<P>Nobody enjoys telephoning a call centre. Could 'chatbot' technology make the experience less painful?

<P>WITH their irritating menu trees and endless holding for the next available operator, call centres are one of the bugbears of modern life. Could a dose of software make the experience of dealing with one less painful? Researchers working on conversational software programs, or chatbots, certainly hope so. They aim to supplement and even replace human operators with software that can understand ordinary conversational language, and thus deal with calls more efficiently.

<P><I>The Economist Article: </I><A HREF=http://www.economist.com/printedition/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8766002 CLASS=ph>http://www.economist.com/printedition/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8766002</A>

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