The invention concerns an automated task classification system that operates on a task objective of a user. The system may include a meaningful phrase generator that generates a plurality of meaningful phrases from a set of verbal and non-verbal speech. Each of the meaningful phrases may be generated based on one of a predetermined set of the task objectives. A recognizer may recognize at least one of the generated meaningful phrases in an input communication of the user and a task classifier may make a classification decision in response to the recognized meaningful phrases relating to one of the set of predetermined task objectives.