Proactive Prompt

In voice-interface and conversational-agent design, a system-initiated utterance or visual cue that surfaces a suggestion, reminder, or next step without the user first asking. Examples include suggesting the weather at a user's usual wake-up time, reminding someone to take medication, or offering the next step in a multi-step task. Proactive prompts can help users with intellectual disabilities, cognitive impairment, or ADHD sustain attention and follow routines, but they must be carefully calibrated: excessive or poorly timed prompts disrupt ongoing activity and can feel paternalistic. Design considerations include user-configurable prompt frequency, support-worker override, and clear signalling of why the system is prompting.