@inproceedings{xu-etal-2025-sqlwoz,
title = "{SQLWOZ}: A Realistic Task-Oriented Dialogue Dataset with {SQL}-Based Dialogue State Representation for Complex User Requirements",
author = "Xu, Heng-Da and
Mao, Xian-Ling and
Sun, Fanshu and
Che, Tian-Yi and
Xin, Cheng-Xin and
Huang, Heyan",
editor = "Christodoulopoulos, Christos and
Chakraborty, Tanmoy and
Rose, Carolyn and
Peng, Violet",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing",
month = nov,
year = "2025",
address = "Suzhou, China",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2025.emnlp-main.383/",
doi = "10.18653/v1/2025.emnlp-main.383",
pages = "7526--7551",
ISBN = "979-8-89176-332-6",
abstract = "High-quality datasets are essential for building effective task-oriented dialogue (TOD) systems. The existing TOD datasets often present overly simplified interactions, where users incrementally express straightforward requests that can be managed with basic slot-value style dialogue states, such as ``hotel-area = east.'' However, this approach does not reflect real-life scenarios in which users may express complex constraints and preferences. To address this gap, in this paper, we propose SQLWOZ, a novel TOD dataset designed to capture complex, real-world user requirements. The user requirements in SQLWOZ include the four categories: 1) multiple values for a slot, 2) excluded values within a slot, 3) preferred or prioritized values, and 4) conditional values based on other conditions. We utilize SQL statements as a formalized and expressive representation of dialogue states within SQLWOZ. To evaluate the dataset, we adapt large language models as dialogue agents and conduct extensive experiments on the SQL-based dialogue state tracking, dialogue response generation and end-to-end TOD tasks. The experimental results demonstrate the complexity and quality of SQLWOZ, establishing it as a new benchmark for advancing TOD research."
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<abstract>High-quality datasets are essential for building effective task-oriented dialogue (TOD) systems. The existing TOD datasets often present overly simplified interactions, where users incrementally express straightforward requests that can be managed with basic slot-value style dialogue states, such as “hotel-area = east.” However, this approach does not reflect real-life scenarios in which users may express complex constraints and preferences. To address this gap, in this paper, we propose SQLWOZ, a novel TOD dataset designed to capture complex, real-world user requirements. The user requirements in SQLWOZ include the four categories: 1) multiple values for a slot, 2) excluded values within a slot, 3) preferred or prioritized values, and 4) conditional values based on other conditions. We utilize SQL statements as a formalized and expressive representation of dialogue states within SQLWOZ. To evaluate the dataset, we adapt large language models as dialogue agents and conduct extensive experiments on the SQL-based dialogue state tracking, dialogue response generation and end-to-end TOD tasks. The experimental results demonstrate the complexity and quality of SQLWOZ, establishing it as a new benchmark for advancing TOD research.</abstract>
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T SQLWOZ: A Realistic Task-Oriented Dialogue Dataset with SQL-Based Dialogue State Representation for Complex User Requirements
%A Xu, Heng-Da
%A Mao, Xian-Ling
%A Sun, Fanshu
%A Che, Tian-Yi
%A Xin, Cheng-Xin
%A Huang, Heyan
%Y Christodoulopoulos, Christos
%Y Chakraborty, Tanmoy
%Y Rose, Carolyn
%Y Peng, Violet
%S Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing
%D 2025
%8 November
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Suzhou, China
%@ 979-8-89176-332-6
%F xu-etal-2025-sqlwoz
%X High-quality datasets are essential for building effective task-oriented dialogue (TOD) systems. The existing TOD datasets often present overly simplified interactions, where users incrementally express straightforward requests that can be managed with basic slot-value style dialogue states, such as “hotel-area = east.” However, this approach does not reflect real-life scenarios in which users may express complex constraints and preferences. To address this gap, in this paper, we propose SQLWOZ, a novel TOD dataset designed to capture complex, real-world user requirements. The user requirements in SQLWOZ include the four categories: 1) multiple values for a slot, 2) excluded values within a slot, 3) preferred or prioritized values, and 4) conditional values based on other conditions. We utilize SQL statements as a formalized and expressive representation of dialogue states within SQLWOZ. To evaluate the dataset, we adapt large language models as dialogue agents and conduct extensive experiments on the SQL-based dialogue state tracking, dialogue response generation and end-to-end TOD tasks. The experimental results demonstrate the complexity and quality of SQLWOZ, establishing it as a new benchmark for advancing TOD research.
%R 10.18653/v1/2025.emnlp-main.383
%U https://aclanthology.org/2025.emnlp-main.383/
%U https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2025.emnlp-main.383
%P 7526-7551
Markdown (Informal)
[SQLWOZ: A Realistic Task-Oriented Dialogue Dataset with SQL-Based Dialogue State Representation for Complex User Requirements](https://aclanthology.org/2025.emnlp-main.383/) (Xu et al., EMNLP 2025)
ACL