  Conversational agents promise conversational interaction but fail to deliver.
Efforts often emulate functional rules from human speech, without considering
key characteristics that conversation must encapsulate. Given its potential in
supporting long-term human-agent relationships, it is paramount that HCI
focuses efforts on delivering this promise. We aim to understand what people
value in conversation and how this should manifest in agents. Findings from a
series of semi-structured interviews show people make a clear dichotomy between
social and functional roles of conversation, emphasising the long-term dynamics
of bond and trust along with the importance of context and relationship stage
in the types of conversations they have. People fundamentally questioned the
need for bond and common ground in agent communication, shifting to more
utilitarian definitions of conversational qualities. Drawing on these findings
we discuss key challenges for conversational agent design, most notably the
need to redefine the design parameters for conversational agent interaction.
