Specific programme: HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-SE
UPV/EHU Partner Status: Coordinator
UPV/EHU PI: Manés Torres

Project start: 01/11/2024
Project end: 31/10/2028

Brief description: CRYSTAL (Conversational Systems for Emotional Support and Customer Assistance) will advance research for a next generation of conversational models and systems that implement reliable, friendly and efficient human-machine interactions that can assist humans in tasks beyond automatic information provision, such as emotional support as well as customer assistance. Emotional support provided to vulnerable individuals, such as ageing adults or people experiencing anxiety or depression. Advanced customer assistance provided to call centres, providing customer care and response to customer inquiries, in an empathic, inviting, accurate and efficient manner. 

Conversational models and systems will be developed by proposing novel learning strategies for domain adaptation, exploring Large Language Models (LLMs) and prompt engineering methodologies. User state estimation will be also considered, and strategies, such as behavioural models and stakeholder goals, will guide the policies for dialogue management. Novel evaluation frameworks will be also designed by including automatic metrics, usability as well as human acceptance of the technology. 

Strict ethical and AI robustness compliance procedures will be applied, as conversational recordings will be collected, anonymised, annotated and encrypted for collaborative work among the project partners. 

The project will apply extensive staff secondments and foster sustainable knowledge exchange. It will grow the experiences and insights of the partner organisations’ staff via intersectoral and interdisciplinary collaborations, implemented through secondments as well as training and networking activities. Dissemination, communication and exploitation activities will expand the project’s impact pathways.