Should I aim for a 100% Recognition Rate?

A perfect recognition rate should not be the ultimate goal because it can lead to unintended negative consequences in chatbot performance. Here’s why:

1. Overfitting to Unhelpful Inputs

• If the chatbot is optimized to recognize everything, it may start matching irrelevant or vague queries to intents inaccurately.
• This can lead to incorrect or misleading responses, frustrating users.

2. Some Inputs Should Not Be Recognized

• Not all user inputs are meaningful; spam, gibberish, or extremely vague queries (like just “e” or “hi”) should often remain unrecognized.
• Recognizing everything forces the bot to respond to nonsense, potentially harming user trust.

3. Recognition ≠ Understanding

• High recognition does not necessarily mean the bot provides useful answers.
• A well-balanced system prioritizes accuracy (correct responses) over blind recognition.

4. Encourages Better UX & Data Hygiene

• A lower, but meaningful, recognition rate helps identify areas where users need clearer guidance.
• It also encourages refining stopword lists, bot design, and input validation strategies.

5. Prevents Unintended Automation Bias

• If recognition is too high, users and admins may assume the bot is always correct, reducing human oversight.
• Keeping a balance ensures critical issues are escalated to human support when needed.

Bottom Line:

A good chatbot should recognize relevant queries accurately, not just maximize its recognition rate. The focus should be on providing useful responses while filtering out low-quality input.