Responding to a query in a communication system

A method of responding to a query in a communication system, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a transceiver of an electronic computing device, signals representative of a first oral query from a communication device, the communication device receiving the first oral query via a microphone and generating the signals based on the first oral query;
• generating, with a natural language processing engine of an electronic processor of the electronic computing device, a first response to the first oral query;
• determining, with the electronic processor, a first channel availability of the communication system, the communication system being used by the electronic computing device to communicate with the communication device;
• determining, with the electronic processor, that the first channel availability is below a predetermined threshold;
• transmitting, via the transceiver, the first response to the communication device as text data over a text channel of the communication system in response to determining that the first channel availability is below the predetermined threshold, the text channel being separate from a voice channel used to transmit voice data;
• receiving, by the transceiver, a second oral query from the communication device;
• generating, with the electronic processor, a second response to the second oral query;
• determining, with the electronic processor, a second channel availability of the communication system;
• determining, with the electronic processor, that the second channel availability is greater than or equal to the predetermined threshold;
• and
• transmitting, via the transceiver, the second response to the communication device as voice data over the voice channel of the communication system in response to determining that the second channel availability is greater than or equal to the predetermined threshold.

A communication system comprising:

• a communication device configured to receive an oral query via a microphone and transmit signal representative of the oral query to an electronic computing device,
• the electronic computing device configured to
• receive the oral query from the communication device,
• generate, with a natural language processing engine, a response to the oral query,
• determine a channel availability of the communication system,
• transmit the response to the communication device as voice data over a voice channel in response to determining that the channel availability is above a predetermined threshold, wherein the communication device is configured to output the voice data on a speaker,
• transmit the response to the communication device as text data over a text channel separate from the voice channel in response to determining that the channel availability is below the predetermined threshold, wherein the communication device is configured to convert the text data to synthesized voice data to be output by the speaker,
• determine a length of the response to the oral query, and
• adjust the predetermined threshold based on the length of the response to the oral query.