Conversational AI explained
Short answer
Conversational AI is technology that lets people talk to software in ordinary language, by text or speech, and get replies that fit the conversation. It combines language understanding, a way to keep track of context and a way to generate or choose a reply, with speech recognition and speech output for voice. Chatbots and voice assistants are products built with it. Check Filipino and Taglish support yourself, because vendor language lists do not cover mixed speech.
On this page
Key facts
- What it combines
- Natural language processing, machine learning, dialogue management, and a way to produce replies
- Text and voice
- Both; voice adds speech-to-text on the way in and text-to-speech on the way out
- Products built with it
- Chatbots, voice assistants, virtual agents, in-app help and phone lines
- Where it is used
- Customer service, bookings, internal help desks, language support
- Main limit
- It can misunderstand or answer wrongly, and support for Filipino and Taglish varies by product
- Last verified
- 12 Oct 2026
How conversational AI works
IBM, which published one of the most cited explainers, describes conversational AI as technology such as chatbots or virtual agents “that users can talk to.” It says the technology combines natural language processing (NLP) with machine learning, in a feedback loop that keeps improving the algorithms, and calls an AI chatbot “the most popular form of conversational AI” (IBM Think, What is conversational AI?, 28 September 2021). The steps below follow that structure.
Understanding intent
The system reads the message and works out what the person wants. IBM describes this as input analysis using natural language understanding (NLU). The result is usually an intent, such as “ask price” or “reschedule,” and details such as a date or a product name.
Keeping context
A conversation depends on what was said earlier. When a customer writes “and on Saturday?” after asking about clinic hours, the system needs the earlier question to answer. Dialogue management handles this by tracking the state of the conversation.
Generating a reply
The reply can be selected from approved answers, filled in from a template, or written by a large language model. Newer systems often mix them: the model writes the reply, using approved information as its source. Because a model can produce a fluent answer that is wrong, many deployments limit it to approved material.
Speech in and speech out
For voice, automatic speech recognition (ASR) turns the caller’s speech into text, and text-to-speech (TTS) turns the reply back into audio. IBM lists ASR among the components for speech input.
Conversational AI, chatbots and AI agents
| Term | What it is | Relationship |
|---|---|---|
| Conversational AI | The technology for understanding and producing conversation | The foundation |
| Chatbot | A product that talks with customers in a chat window | One product built with conversational AI. Some are scripted and use little AI |
| Voice assistant | A product people speak to | Built with conversational AI plus speech |
| AI agent | A system that chooses its own steps and tools toward a goal | May use conversational AI as its interface, but acts as well as talks |
| Generative AI | AI that produces new content | Often the reply-writing part of modern conversational AI. Not the same thing |
Swipe the table sideways to see all columns.
So conversational AI is not the same as generative AI. A scripted bot with good speech recognition is conversational AI with no generative model, and a generative model used to draft a report involves no conversation. The two meet in modern chat and voice products. The AI assistants explainer covers the personal-assistant side.
Examples in customer service
These are illustrations, not reports of real deployments.
- Chat on a page. A real estate site offers a chat box. A buyer types a budget and location, and the system suggests matching listings and offers to book a viewing with an agent.
- Messenger and Viber. An online seller’s page answers delivery and payment questions at any hour and passes anything unusual to the seller. See the Messenger bot guide.
- Voice lines. A clinic’s phone line recognises a request to reschedule, checks open slots and confirms by text message. A person takes any clinical question.
- In-app help. A delivery app answers “where is my rider?” inside the app, using order data, and offers a button to reach support.
- Internal help desk. A back-office team lets staff ask questions about leave, payroll cut-offs or IT requests in chat.
Language handling in the Philippines
English, Filipino and Taglish
Customers in the Philippines often write in English, Filipino or a mix of both, sometimes within one sentence. How well a product handles that depends on the underlying model and how it was configured. The vendor language lists read for this article name Filipino, and none lists Taglish as a separate language, so mixed messages are not something a language list can confirm.
What vendors document
Dates are the date each page was read, 12 October 2026.
| Vendor and product | What its documentation shows for Filipino |
|---|---|
| Google Dialogflow CX | Lists Filipino (fil) and Filipino, the Philippines (fil-ph), and lists Cebuano (ceb) as Preview. Page title “Language reference” (Google Cloud, updated 9 October 2026) |
| Microsoft Azure AI Speech | Lists fil-PH for speech to text with fast transcription only, and for text to speech with four voices (Microsoft Learn, page dated 9 September 2026) |
| Microsoft conversational language understanding | Lists Filipino (tl) among supported languages, and says a model trained in one language can predict in others (Microsoft Learn, page dated 30 June 2026) |
| Amazon Lex V2 | Lists Tagalog/Filipino (tl_PH) with an asterisk, which means limited feature support through generative AI and third-party speech recognition and text to speech (AWS documentation) |
Read the entries as support for the language, not as a measure of quality. Each vendor also lists different features per language, so check the feature table for the one you need, such as speech input or sentiment.
What to test
This article did not run a hands-on test of any product. Before relying on one, test it yourself with real messages:
- Write 30 to 50 messages the way your customers do, in English, Filipino and Taglish, with common misspellings.
- Include the questions you most want answered correctly: prices, hours, booking changes.
- Include messages the bot should refuse or pass to a person.
- Read every reply, and note where it misunderstood, invented facts or missed a handover.
- Repeat after any change to the bot’s instructions or information.
Conversational AI from the large vendors
One line each, from the vendors’ documentation.
- Google. Dialogflow CX is a Google Cloud product. Its documentation includes a language reference that lists supported languages.
- Microsoft. Azure AI Speech handles speech recognition and synthesis, and Azure’s conversational language understanding handles intents.
- Amazon. Amazon Lex V2 documents the languages and locales it supports.
- IBM. Publishes the explainer cited above.
None of these is endorsed here. Prices and feature limits change, so use the vendor pages.
What to ask before adopting it
Accuracy
What does the bot answer from, and who keeps that source current? How are wrong answers found and fixed?
Handover
Can a customer reach a person at any point? Does staff see the conversation so far?
Data handling
Where are chats and call recordings stored? The Data Privacy Act of 2012 applies to personal data in them, and the National Privacy Commission’s Advisory No. 2024-04 (19 December 2024) covers AI systems that process personal data.
Disclosure
Tell people they are dealing with an automated system. Meta’s Messenger policy says automated chats must disclose this where the law requires it and recommends it in other cases (Meta).
Frequently asked questions
How is conversational AI different from a chatbot?
Conversational AI is the technology. A chatbot is one product built with it. IBM calls an AI chatbot the most popular form of conversational AI.
Does conversational AI understand Taglish?
Vendor language lists name Filipino but do not list Taglish. Support varies by product and by feature, so test with real mixed-language messages before relying on it.
Where is conversational AI used in customer service?
In website chat, messaging apps, phone lines, in-app help and internal help desks, usually for repeat questions, bookings and status checks, with a handover to staff.
Is conversational AI the same as generative AI?
No. Conversational AI covers understanding and producing conversation, and it can work without a generative model. Generative AI creates new content and is often used to write the replies.
What is Google’s conversational AI?
Google’s Dialogflow CX is a Google Cloud product. Its language reference lists Filipino as supported.
Sources
All sources were read on 12 Oct 2026.
- IBM, What is conversational AI?, IBM Think, 28 September 2021.
- Google Cloud, Language reference, Dialogflow CX, updated 9 October 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, Language and voice support for the Speech service, 9 September 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, Conversational language understanding language support, 30 June 2026.
- Amazon Web Services, Languages and locales supported by Amazon Lex V2.
- Meta, Messenger Platform policy overview.
- National Privacy Commission, NPC Advisory No. 2024-04, 19 December 2024.