Conversation Design Institute was founded in 2018 by Hans van Dam and Olaf Igesz. They believed that recognizing, developing, and promoting the role of the conversation designer was crucial to advancing trust and communication between humans and AI Assistants.
The CDI Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to developing and promoting design standards for conversational AI Assistants. We do this through research, education and industry development.
Browse the full CDI library
Explore our extensive database of courses, modules, webinars, and expert class recordings on Conversational AI. Learn at your own pace and stay ahead with the latest insights and best practices.
6 Years and 250 Million Conversations into Conversational AI
Gain valuable insights from Artificial Solutions' journey in conversational AI. Hear from Per Ottosson and Hans van Dam as they share their experience…
An Integral Perspective on Conversational AI
People from various fields, like linguists, engineers, and designers, all bring unique perspectives to conversational AI. In this talk, Hans van Dam s…
Ask Archie
I will be walking the audience through the journey my team have been on when implementing a chat bot for all internal colleague support. I'll share st…
Automating Customer Service
Learn how to automate customer service effectively with Robert Wilson-Fry from Cognigy.
Automating Customer and Employee Service
Our topic today is designing virtual agents with advanced conversational user experience. We'll discuss key considerations for building a powerful vir…
Benchmarking AI Assistants
Strategy talk: Hans van Dam will share the CDI Benchmarking framework based on the simple formula of scope+experience=value. He then shares how the In…
Bring on the Conversation Revolution
Innovation expert John Mulholland challenges the way we learn, championing a radical rethink of how conversation design can be used as a powerful and…
CAI and the Philosophers Stone
Conversation design should not be separated from development. Ronald argues that designers need tools and processes that directly translate intentions…
Connecting the Dots: Call Center Evolution using AI-Powered Chat and Voice Bots
Discover how AI-powered chat and voice bots are transforming call centers with Kelly Cassidy from Master of Code.
Conversational AI Teams
Adi, Brynn, and Willem discuss how to scope conversational AI projects, track progress and engage with stakeholders.
Conversational AI is a Marathon, Not a Sprint
I recently completed my first marathon and realized how similar chatbot creation is to marathon running. In this keynote, I’ll discuss how focusing on…
Conversational IVR in BFSI Industry
"The topic for today is the role of the IVR, the role of the voice in the conversation when it happens in the banking, financial, and insurance settin…
Crafting Training Data
In this workshop, you'll learn how quality training data is key to creating a high-performing chatbot from an NLP perspective. We'll cover best practi…
Creating an Inclusive Conversational AI industry
Peter Thomas, director of FORWARD at RMIT University, and Helen Babb-Delia, CEO of Yes Get It, will lead a workshop exploring key issues in conversati…
David Vanderfluit Interview RMIT
Gain unique insights from David Vanderfluit in this insightful interview with Dr. Peter Thomas from RMIT.
Design Tools
Breaking down what we can learn from the past to better shape the multimodal world we're building for tomorrow
Design for Business Value
IBM’s Thomas Watson Jr. said, “Good design is good business.” How does this apply to conversational AI today? This talk explores the benefits of prior…
Designing for WhatsApp and Other Apps
Michelle describes the proven Haptik principles for designing for WhatsApp. She is going to share some of the leading principles that are part of the…
Developing Design Standards for Human-Centric AI Assistants
Learn how to establish robust design standards for human-centric AI assistants with Hans van Dam and Jason Gilbert.
Developing Voice Worthy of User Trust
Explore key considerations for developing voice experiences that users can trust with Oita Coleman, Jon Stine, and Jasper Klimbie from OVN.
Digital Twins: CXD Friend or Foe
Digital twins are moving into our world (or are we moving into theirs?). How can we use digital twins to create great conversations? What kind of poth…
Enterprise Panel on Building Teams that Build Bots
Ethics: 4 Scenarios for the Future of Voice
Ethics: Data, a Guide to Humans
Data is important, but data without empathy is useless. In this session we will learn about how cognitive empathy is a learnable core skill that makes…
Ethics: Intro to CXD Ethics
Cami Rincon from the Alan Turing Institute introduces the Conversation Design Institute’s new AI ethics course, exploring how to integrate fairness, a…
Ethics: What Does it Mean to be Conversational
This talk rethinks 'conversational' by exploring connections between conversation analysis and design. With 50 years of research on social interaction…
Everybody knows how to Design Conversations Until They Get Punched in the Face
Designing conversations in the real world is tough. This talk explores how to create conversational interfaces when time, team, and tech pressures dis…
Evolution of CXD at Salesforce
Learn about the evolution of conversation design at Salesforce with Greg Bennett.
Experience Optimization for Customers and Employees
Kore AI enables conversational designers to go from design to deployment in hours. It allows real-time collaboration, helps design complex conversatio…
Fireside Chat: Conversation Design
Rebecca and our CDI hosts will discuss what makes conversation design challenging to learn and teach.
Fireside Chat: State of the Industry
Bret Kinsella is the biggest voice of the industry. In this fireside chat, Bret and Hand discuss what excites them about the industry, what the main t…
From Fulfilment to Negotiation
What are the social, economic, ethical, and psychological impacts of conversational AI? This session explores research findings and how they shaped ou…
Future Proof your Chatbot Development
NLP technologies will grow rapidly in the next 3-5 years. Developers and designers can incorporate these without rebuilding from scratch by using a ma…
How Belgium’s National Railway Company Reduced Fall-back to Live Agent Rate by 15% in 3 months
Learn how Belgium's National Railway Company significantly reduced fall-back to live agents within 3 months. Watch the live recording of Benoit Alvare…
How CXD Transforms the Future of Womens Health
Female health has long been overlooked in medicine. Conversation design can change that—at scale. By helping women harness their body signals, it has…
How Conversation Designers are Using GPT LLMs in Voiceflow
Conversation designers are using large language models to automate content and focus on curating assistants. In this live workshop, Nicole Merrill (In…
How to Build Delightful Conversational Flows
Using Ultimate’s in-house expertise, Marika demonstrates how to design conversation flows that are both helpful to customers and feel human, drawing f…
How to Crack the Multi-language Solution Successfully
Joaquim Bargalló, Head of Customer Success at Artificial Solutions, explains why localization is the best strategy for scaling conversational AI. Lear…
How to Find the Right Fit, Before building with Conversational AI
This talk focuses on the choices and trade-offs during a conversational AI implementation, covering topics like:
- Finding automation principles
- Ide…
How to Launch and Supervise a Generative Chatbot
Stephen Broadhurst and Gregory Whiteside from HumanFirst show how to launch new bot styles by monitoring user input and supervising responses. They al…
How to Structure a CXD Team
Learn how teams big and small structure their conversation design teams to create world class experiences that scale.
Importance of Character in CXD
Jason is multi Webby award winner and expert character designer. He started out as a filmmaker but fell in love with conversational AI many years ago.…
Intro CXD Team Maturity Model
Teams must scale conversational AI to meet customer expectations, but many lack a maturity model. In this keynote, Braden Ream, CEO of Voiceflow, shar…
Introducing Conversational Engineering
Learn about Conversational Engineering, what all conversational engineers need to know and how a conversational tech stack works.
Introducing TOBi
Vodafone was among the first to adopt bot technology as part of their strategy for scaling. In this session, the technical lead of the TOBi project wi…
LLMs and Rasa
Discover the exciting intersection of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Rasa with Alan Nichol and Hans van Dam.
Latest Trends
Stay ahead of the curve with Bret Kinsella's insights on the latest trends shaping the conversation design landscape.
Leveraging the Power of Conversation
Introducing Google Business Messages:
- The What
- The Why
- The How
Linguistics in CXD
Greg Bennet is head of conversation design at Salesforce. He heads up the team that is challenged on a daily basis with advocating conversation design…
Multi-path Conversation Design Patterns
One size doesn’t fit all in conversational logic. Christian Buchwald, Chatbot Enthusiast at Cognigy, shares how to build resilience in conversation de…
Operationalizing Context in Conversational AI
SPEAKING model – a conceptual framework where we turn abstract concepts in Conversational AI into something that can help us systematically gather lan…
People Working in Conversational AI
CDI Foundation and Talent Data Labs researched the personalities of people in conversational AI. Stefan van Tulder, CEO of Talent Data Labs, shares in…
Persona Panel
Experts who shaped personas for Google, Babylon Health, and Daimler discuss why brands need personas, how to develop them, and their role in personali…
Personality as a Design Framework
What's the fuss about? CDIS' Jasper Klimbie shares his philosophy on 'Personality as a Design Framework' for your conversational AI project.
Putting the ConvDesigner in the Pilot Seat
Botpress is an open-source chatbot platform enabling developers to build bots without data scientists. Launched in 2017, it includes a managed NLU eng…
Reactive Voice UIs
Most discussions focus on multi-turn conversations, but consumers mainly use voice tech for single-turn interactions. Conversational designers can mee…
Rise of Customer Avatars
Avatars with full facial animation are replacing static 2D virtual assistants. Martin Hill-Wilson shares insights from experts at Speech Graphics and…
School for Conversation Design
The School for Conversation Design is a new program teaching K12 students how to design conversational experiences, equipping them with skills and kno…
Shopping and Customer Support on WhatsApp
Explore the power of WhatsApp for shopping and customer support with Manasi Gulati and Avani Kawa.
Skillset
Hans van Dam will discuss the CDI workflow that helps teams create human-centric and inclusive AI Assistants.
And of course, ChatGPT is also one of t…
Smart Homes for Smarter People
The devices in our homes, cars, and offices play a large role in our daily routines. As IoT technology gains popularity, voice is becoming a natural w…
Soft Skills
Data is important, but data without empathy is useless. In this session we will learn about how cognitive empathy is a learnable core skill that makes…
Superior Customer Experiences that Drive Value
Today's customer experience can leave customers and employees frustrated. This talk will explore how to design impactful conversations using Rasa’s AI…
Synthetic Media
Everyone is talking about generative AI and ChatGPT. But what does it mean for conversational AI? Bret Kinsella, founder of Voicebot and Synthetic Med…
The American Red Cross on Visualizing Conversational Journeys
Discover how conversational data can drive positive outcomes. Join CDI CEO Hans van Dam as he shares how the American Red Cross used it to connect hur…
The Future of Human and Virtual Collaboration
A 3-5 year view of how virtual assitants will become ubiquitous and part of how we manage our personal lives. For that to come about we explore what n…
Thoughts When Building a CXD Tool
Gain valuable insights from Jason Gilbert and Braden Ream of Voiceflow on their thought process when building a conversation design tool.
Tools for Conversational Slack Experiences
Discover the latest tools and techniques for creating engaging and effective conversational experiences within the Slack ecosystem with Isabela Berbel…
Trial and Error Creating the Zendesk Customer Chatbot
Building a chatbot is exciting, but building the right team is crucial. Zendesk's Chatbot team shares how they identified talent needs, built cross-co…
Turning Marketing Machines into Personal Assistants
In this talk Richard will talk about how we are are the verge of a new technological revolution: of AI assistants (or Natural User Interfaces). Richar…
Understanding What the Machine Understands
In this session, Benoit will explore how to understand how NLP engines behave, understand how to “teach” them, typical mistakes made, and best practic…
Usecase: Adidas Challenges of Deploying a Global Chatbot
What are the challenges of rolling out a chatbot in a global organisation. How can you make a one size fits all model work? How do you provide local b…
Usecase: BBC Public Service CXD
At the BBC, we aim to design conversations that allow users to engage efficiently and ethically, serving the public good. With conversational AI, we’r…
Usecase: Brazilian Government WhatsApp Chatbot
Willian Costa and Rafael Cunha discuss the challenges of writing bot copy with large text and cognitive load, ensuring the Brazilian electoral process…
Usecase: Dior
Discover how an intent-based chatbot merges marketing automation, luxury brand ambassadors, and personalized content. Learn its impact on user engagem…
Usecase: Natwest Cora From Usefull to Delightful
Natwest's chatbot Cora has been at the forefront of Conversational AI. In this talk, Shnay shares the journey so far, the obstacles the team had to ov…
Vodafone Toby Use Case
This session will be a Q&A featuring Ilaria Di Donfranceso Product Owner at Vodafone answering questions about the latest at Vodafone!
Voice and Customer Segmentation
Understanding your client is key to expanding your customer base. In my talk, I'll challenge the oversimplification of customer personas and show how…
What We Talk About when We Talk About AI Training
An AI Trainer is responsible for cognition, ensuring the assistant understands what people say. This panel discusses the challenges, required skillset…
Why Creative People are Great CXD
In this chat, listen to Tony & Kat discuss why creative artists will be the next generation of conversation designers.
Workshop: Airy
Leading through the curriculum and the highlights of the Conversational Engineering Course and the Future of the Conversational Stack.
Workshop: Diversifying Intent Training Data
Many chatbots to this day, are still linguistically biased. To combat this, we must diversify the linguistic data we use to train our bots. In this ta…
Workshop: How to Launch Assistants Faster
Better conversational AI starts with team collaboration. Join Voiceflow to learn how to modernize workflows, from design to launch. This session share…
Workshop: Inclusivity in CXD for Whatsapp
How can we design more inclusive conversations that accommodate different abilities? As conversation designers, we must create experiences that avoid…
Workshop: Microsoft
Come join Microsoft’s Conversational AI Design team to learn how to envision and build engaging conversational bots. In this session, expect to learn…
Workshop: Microsoft PVA
Welcome to the Main Event - The CDI / Microsoft Hackathon.
During this session you'll build a bot with Microsoft Power Virtual Agents. With expert sup…
Workshop: Microsoft PVA MS&CDI Part 2
In this event, you'll build a bot with Microsoft Power Virtual Agents, receiving expert support and coaching from Sarah Critchley, Gary Pretty, and th…
Workshop: Omnichannel Assistants
Learn best practices for building omni-channel assistants that meet client expectations. Haptik’s Michelle Parayil and Tripti Nagpal share lessons fro…
Workshop: Real World Lessons in CXD
Learn from experienced practitioners Jurgen Gravestein and Martin Andersen in this workshop recording.