We’re used to hearing Text To Speech in conversational AI, but that’s not the only option available. Voice assistants don’t have to use synthetic speech - they can use recordings of a live voice talent instead.
Andrew Muir, Lead Dialogue Designer at PolyAI, explains the benefits of using voice talents. One of his points really resonated with me - why voice talents ease users into the experience!
00:00 Start
00:24 Tell me about yourself?
02:38 What's your favourite bot?
03:26 What are your biggest concerns about ChatGPT?
05:58 What journalistic skills do you use in conversation design?
08:42 Why do you choose to use voice talent at PolyAI?
13:10 So voice talent eases users into the experience?
13:52 Where would you choose to use synthetic voices?
15:56 Are you using voice talents and cloned voices?
17:03 Please tell me about your relationship with the voice talents?
19:14 Do you give the voice talent freedom to create their work?
19:50 Do voice talents push back against being used in AI projects?
21:36 Voice talents could get left behind by synthetic voices
22:46 Are voice talents proactively cloning their voices?
23:21 How do you approach updates to avoid spiralling costs?
26:24 Do you adjust the design based on a voice actor's performance?
30:40 Is a synthetic assistant with an empathetic voice a design sweet-spot?
31:51 Do you think there's scope for non-human character design?
36:38 The way words are said matters
38:56 The user observes everything about the bot
41:16 How do you approach voice localisation at PolyAI?
45:44 Personas are received differently in different locales
46:43 You have to know the culture intimately to localise
48:47 We have to expect we will keep updating our work
50:35 Where can people find out more about you?
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