Creating Utterances in Watson Assistant
In Watson Assistant, utterances are the different ways users might express the same intent. Crafting strong utterances is crucial for accurate intent detection and a smooth conversational experience.
Best Practices for Creating High-Quality Utterances:
- Use Natural, Everyday Language
- Write utterances the way real users would naturally speak or type.
- Avoid overly formal, scripted, or technical phrasing unless appropriate for your audience.
- Cover a Wide Variety of Phrasing
- Include different ways of asking for the same thing (e.g., “I want to book a flight,” “Can you help me get plane tickets?” “Need to fly to Toronto.”).
- Think about different user personalities, levels of formality, and abbreviations.
- Be Concise
- Keep utterances short and focused — ideally one clear idea per utterance.
- Avoid complex sentences with multiple intents bundled together.
- Use a Good Mix of Structures
- Vary the structure and word order across examples to teach the AI flexibility.
- Example for booking a hotel:
- “Book a hotel for me.”
- “I need a room for tomorrow night.”
- “Reserve a place to stay.”
- Avoid Overlapping with Other Intents
- Ensure utterances are distinct enough that they clearly match the correct intent.
- If two intents share many similar utterances, refine or combine them.
- Think About Edge Cases
- Consider possible spelling mistakes, slang, or shorthand that users might use.
- Example: “tix” instead of “tickets,” “pls” instead of “please.”
- Focus on Meaning, Not Exact Wording
- Don’t just tweak small words (e.g., “book a flight” vs. “book the flight”) — create examples that express different ways of asking.
- Test and Update Regularly
- After deployment, review real user inputs to identify gaps or misunderstandings.
- Add new utterances over time to improve assistant accuracy.
