Method and apparatus for enhancing an interactive voice response system with generative ai functionality

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of an interactive voice response (IVR) system, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

• a) receiving, via a user interface, an incoming user inquiry;
• b) processing the incoming user inquiry using legacy logic executing on the one or more processors to determine a response-generation workflow;
• c) during execution of the response-generation workflow, determining, by an AI integration module, that the incoming user inquiry or at least a portion thereof is to be directed to a Transformer-based Generative AI agent to assist the legacy logic;
• d) transmitting, via a Transformer-based Generative AI agent interface, the incoming user inquiry or the portion thereof to the Transformer-based Generative AI agent to elicit an output from the Transformer-based Generative AI agent;
• e) receiving, via the Transformer-based Generative AI agent interface, the output elicited from the Transformer-based Generative AI agent;
• and
• f) generating a response to the incoming user inquiry which includes a component based at least in part on the output.

A computer-implemented method for operating an interactive voice response (IVR) system, the method comprising:

• a) receiving, via a user interface, an incoming user inquiry;
• b) generating, by execution of instructions on one or more processors, a first output by processing the incoming user inquiry in a first processing path using legacy logic;
• c) generating, by execution of instructions on the one or more processors, a second output by processing the incoming user inquiry in a second processing path using a Transformer-based Generative AI agent, wherein the first processing path and the second processing path are executed in parallel;
• d) providing the first output and the second output to a processing module;
• e) constructing, by the processing module, a consolidated response based at least in part on the first output and the second output, including at least one of merging, comparing, selecting, or reconciling content of the first output and the second output;
• and outputting the consolidated response via the user interface.