Automatic inquiry method and system

A method as claimed in 1, wherein the execution of the dialogue comprises:

• outputting a question and/or verifying statement from a statement repertoire to the user;
• and
• obtaining at least one response from the user;
• until for a plurality of pre-determined query specifiers a respective query item has been recognized in the response(s);
• and
• wherein the step of determining an intention comprises determining the intention from the response(s) of the user to a question and/or verifier statement.

A system for automatically responding to an inquiry from a user;

• the system comprising:
• means for executing a machine-controlled human-machine dialogue to determine a plurality of pre-determined query items specifying information to be verbally presented to the user;
• means for retrieving a plurality of information items from a storage in dependence on the query items;
• means for generating at least one natural language phrase to present the obtained information items according to a presentation scenario;
• and
• means for verbally presenting the generated phrase(s) to the user;
• characterized in that the system comprises
• means for determining an intention of the user from a predetermined set of intentions based on utterance(s) of the user;
• the intention reflecting a preferred way of presenting the information items;
• and
• means for selecting the presentation scenario from a predetermined set of presentation scenarios in dependence on the determined intention.