Conversational Search -- A Report from Dagstuhl Seminar 19461

TL;DR

This report summarizes the discussions, research agenda, and key findings from the Dagstuhl Seminar 19461 on Conversational Search, highlighting recent developments, challenges, and future directions in the field.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art, research challenges, and future research directions in Conversational Search based on expert discussions and working group reports.

Findings

Defined key concepts and evaluation methods for Conversational Search.

Identified research challenges and potential solutions.

Outlined future research directions and applications.

Abstract

Dagstuhl Seminar 19461 "Conversational Search" was held on 10-15 November 2019. 44~researchers in Information Retrieval and Web Search, Natural Language Processing, Human Computer Interaction, and Dialogue Systems were invited to share the latest development in the area of Conversational Search and discuss its research agenda and future directions. A 5-day program of the seminar consisted of six introductory and background sessions, three visionary talk sessions, one industry talk session, and seven working groups and reporting sessions. The seminar also had three social events during the program. This report provides the executive summary, overview of invited talks, and findings from the seven working groups which cover the definition, evaluation, modelling, explanation, scenarios, applications, and prototype of Conversational Search. The ideas and findings presented in this report should serve as one of the main sources for diverse research programs on Conversational Search.