Make User Memory default to ON. Currently User Memory default is OFF

Idea: User memory should be ON by default and users could opt out. This'd give users the better experience by default without them needing to figure out that the memory is there and how to turn it on.

Impact: We cannot use Agent Memory currently because User Memory is OFF by default (see below). We will have to build and use use our own custom user memory until this is changed.

Documentation Reference:

Understanding agent memory - IBM Documentation says:

• Agent memory must be enabled first to give the agent the capability to save memory

• User memory must then be enabled by each user to activate memory for their conversations

Use case example which we are about to go live with:

• A prospective student talks with our agent to decide what they should study

• This is their first time using the agent as they are not yet with the university

• So the student does not know

  • that the agent has a user memory or

  • how to turn user memory on .

• Therefore the default agent experience will be the experience the student gets.

• Choosing their course of study is a big decision for the student to make. They take several days to decide what to study.

• IF User Memory is ON then the prospective student can discuss with the agent over several days, the agent will remember what they discussed before and the agent will be HELPFUL.

• IF User Memory is OFF then the prospective student will come back to discuss with the agent and the agent will have totally forgotten everything they discussed and the agent will be ANNOYING.

This will be the student's first time engaging with the university. This experience will have a big influence about how they feel about choosing the university.

Agent Memory does not impact privacy

We do not give users the option to "opt-in" to Chat History. Chat history is on by default. Every piece of info that could be stored in the user memory is already in the Chat History. This is retained for "30-365 days" in WatsonX and for longer in university dbs.

Setting user memory "off" by default could give customers the mistaken impression that we don't keep their conversations. We do keep these conversations in chat history and in our databases. We say we do in the privacy statement.

The student is giving their data to the university via the chat history and logs. So the university can benefit from the conversation by improving the overall service later.

But the student is stopped from benefitng themselves from the conversation as the user memory is OFF. If it was ON then this conversation could improve their next conversation directly.

The irony is that the feature that is on by default (Chat History) can only be used to monitor and improve the service long term, while the feature that is off by default OFF (user memory) could help them pretty much immediately - if it were allowed to.

Could we please have either :

1. the option to configure the user memory default ourselves? or

2. user memory default set to ON.