Is Your Chatbot Engaging?

Well yes, at least as it contributes to some goal.  If I want a question answered quickly and accurately it requires a certain level of engagement, for example enough to get the details of the question across.  If my Goal is to learn some about some topic, the engagement is different and likely more complex.  Defining a measure is a good idea.

That Chatbot May Be Chatty, but Is It Engaging?
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
By Rishbha Bhagi

University of Southern California (USC) researchers have developed a technique for evaluating chatbots' conversational skills, grading their responses on an engagement scale of 0 to 1 based on the concept that open-domain dialogue systems must be genuinely interesting to the user, not just relevant. Sarik Ghazarian in USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering Information Sciences Institute said understanding this assessment will help improve chatbots and other open-domain dialogue systems. Said USC Viterbi's Nanyun Peng, "We can use [this work] as a development tool to easily automatically evaluate our systems with low cost. Also, we can explore integrating this evaluation score as feedback into the generation process via reinforcement learning to improve the dialogue system." ... '

Wal-Mart Reimagines Stores as Town Centers

Innovative idea, will it engage consumers?  Could also improve the overall status impression of Wal-mart stores.

Walmart reimagines its big boxes as town centers
by Matthew Stern in Retailwire  includes expert retail opinion.

Walmart has made a lot of upgrades in recent years that appear to reach beyond its traditional shopper base including a spate of Millennial-targeted acquisitions and a focus on augmented reality and technology incubation. Now, the chain has plans to revamp how some of its physical stores fit within their local shopping ecosystem. Walmart has begun to reimagine some of its stores and their surrounding real estate as “town centers.” 

The prospective Walmart Town Centers will feature outdoor spaces, entertainment areas, local food vendors and health and fitness services, according to The Dallas Morning News. The retailer is now looking to partner with developers local to the prospective sites for the projects, which will be constructed with open access and community areas in mind.  .... "