Mixed-initiative Dialog
Interactions where the user may unilaterally issue a request rather than simply provide exactly the information asked for by system prompts. For instance, while making a flight reservation, the system may ask the user, “What day are you planning to flight out?” Instead of answering that question, the user may say, “I’m flying to Denver, Colorado.” A Mixed-initiative system would recognize that the user provided not the exact answer to the question asked, but also (additive), or instead (substitutive), volunteered information that was going to be requested by the system later on. Such a system would accept this information, remember it, and continue the conversation. In contrast, a “Directed Dialog” system would rigidly insist on the departure date and won’t proceed successfully unless it received that piece of information.