A method for intent mining that includes: receiving conversation data; using an intent mining algorithm to automatically mine intents from the conversation data; and uploading the mined intents into the conversational bot. The intent mining algorithm may include: analyzing utterances of the conversation data to identify intent-bearing utterances; analyzing the identified intent-bearing utterances to identify candidate intents; selecting salient intents from the candidate intents; grouping the selected salient intents into salient intent groups in accordance with a degree of semantic similarity; for each of the salient intent groups, selecting one of the salient intents as the intent label and designating the others as the intent alternatives; and associating the intent-bearing utterances with the salient intent groups via determining a degree of semantic similarity between the candidate intents present in the intent-bearing utterance and the intent alternatives within each group.