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US 11,689,481 B2Granted
Automated, extensible natural-language conversational system
AssigneeTarget Brands, Inc.
InventorsPrakash Mall, Rajat Garg, Natarajan Ramamurthy
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An automated chat conversation platform and method of operation are described. The automated chat conversation platform includes extensible chat interfaces useable for chat session communication with a plurality of third party communication tools, and is designed to be automatically scalable according to a number of chat sessions in existence concurrently. The automated chat conversation platform identifies chat sessions in which user intervention may be important, and allows for selective intervention by user agents.
Claims20
A method of operating an automated chat conversation platform, the method comprising:
- receiving messages at a chat gateway from a plurality of chat channel interfaces, the plurality of chat channel interfaces being configured to exchange messages with chat users via a different chat platform type;
- providing the messages to a chat server, the chat server programmed to manage a plurality of chat sessions each including one or more natural language messages;
- assigning a chatbot to each chat session represented by the messages, wherein each chatbot exchanges natural language messages in a chat session based on information from one or more support services located external to the collection of chatbots;
- presenting a chat monitoring interface to a user agent, the chat monitoring interface displaying information regarding a plurality of different selectable chat sessions occurring in real-time;
- and
- upon receiving selection of a chat session from among the plurality of different selectable chat sessions, interrupting operation of a chatbot associated with the chat session and generating a user agent chat interface.
3 more elements
An automated chat conversation platform comprising:
- a chat gateway to receive messages from a plurality of chat channel interfaces, the plurality of chat channel interfaces being configured to exchange messages with chat users via a different chat platform type;
- and
- a chat server communicatively connected with the chat gateway, the chat server programmed to:
- receive the messages from the chat gateway;
- manage a plurality of chat sessions each including one or more natural language messages;
- assign a chatbot to each chat session represented by the messages, wherein the chatbot exchanges natural language messages in a chat session based on information from one or more support services located external to the collection of chatbots;
- present a chat monitoring interface to a user agent, the chat monitoring interface displaying information regarding a plurality of different selectable chat sessions occurring in real-time;
- and
- upon receiving selection of a chat session from among the plurality of different selectable chat sessions, interrupt operation of a chatbot associated with the chat session and generating a user agent chat interface.
6 more elements
An automated chat conversation platform comprising:
- a chat gateway to receive messages from a plurality of chat channel interfaces, the plurality of chat channel interfaces being configured to exchange messages with chat users via a different chat platform type;
- a chat server, the chat server programmed to:
- receive the messages from the chat gateway;
- manage a plurality of chat sessions each including one or more natural language messages, the plurality of chat sessions being initiated from one or more of a plurality of chat channel interfaces;
- assign a chatbot to each chat session represented by the messages, wherein the chatbot exchanges natural language messages in a chat session based on information from one or more support services located external to the collection of chatbots;
- present a chat monitoring interface to a user agent, the chat monitoring interface displaying information regarding a plurality of different selectable chat sessions occurring in real-time;
- and
- upon receiving selection of a chat session from among the plurality of different selectable chat sessions, interrupt operation of a chatbot associated with the chat session and generating a user agent chat interface,
- a collection of chatbots each configured to receive the natural language messages associated with a chat session from the chat server, wherein a number of chatbots included in the collection of chatbots available to receive natural language messages is scalable in real time responsive to a volume of active chat sessions at the chat server;
- a natural language processing service exposed to each of the chatbots included in the collection of chatbots and useable to process the natural language messages;
- an enterprise service exposed to each of the chatbots, the enterprise service providing content for use in reply messages from the chatbots;
- and
- an interface-specific proxy layer positioned between a chat user and a user agent, the interface-specific proxy layer converting reply messages between the chatbots or user agents and the chat user according to a chat channel selected by the chat user.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.