"Many people across the UK may have found themselves in a situation where they've tried to phone their local council but the AI that first handles their call struggles to understand them. This may have led to them having to repeat themselves several times or being routed to the wrong service, which can be frustrating and time consuming."
"The words 'chuck', 'pet' and 'duck' are all colloquial terms of endearment common to the north of England and the Midlands. They all roughly translate to an affectionate term of address, such as 'dear'. However, they could all 'cause problems' for AI as they are typically used in other contexts - for example, 'chuck' also means 'to throw' and 'duck' can mean to crouch down."
"The word 'canny', meanwhile, is a widely used slang term in the Geordie dialect, generally meaning something is nice or good. It can sometimes also mean 'very'. Using the word 'sound' to describe something also has positive connotations. It is also commonly used to describe a reliable person."
UK councils increasingly use AI to handle phone inquiries about services like bin collection and council tax payments. However, these systems struggle with regional accents and slang terminology, causing callers to repeat themselves or reach wrong services. Researchers at the University of Sheffield are conducting studies to improve AI comprehension of regional variations. Words like 'chuck', 'pet', 'duck', 'canny', 'nowt', 'chuffed', and 'bairn' present challenges because they have multiple meanings or are specific to particular dialects. The research aims to enhance AI's ability to understand these contextual variations across different UK regions, improving customer service efficiency and reducing caller frustration.
#ai-language-understanding #regional-dialects-and-slang #automated-customer-service #uk-council-services #natural-language-processing
Read at Mail Online
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