US Patent 11790168 Natural language and messaging system integrated group assistant

A natural language and messaging system integrated group assistant (assistant) is provided. The assistant is designated as an active participant within a group chat session on a given messaging platform. The assistant actively engages the group discussion around a decision on a given subject to define the subject's context. Once the context is defined, the assistant performs out-of-band searches to satisfy group criteria for a decision on the subject and provides results back to the group within a natural language written response. Group members vote on alternatives provided in the results and the assistant tabulates the votes to identify a specific decision and the assistant provides detailed information to the group on the specific decision within a natural language summary message.