Natural language processing (NLP) is not new but it isn’t always explained in context. NLP is the technology that helps computers understand and process the way humans naturally process language. This interesting topic came to us from Daily Hawker in their article, “Natural Language Processing (NLP) 101: A Brief Introduction.”

The applications for NLP are endless. It can be the driving force behind language translation applications, word processors like Microsoft Word, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) applications utilized in call centers to reply to certain users’ requests, to name a few. The one used the most without realizing it is NLP is for personal assistant applications like Siri and Alexa.

NLP is challenging. The anomalies and imperfect characteristics of human languages make it extremely difficult. The rules that dictate the dissemination of data and information using natural languages aren’t easy for computers to know and understand. Let’s face it, humans face the same challenges and not always successfully.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.