We've talked about how Voice AI listens (ASR) and understands (NLU).
But once the system understands the user, there's a harder question:
👉 What should happen next?
This is where Dialog Management comes in.
It's not about generating responses - it's about orchestrating decisions across multiple turns.
E𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲:
👤 "Book a flight to Paris"
🤖 [dest: Paris, origin: ❓] → "Where from?"
👤 "New York"
🤖 [all slots filled ] → "NYC → Paris. Confirm?"
That decision flow? That's Dialog Management.
𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗱, 𝗶𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘀:
→ Tracking conversation state across turns.
→ Knowing what's been said vs what's missing.
→ Deciding when to ask vs when to act.
→ Handling corrections and errors.
→ Executing actions and tools safely.
This is what turns one-shot commands (from the user) into real conversations.
Modern Voice AI agents may use LLMs here - but structure is still essential for reliability and safety.
Without dialog management, even the best models feel unpredictable.
➡️ Next up: How Voice AI remembers - context & memory management.
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