Wouter Sligter

Figuring out how to best adopt new technology is difficult at any time for any organization. AI tech rachets up this challenge to new heights.

Wouter Sligter helps companies understand the capabilities and limitations of LLMs and related technologies to create trustworthy experience-delivery platforms.

Transparency is a key element in implementing solutions that evoke and support the authentic human experiences that underlie these systems.

We talked about:

his background as a UX-focused designer and his shift to conversation and AI design
the growing number of business use cases that his work supports as well as the growing palette of tech tools that he has to work with
how he creates authentic and trustworthy experiences with LLMs and adjacent tech
the benefits of RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation)
the growing number of platforms that support building AI experiences
the huge failure rate of conversational AI implementations, and how better design might improve the success rate
the importance of being genuinely customer-centric when implementing AI projects
how his background in language and music helps his AI design work, in particular the benefits of "being comfortable with the uncomfortable"
the importance of companies being transparent about their AI implementations
how localization manifests in the AI world
the growing acceptance of chatbots by consumers
his advice to jump into AI now, beginning with due diligence about how you'll implement it in your organization

Wouter's bio
Wouter Sligter is a Senior Conversation Designer and Generative AI Engineer. He has been a committed team lead and has consulted for a large number of Conversational AI implementations, most notably in Finance, Healthcare and Logistics. He has an innovative mindset and a sharp sense for understanding user needs. Wouter always looks to improve the conversational user experience by following iterative design patterns and verifying outcomes through data analysis and user research. Both predictive NLU and generative LLMs and SLMs are part of Wouter's toolkit.

Wouter has a background in ESL and IELTS teaching at language centres and universities in Vietnam. He has developed a strong awareness for language and cultural peculiarities, with native fluency in English and Dutch and good conversational skills in Vietnamese, German, and French.
Connect with Wouter online

LinkedIn
YouandAI.global

Video
Here’s the video version of our conversation:

https://youtu.be/Ak0liSLR8_0

Podcast intro transcript
This is the Content and AI podcast, episode number 25. One of main reasons that people have taken so quickly to AI tools like ChatGPT is their conversational nature. People like talking to each other - and to computers. In human conversation, we've developed skills and instincts that help us determine the trustworthiness of the person we're talking with. In tech-driven conversations, we often have reason to mistrust. Wouter Sligter helps companies build conversational systems that express the authentic humanity of their creators.
Interview transcript

Larry:
Hi everyone, welcome to episode number 25 of the Content and AI Podcast. I'm really delighted today to welcome to the show Wouter Sligter. I met him in Utrecht in the Netherlands. He's in the co-working space we both work out of. There, he is a conversational AI consultant. He does conversation design and he's a generative AI engineer. He has his own company called You and AI Welcome, Wouter. Tell the folks a little bit more about what you're up to these days.

Wouter:
Hi Larry. Very good to be here. Thank you for inviting me. What am I up to? I think you mentioned the three things that I like most doing and that I do most often. I've come from being a self-employed freelance designer really, when in 2018, Facebook started with their chatbots on Messenger. I jumped in and quickly caught on and got a lot of cli...