Disambiguation

Problem

An agent that always acts will silently pick one interpretation when several are plausible, and confidently do the wrong thing — moving the wrong meeting, editing the wrong file, replying to the wrong thread. Rolling back the wrong action is usually more expensive than asking a single clarifying question would have been. But asking on every request quickly becomes annoying and trains the user to ignore prompts, so the agent has to detect when it is actually uncertain instead of asking by default.

Solution

Detect ambiguity via low-confidence intent classification or explicit ambiguity rubric. When detected, ask one focused question and wait for the answer before acting. Phrase the question with the most-likely interpretation as a default.

When to use

• Ambiguous user requests would otherwise produce confidently wrong agent actions.
• Ambiguity can be detected (low-confidence intent, explicit rubric, multiple plausible parses).
• A focused clarifying question, with a default interpretation, is acceptable UX.