The way that we engage we technology is rapidly evolving, as users expect a fast, reliable, available and accurate service at all times. Delivering these systems is increasingly difficult for industry and government alike, as they often struggle with increasing demand coupled with decreasing resources. As a result many businesses and government departments are turning to conversational agents or chatbots.
These conversational agents are capable of interacting and engaging with users, answering user queries and even providing advice and guidance as required. The core question is how do we ensure that our users are being open and honest with the chatbots? This is particularly important in situations where frank disclosures are safety critical, for example, in healthcare.
The ongoing research that we are undertaking in this area considers how this technology can be optimised to provide a more effective method of communication, while also focusing on the implicit trust that a user has with a conversational agent.
Our current focus has been the use of conversational agents in healthcare, defence and technology as they deal with potentially sensitive and personal information, as well as being areas of significant public spending. Our research aims to understand how these interactions between humans and computers can be optimised to deliver a bespoke conversational agent tailored to meet the expectations and needs of the individual.