Guide to Natural Language Understanding (NLU)

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As artificial intelligence continues to spread across our lives, the next big disruption is coming from Natural language understanding, the core technology making conversational AI like voice bots exceptionally good at understanding natural human language.

For businesses, deploying NLU-based voice bots to support customers marks a crucial step towards staying competitive in the era of increasing automation. These intelligent bots can handle multi-turn conversations, complex queries, conduct transactions, and more.

In this blog, we explore everything NLU to help you assess whether or not your business is ready for intelligent voice bots:

What is NLU and how does it work

How does NLU compare to NLP and NLG

How does NLU improve conversation and enhance customer experience?

What are some of the applications of NLU across different industries

How can you leverage NLU for your business?

What’s NLU: An Overview

So what exactly is NLU? Put simply:

NLU is a branch of Conversational AI that enables machines to comprehend human language in its true essence and respond intelligently. It focuses on understanding not just the meaning of individual words but also the intent behind them.

But how does NLU manage to understand our complex languages, you ask? Through 3 key techniques:

1. Semantic Analysis:

This process extracts the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences by understanding the relationships between them. It can even resolve references, and ambiguities, and find relations between concepts.

For example, the word ‘hanging’ can have different meanings based on its usage. It can be hanging out with friends or can even be hanging clothes. Pretty neat, right?

2. Syntactic Analysis:

This technique identifies the grammatical structure of sentences by breaking them down into constituents and finding the parts of speech. It determines how words relate to each other in a sentence.

For example, “When will my order be delivered?” has a different meaning than “Can my order be delivered earlier?”

3. Discourse Analysis:

Here, NLU looks at the broader context and flow of conversations by analyzing dialogue history, topics being discussed, and arguments made. It connects the dots to improve understanding.

Of course, NLU still has trouble dealing with some human language complexities like sarcasm and rare idioms. But the space is evolving rapidly to handle such cases too.

NLU vs NLP vs NLG: What’s the Difference?

NLU is often confused with Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Natural language generation (NLG), but they are quite distinct. Here’s a quick comparison:

1. NLP:

The umbrella term covering everything related to making human-computer communication possible- including NLU is termed Natural language processing. It covers various applications like machine translation, sentiment analysis, and more.

2. NLU:

The specific branch of NLP focused on enabling computers to understand human language by identifying meaning, intent, and context.

3. NLG:

The branch of NLP that deals with generating well-formed, natural-sounding human language from computer data/inputs rather than just understanding it. Think chatbots responding coherently.

How Does NLU Improve Conversations?

NLU has transformed how we interact with conversational systems by enabling a more profound understanding of queries, interests, and behavior. This allows for personalized, meaningful conversations that actually help users rather than just keyword-spotted responses (LOL!).

Here are some examples across domains demonstrating NLU's capabilities:

1. Voice Assistants:

NLU allows AI-powered voice bots and voice assistants to recognize speech, interpret questions correctly, and maintain contextual, intelligent dialogue instead of just executing standalone commands.

Imagine asking Alexa about the weather and having it understand you want a 5-day forecast for your trip rather than just the current temperature.

2. Conversational AI:

NLU enables chatbots to identify user intents and topics discussed to serve up tailored content/recommendations within a conversational flow instead of just reacting to keywords.

For instance, an edtech chatbot understands if a student needs IELTS prep advice rather than just defining what IELTS is. It also carries the added advantage of agent transfer as and when needed.

3. Knowledge Management:

NLU allows search engines and databases to retrieve accurate information through conversational queries in plain language. For example, asking a medical knowledge base about symptoms and treatments for migraines rather than having to research medical jargon and diagnoses.

How Does NLU Enhance Customer Experience?

NLU has huge potential to transform user experiences across sectors by enabling:

1. Effective Personalization:

Analyzing conversations via NLU allows businesses to understand individual preferences and the underlying goal of the conversation. This in turn helps in tailoring the customer’s offerings, content, and recommendations accordingly. Wouldn’t you love the advice that’s just right for you?

Additionally, NLU has the ability to analyze sentiment in text/speech allowing it to respond in a more personalized, and empathetic manner.

2. Predictive Engagement:

Identifying trends in dialogues via natural language understanding will help businesses like yours anticipate customer needs in advance and deliver contextual recommendations too.For instance, an e-commerce voice bot analyzing your customer’s buying patterns from your website every month may suggest them to buy a shampoo when it’s just about to get over.

3. Language Localization:

NLU facilitates adapting conversational systems to user’s preferred languages and local dialects for greater comfort. Imagine conversing in native tongues rather than being restricted to English. This is the global advantage that NLU offers to your business.

Applications of NLU Across Businesses

Clearly, NLU can elevate experiences across industries. Here are just some examples:

1. Banking & Finance:

NLU allows your customers to secure sensitive personal and financial data via voice verification while also drawing insights from customer conversations to provide personalized investment portfolio advice and optimized recommendations on financial products as and when required.

2. E-commerce & Retail:

Natural language understanding enables e-commerce businesses to analyze customer conversations for patterns to provide personalized product recommendations matching their preferences.

It can also power conversational shopping bots helping users discover, compare, and order products through intuitive voice and chat interfaces.

3. Telecom:

Telecom service providers can use NLU to parse through customer conversations to identify pain points and unmet needs. This allows them to offer tailored data/calling plans, network solutions, and premium support in the customer’s preferred language.

We've only scratched the surface here - healthcare, education, hospitality, automotive, and many more can also utilize the infinite capabilities of NLU via conversational AI.

The Road Ahead:

As AI capabilities grow exponentially, NLU will become a must-have for businesses seeking to offer next-gen experiences in the age of Conversational AI. The time is now to build seamless voice and chat solutions enhanced by NLU to delight your customers.

And this is where VoiceGenie comes in - the leading voice AI platform crafted specially to design voice bots that sound almost human. With NLU capabilities tailor-made for your needs and over 100+ language options, VoiceGenie provides end-to-end solutions to enhance CX.

So why wait? Shape the way your consumers interact with your brand. Book a free demo with our experts to get started on building smart voice bots with VoiceGenie. The future of CX is calling - let's answer it, shall we?

A Comprehensive Guide to Natural Language Understanding (NLU)