Conversational agents: a survey on culturally informed design practices

Abstract

The development and use of conversational agents grow every day. However, those systems still need to meet users' expectations. As a result, new design practices for conversational agents are emerging. One facet is the culturally informed design of those systems. Tailoring conversational agents culturally can increase engagement, trustworthiness, and acceptance. While an emerging trend, literature still needs to discuss research and application of design practices related to culture and conversational agents. The present study investigates 5398 articles involving conversational agents and culture over the last seven years. In this context, we selected 23 articles based on their approaches and objectives related to our main subject. The findings indicate that most studies in the field are mainly focused on the feasibility of cultural markers tailored to those systems. The main contribution is the identification of the main challenges, contexts and design practices in the field. These results contributed to discussions regarding conversational agents and highlighted some research gaps for future study.

Design conversacional de chatbots: cultura, linguagem e participação

“…Os desafios no design conversacional de chatbots que considerem questões culturais do domínio e/ou pessoas usuárias são diversos [de Souza Monteiro and de Castro Salgado 2023]. Em uma revisão de literatura recente, identificamos a falta de ferramentais conceituais e práticos que instrumentem o projeto de chatbots em contextos que vão além dos limites geográficos e a aparência dos agentes conversacionais, e que apoiem o processo reflexivo dos designers na criac ¸ão de tecnologia sem vieses culturais.…”