184: AI Conversations with Greg Bennett

Join us in an enlightening discussion with Greg Bennett, a Director of Conversational Design at Salesforce. We cover how he applies his knowledge of interactional social linguistics and discourse analysis to create more natural and intuitive interactions with generative AIs. He also shares anecdotes from his tenure at Microsoft working on Cortana and how his insights from different writing systems in Japanese inform the design of chatbot dialogues. In the second part of our discussion, Greg takes us through his path to Salesforce and how he made the business case for starting conversation design there. He provides insights into the careful design of prompts for models and model providers and the role of context in conversational AI. We then switch gears to explore the future of conversational design, the relevance of prompt engineering, and the exciting possibilities of generative AI. Listen in as we unpack the evolution of conversational interfaces, the future of human-AI interaction, and the emerging vernacular of AI slang. Show Highlights: Greg's journey to Salesforce and his role in pioneering conversation design, particularly the design of prompts for models and model providers. The significance of context in conversational AI is discussed, along with the future of conversational design and the emerging discipline of prompt engineering. The potential of generative AI and its impact on Salesforce's user interface. The evolution of conversational interfaces, human-AI interactions, and the development of AI slang. The importance of prompt writing and its transformation into a fundamental skill for conversational AI is discussed, with insights into the system of prompt orchestration. Links: Greg on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabennett45 Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gab45/