicate with other agents to solve…
The migration of conversational AI agents across different embodiments in order to maintain the continuity of the task has been recently explored to further improve user experience. However, these migratable agents lack contextual…
My research centers on the development of context-adaptive AI systems to improve end-user adoption through the integration of technical methods. I deploy these AI systems across various interaction modalities, including user interfaces and…
Empathy is a vital factor that contributes to mutual understanding, and joint problem-solving. In recent years, a growing number of studies have recognized the benefits of empathy and started to incorporate empathy in conversational…
Reduced social connectedness increasingly poses a threat to mental health, life expectancy, and general well-being. Generative AI (GAI) technologies, such as large language models (LLMs) and image generation tools, are increasingly…
Relationship-centered care relies on trust and meaningful connection. As AI enters clinical settings, we must ask not just what it can do, but how it should be positioned to support these values. We examine a "middle, not top" approach…
Research has shown that human-agent relationships form in similar ways to human-human relationships. Since children do not have the same critical analysis skills as adults (and may over-trust technology, for example), this…
Customer service automation is undergoing a structural transformation. The dominant paradigm is shifting from scripted chatbots and single-agent responders toward networks of specialised AI agents that compose capabilities dynamically…