Introduction

Description of the S1 NLU Technology

SentiOne’s Automate Natural Language Understanding (NLU) engine is a crucial component of our platform. It forms the understanding and brains in a Conversational AI interaction. It links natural language (what’s being said by a human) and creates meaning out of it, allowing our bots to respond accurately.

Components of Conversational AI

NLU (green) is the bridge between a human and machine, assigning meaning to what is being said.

Definitions: what is an NLU/NLP?

What is an NLU?

NLU stands for Natural Language Understanding. It is the technology behind how computers, bots, and virtual assistants can understand human communication in chat or voice.

NLU is sometimes interchangeable with NLP. NLP, which stands for Natural Language Processing, is an umbrella term for the technology, and NLU is a subset of NLP. In turn, NLP is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI).

What is the difference?

NLP involves processing large data sets of language, breaking them down into smaller parts, and structuring that data.

NLU is more focused on human communication, the natural input of a user. It can distinguish the numerous different ways humans communicate, particularly the variations of asking about the same thing.

In other words, NLP is concerned with processing text in its literal form, while NLU focuses on deriving meaning from the context. This is where intents come in, a key component of NLUs, which we will look at later.

Automate is built on SentiOne’s proprietary NLU technology, allowing bots to truly understand what users mean in various contexts and languages.