Auditing
Training
Consulting

AI Training in Conversational AI

AI Training is the art of teaching AI assistants to understand human language. The better you understand what your audience is talking about, the more relevant answers your chatbot or voice assistant can provide.

Watch video

What is an AI Trainer?

Technology can already process human language at a basic level, but not without the help of people that understand how to get the most out of this technology: ‘AI Trainers’.

AI trainers teach AI assistants to understand human language. They do this by feeding examples of real utterances to help the AI assistant better understand the meaning of peoples speech, or written language.

AI trainers analyze common topics discussed by users and how they ask for certain information while talking to your chatbot or voice assistant. These insights are used to continuously improve the cognition of your AI assistant and require a structured AI training workflow consisting of testing, updating, and measuring again.

As Conversational AI technology evolves, the role of the AI trainers evolves as well. Part of the work of an AI trainer is to refine their techniques and adapt to the technology landscape, especially with the advent of large language models (LLMs).


What does an AI trainer do?

AI trainers gather and prepare data required to train an AI assistant. This involves tasks like sourcing and preparing data and optimizing the (language) model. They are usually also involved in the implementation of dialogues in the conversational AI platform.

  • Model selection

    Whether you’re building a declarative chatbot or generative AI chatbot, you have to know how to work with the model available. Declarative chatbots work with natural language understanding (NLU) algorithms, whereas generative AI chatbots leverage large language models (LLMs). Hybrid chatbots leverage a combination of both.

  • Sourcing and preparing data

    AI trainers are often tasked with sourcing and preparing training data to feed into the models. Depending on the chatbot you’re building and the domain-specific focus, the training data is tailored to specific topics and contexts. Cleaning training data is essential if you’re looking to improve the accuracy of the model.

  • Implementation

    Most companies build and maintain their chatbot on a Conversational AI platform. Every platform has its own capabilities and limitations and part of the responsibility of the AI trainers is to understand and navigate that.

  • Evaluation

    After training and implementation, the AI trainer tests the performance of the AI assistant on a regular basis, using various testing methods such as k-fold cross validation, blind testing and more.

  • Monitoring and maintenance

    After deployment, the AI trainer continues to monitor model performance, and improve it on a continuous basis especially as the corpus of the chatbot or voice assistant grows.

How CDI can help

Hans van Dam
1:16 min

Conversational AI datasets

For a declarative chatbot, the Conversational AI dataset consists of a collection of examples or ‘utterances’ of how people ask for what they want. Ideally, this data is sourced from real conversations with customers, such as phone transcripts or live chat conversations. This data is then cleaned and used to train the AI assistant.

Here are some key characteristics of conversational AI datasets:

Human language

Most Conversational AI datasets consist of ‘natural’ language, typically written text. Often a dataset contains individual sentences, or words, grouped around similar meaning or context.

Variety

Most types of human language are varied and context-specific. The better your dataset addresses these nuances, the better the understanding of your AI assistant becomes.

Model balance

For NLU based chatbots, it is important to spread the amount of training data evenly across your intents to avoid over- or undertraining.

Multimodal data

Some Conversational AI datasets include multimodal data, which usually consists of text combined with images, videos, or audio recordings. This is more common for large datasets, like the ones used to train multimodal models like GPT-4o and Gemini.

Dataset curation

When curating Conversational AI datasets, it's essential to consider ethical considerations such as privacy, bias, and fairness. Ensuring that the dataset is diverse, inclusive, and representative of all of the humans that might interact with the intended AI assistant helps mitigate the risk of bias or discrimination.


Benefits of AI training for businesses

AI training empowers businesses to leverage their Conversational AI more effectively. The better your AI assistants are able to grasp what your customers are talking about, the better the service they can deliver, and the more conversation you can automate. Core benefits of AI Training:

Delightful conversations at scale

Delightful conversations at scale

Whether you are talking with customers, or employees, a great conversation is key to a great relationship. Conversational AI lets you scale conversations at an unprecedented level.

Better insights

Better insights

You can learn from the conversations your customers have with your AI assistants and uncover valuable insights from your conversational data that would be challenging or impossible to discover manually.

Cost savings

Cost savings

AI training done right reduces costs associated with manual data analysis, human-to-human conversations and low automation rates due to poor intent recognition.

Should I hire an AI Trainer?

Deciding when to hire or upskill an employee to become an AI trainer for your conversational AI project depends on various factors, including the current stage of your AI project, your organization's needs and resources, and the complexity of your conversational AI solution.

Here are some considerations:


Early days

Make sure you have at least one AI trainer in your project from the start. Laying the groundwork is crucial for long term success.

Resource check

Look within your team for relevant profiles. Consider external hiring or training if your organization doesn’t have the skillset in-house.

Complexity

Advanced techniques require a specialized AI trainer, for example when you design to migrate your NLU chatbot to an LLM-powered solution.

Business goals

If you have ambitious timelines or goals, you might want to consider relying on the consulting services of CDI.

Long-term vision

Make sure you have a hiring strategy in place that accounts for the growing complexity, maintenance, and monitoring of your conversational AI solution.


Ultimately, the right time to hire or train an AI trainer depends on a combination of these factors. It's essential to assess your current needs, capabilities, and strategic objectives to make an informed decision about when to invest in AI training resources.

Upskilling an existing employee

Selecting the right person to train internally for the role of an AI trainer for Conversational AI solutions requires a combination of technical skills, domain knowledge, and personal attributes. Here are some key criteria to consider:

Domain knowledge

  • Understanding of Conversational AI: Knowledge of the principles and challenges involved in building conversational AI solutions, including dialogue management, intent recognition, entity extraction etc.

  • Industry expertise: Familiarity with the specific industry or domain in which the conversational AI solution will be deployed can be valuable for understanding user needs, language nuances, and domain-specific requirements.

Qualifications

  • Educational background: A degree in computer science, data science, artificial intelligence, or a related field can provide a solid foundation for the role.

  • Certifications: Making sure your AI trainer is CDI-certified is solid proof that they understand the foundations of AI training and are committed to learning.

Personal attributes

  • Analytical thinking: Ability to analyze complex problems, break them down into manageable components, and develop effective solutions.

  • Curiosity: Eagerness to learn new concepts, stay updated on emerging trends in AI, and adapt to evolving technologies and methodologies.

  • Communication skills: Strong verbal and written communication skills are essential for explaining technical concepts, collaborating with cross-functional teams, and presenting findings to stakeholders.

  • Problem-solving: Capacity to approach challenges systematically, experiment with different approaches, and troubleshoot issues effectively.

  • Attention to detail: Meticulousness in data analysis, model evaluation, and documentation to ensure accuracy and reliability in AI training processes.

Partner with CDI

With our curated selection of partners, you can trust that you're getting access to the best-in-class solutions that meet your needs and propel your business forward.

Become a Partner

Learn more about AI Training

CDI Method

CDI Method

Learn the conversational AI workflow that is helping teams around the world create human-centric and inclusive conversational AI Assistants. This course is the starting point for both managers and functional teams wanting to learn about creating great chatbots and voice applications.
AI Trainer Theory

AI Trainer Theory

Learn what technology powers chatbots, and why it’s so hard to get them right. Learn the team roles, steps of building an assistant and the specific language of AI training.
AI Trainer Build

AI Trainer Build

Learn how to train a language model, implement designs in any conversational AI platform: from simple answers to repair flows, entities and regex conditions.
AI Trainer Improve

AI Trainer Improve

Now that you’ve built a Conversational AI and trained it well, how do you measure how well it’s helping people? And what techniques can you use to keep improving?

Training and Certification

Discover our courses and certification programs for creating winning AI Assistants and enterprise capabilities. Get started today.

Browse CDI’s entire library of 500+ videos

AI Ethics

AI Ethics

Learn to integrate ethical principles and compliance into AI Assistants with our AI Ethics Course Online. Designed for conversation designers, AI trainers, and business stakeholders, it covers conversational AI social and ethical considerations, risk...

5 hours
1 modules
AI Trainer

AI Trainer

In this AI Trainer Course, learn to train AI Assistants to understand human language. Designed for those building human-centric, goal-oriented assistants, it covers conversational AI training, language model nuances, and dialogue implementation. Whet...

8 hours
3 modules
CDI Method Foundation

CDI Method Foundation

Learn CDI’s CAI Method—the test-and-tried Conversational AI workflow helping teams worldwide build human-centric, inclusive AI Assistants. This course is the starting point for managers and functional teams wanting to learn about creating great Conve...

9 hours
1 modules
Conversation Designer

Conversation Designer

This technology-agnostic course teaches you to design human-centric, inclusive, and goal-oriented AI Assistants. Learn strategies, methods, and design patterns for creating great conversational experiences—applicable to all Conversational AI use case...

10 hours
4 modules

Browse CDI’s entire library of 500+ videos

AI Ethics

AI Ethics

Learn to integrate ethical principles and compliance into AI Assistants with our AI Ethics Course Online. Designed for conversation designers, AI trainers, and business stakeholders, it covers conversational AI social and ethical considerations, risk...

5 hours
1 modules
AI Trainer

AI Trainer

In this AI Trainer Course, learn to train AI Assistants to understand human language. Designed for those building human-centric, goal-oriented assistants, it covers conversational AI training, language model nuances, and dialogue implementation. Whet...

8 hours
3 modules
CDI Method Foundation

CDI Method Foundation

Learn CDI’s CAI Method—the test-and-tried Conversational AI workflow helping teams worldwide build human-centric, inclusive AI Assistants. This course is the starting point for managers and functional teams wanting to learn about creating great Conve...

9 hours
1 modules
Conversation Designer

Conversation Designer

This technology-agnostic course teaches you to design human-centric, inclusive, and goal-oriented AI Assistants. Learn strategies, methods, and design patterns for creating great conversational experiences—applicable to all Conversational AI use case...

10 hours
4 modules

Browse CDI’s entire library of 500+ videos

AI Ethics

AI Ethics

Learn to integrate ethical principles and compliance into AI Assistants with our AI Ethics Course Online. Designed for conversation designers, AI trainers, and business stakeholders, it covers conversational AI social and ethical considerations, risk...

5 hours
1 modules
AI Trainer

AI Trainer

In this AI Trainer Course, learn to train AI Assistants to understand human language. Designed for those building human-centric, goal-oriented assistants, it covers conversational AI training, language model nuances, and dialogue implementation. Whet...

8 hours
3 modules
CDI Method Foundation

CDI Method Foundation

Learn CDI’s CAI Method—the test-and-tried Conversational AI workflow helping teams worldwide build human-centric, inclusive AI Assistants. This course is the starting point for managers and functional teams wanting to learn about creating great Conve...

9 hours
1 modules
Conversation Designer

Conversation Designer

This technology-agnostic course teaches you to design human-centric, inclusive, and goal-oriented AI Assistants. Learn strategies, methods, and design patterns for creating great conversational experiences—applicable to all Conversational AI use case...

10 hours
4 modules

Work with us

Our seasoned experts help brands to design, build and maintain best-in-class AI assistants. So if you want to hit the ground running or you need help scaling your team, get in touch.