# Overview
# Before getting started: What does Clinc do?
In the process of delivering high quality conversational AI to end users, Clinc provides the crucial components of Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Natural Language Generation (NLG). Once an utterance from a user is converted into text, our AI engine interprets what the user is asking or trying to accomplish. Our AI engine then calls on the appropriate third parties (such as an external database) to help provide the necessary data to help get the user an answer or carry out an action. Because we are ASR (automatic speech recognition)-agnostic, we can be connected to any device whether it be mobile, web app, or a smart speaker.
# By the end of the Starter Guide
We are going to build a Financial Assistant that allows users to ask for their balance from a specified account, and transfer money from one account to another. Here is an example conversation your AI will make:
User: How much money do I have in my checking account right now?
AI: Your checking account has $2000.
User: Can you transfer $20 of that to my savings account?
AI: Sure! Just to confirm, you want to transfer $20 from your checking account into your savings account, is that correct?
User: Yeah
AI: Your account transfer is complete!
To build this conversational experience, you'll learn how to:
- Create your first Clinc conversational AI and your first competency
- Manipulate the State Graph to determine the directions of the conversation that your AI takes
To get up and running quickly, we recommend that you follow along with the steps in the Platform. Let's start building!