Spoken dialogue systems are computer programs developed to provide speech-based services similarly as if these services were provided by humans, offering an interaction which is as natural, “intelligent” and comfortable as possible. Among other applications, these systems are currently used to substitute or assist human operators who provide a variety of services, such as airplane or train bookings, weather forecasts, product selling, banking services and directory assistance.

Regardless of the remarkable advances made in recent years, the interaction with these systems is still far from the interaction with human operators due to a number of reasons, which represent state-of-the-art challenges for this technology. In this talk we will discuss some of these challenges and describe the current work being done at the University of Granada to improve the design and performance of these systems.