Abstract: A system is presented for automatically responding to a user inquiry comprising a dialog manager and a presentation manager. The dialog manager executes a machine-controlled human/machine dialog to determine a set of query items, and in response thereto, retrieves information items from memory. The presentation manager determines the inquiring user's intentions motivating and associated with the query, and in response thereto selects a preferred manner of presenting the retrieved information items, or presentation scenario. In so doing, at least one natural language phrase is generated to match the selected presentation scenario, and a speech generator verbally presents the generated phrasing to the inquiring user.

Abstract: A system 10 for automatically responding to an inquiry from a user comprises a dialogue manager 50, which executes a machine-controlled human-machine dialogue to determine a plurality of pre-determined query items. The dialogue manager 50 retrieves a plurality of information items from a storage 52 in dependence on the query items.