Machine Learning and Intent

Deriving intent,  goals is still hard.  Especially in multiple component conversations.

Machine Learning, Natural Language Meet to Understand Intent     By Mark Jewett, VP, product marketing, Tableau Software in InformationWeek

Machine learning and natural language capabilities will bring the power of analytics to more people through semantics.

Machine learning and natural language processing promise to better translate human curiosity into pertinent answers. If true, these smart capabilities will broaden the use of analytics and reach people who are less comfortable dealing with data. It will all start with helping machines learn to interpret human intent. The key is semantics.

Sometimes intent is simple and explicit, like asking Siri or Alexa if a flight is delayed. This question has clear intention and a simple response -- returning the flight status answers the question. Such simplicity is seldom the case when it comes to data analysis. Questions are usually more nuanced, making it hard to correctly assume what the user is really looking for. Natural language is even more tricky where ambiguous terms are common.

It’s also difficult for a machine to understand our intent within a limited context. The machine has the data itself but doesn’t grasp the bigger picture in the same way a person with domain expertise can. Asking “How are my sales doing in the Northeast?” is a lot more ambiguous than the flight status example above..... "