Paper Number
1963
Paper Type
Short Paper
Abstract
Conversational agents (CAs), especially in the form of chatbots, are becoming increasingly important in science and practice. Task-oriented CAs (TOCAs) in particular, which serve as language-based interfaces to software services and information systems, are becoming increasingly common, e.g., to enrich customer support and customer experience. However, other application scenarios are also increasingly being investigated. The literature already contains approaches with design knowledge for TOCAs. However, these mostly apply to specific application contexts. To provide scenario-independent design knowledge, we present the first steps towards the development of a general design theory for TOCAs that support the instantiation of corresponding information systems independent of specific application scenarios. Based on an extensive literature analysis, we present five design requirements and eleven design principles of a tentative design theory. We performed a positive evaluation with a moderated focus group of domain experts which provided us with evidence for future research.
Recommended Citation
Göbel, Johannes; Boldt, Johannes; Betke, Hans; Kuehnel, Stephan; Damarowsky, Johannes; Böhmer, Martin; and Sackmann, Stefan, "Towards a Design Theory for Task-Oriented Conversational Agents" (2024). ECIS 2024 Proceedings. 8.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2024/track23_designresearch/track23_designresearch/8
Towards a Design Theory for Task-Oriented Conversational Agents
Conversational agents (CAs), especially in the form of chatbots, are becoming increasingly important in science and practice. Task-oriented CAs (TOCAs) in particular, which serve as language-based interfaces to software services and information systems, are becoming increasingly common, e.g., to enrich customer support and customer experience. However, other application scenarios are also increasingly being investigated. The literature already contains approaches with design knowledge for TOCAs. However, these mostly apply to specific application contexts. To provide scenario-independent design knowledge, we present the first steps towards the development of a general design theory for TOCAs that support the instantiation of corresponding information systems independent of specific application scenarios. Based on an extensive literature analysis, we present five design requirements and eleven design principles of a tentative design theory. We performed a positive evaluation with a moderated focus group of domain experts which provided us with evidence for future research.
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