VUX World

Einav Itamar is the founder and CEO of Voca.ai, a technology company specialising in IVR automation using conversational AI. He joins Dustin and Kane to chat about how to create human-like conversations for IVR bots, the impact of coronavirus on call centre demand and how organisations are approaching automating incoming call centre calls with AI.Need help with call centre automation? Book a free 20 minute consultation.Designing human-like voice bots for IVROne thing is for sure: Covid-19 hit call centres hard.Some saw the frailty of legacy systems and infrastructure that require you to be fixed at a desk. They had to close completely, unable to work remotely.Some could enable operatives to work from home, but they were snowed under with a barrage of calls. For some, it was well in excess of double call volumes.A few realised what was happening and acted. They implemented (or increased their usage of) conversational AI.Find out how they did, and how you can create human-like, automated conversations that allow you to increase self-service and scale your demand management with Einav Eitamar, CEO, Voca.ai.LinksSubscribe to This Week In Voice VIPVisit Voca.ai Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SPONSORED BY PROJECT VOICE CATALYSTProject Voice Catalyst is for companies working with voice and AI, whether heavily involved or just starting, it uses an extensive network to connect companies working with voice tech and conversational AI to new customers, partners, media, or investors, depending on needs and business objectives.Accelerating your business months ahead of where you otherwise would be.No matter what industry - publishing, healthcare, automotive, banking, gaming, hospitality - Project Voice: Catalyst is helping others and can help you.Contact Ray Kyle, Score Publishing's Director of Business Development, at Ray@ScorePublishing.us or (781) 929 1098 if you're interested in learning more.Automating call centres with AIMost contact centres have been overwhelmed during the covid period, struggling to meet the demand placed on them. Some call centres have even had to close due to unprecedented call volumes.At the same time, customers are ever more demanding. Expectations are through the roof. No one wants to wait on hold, and everyone wants to speak to a human. When they eventually get through to speak to someone, their query isn't always answered first time. Sometimes they're passed to and from between departments which makes for a less than desirable experience.At the same time, call handlers and agents don't always have what they need to serve customers properly. They're sometimes dealing with multiple systems and have to start each call with information gathering, rather than problem solving.Conversational AI can be used to solve all of these problems. From gathering information while the customer waits, and passing that information to call handlers so that they can spend more time serving and less time gathering details, to end-to-end self service from within the call, negating the need to speak to an agent in the first place.Speakeasy AI have patent-pending technology built to make the lives of customers and contact centres easy. And in this episode of VUX World Live, The Fresh Prince of AI and CEO Speakeasy AI, Frank Schneider, makes a return to the show to share insights on how voice technology is being used within IVR systems to help solve some real business problems, and how you can do the same.Linksspeakeasyai.comfrank@speakeasyai.comAll about Speakeasy AI with the Fresh Prince of AI, Frank Schneider Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sponsored by Project Voice CatalystProject Voice Catalyst is for companies working with voice and AI, whether heavily involved or just starting, it uses an extensive network to connect companies working with voice tech and conversational AI to new customers, partners, media, or investors, depending on needs and business objectives.Accelerating your business months ahead of where you otherwise would be.No matter what industry - publishing, healthcare, automotive, banking, gaming, hospitality - Project Voice: Catalyst is helping others and can help you.Contact Ray Kyle, Score Publishing's Director of Business Development, at Ray@ScorePublishing.us or (781) 929 1098 if you're interested in learning more.[/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]Multi model design for Google AssistantWe first spoke about multi modal design with Jan König of Jovo on one of the very first episodes of the VUX World podcast. Back then, Jan described Jovo's vision for a multi modal future, where the best interface is the closest interface you have to hand, whether that's your watch, your headphones, your speaker or you phone. And that the experience you have with your assistant should depend on the device you're using. Context should be carried across devices and modalities so that your experience remains personalised, yet tuned to the device you're using.In 2018, this was merely a vision. Google Assistant existed on Android and in a smart speaker and almost all design was contained to the audible conversation.Since then, Google Assistant has exploded. It's on over 1 billion devices of all shapes and sizes. Yes, it still runs on Android, and on Google's line of Nest smart speakers. But it's also now on iOS, on Nest Hub smart displays, car head units, headphones, smart home objects, watches, TVs, all in over 30 languages. And it's expanding into new environments with new languages seemingly every couple of month.Jan's vision has been brought to life by Google.How, then, does Google make sure that the experience of using Google Assistant is consistent across device types? How does a screen change the dynamics of the interaction? How does the context of someone being outside wearing headphones impact design choices? And how should the experience differ and grow over time?Then there's the fact that Google doesn't control where Google Assistant lives. Any manufacturer can put Google Assistant into any device and potentially create new contextual environments and new multi modal dynamics. How do you manage that?Daniel Padgett, Head of Conversation Design at Google, joins us on the show this week to explain.LinksConversation design guidance from GoogleGoogle's design principles at design.googleBooksWired for speech by Clifford Nass and Scott BraveThe man who lied to his laptop by Clifford NassDesigning voice user interfaces by Cathy PearlVoice user interface design by James Giangola and Jennifer Balogh Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sponsored by Project Voice CatalystProject Voice Catalyst is for companies working with voice and AI, whether heavily involved or just starting, it uses an extensive network to connect companies working with voice tech and conversational AI to new customers, partners, media, or investors, depending on needs and business objectives.Accelerating your business months ahead of where you otherwise would be.No matter what industry - publishing, healthcare, automotive, banking, gaming, hospitality - Project Voice: Catalyst is helping others and can help you.Contact Ray Kyle, Score Publishing's Director of Business Development, at Ray@ScorePublishing.us or (781) 929 1098 if you're interested in learning more.UK voice assistant usageIf you build voice applications for Alexa and Google Assistant, this episode will give you insights that you can use to create more meaningful, impactful and delightful experiences, based on knowledge of how real people are actually using voice assistants right now in the UK.Find out how UK households are using Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and what effect COVID19 has had on usage. Learn about people's attitudes towards voice technology in the home, behavioural patterns and reasons for using voice, expectations and perceptions of digital assistants as as well confidence levels in interacting with technology using speech.For brands looking to launch a voice strategy, this episode will show you what kind of use cases are attracting users, how you should market and launch your Alexa skills and plenty of other nuggets to help you optimise you strategy.LinksEmail freshthinking@voxlydigital.comConnect with Rozzi on LinkedInAlexa is part of the family nowTim to shine, Alexa. Getting the UK through isolationVisit the Voxly Digital website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sponsored by Project Voice CatalystProject Voice Catalyst is for companies working with voice and AI, whether heavily involved or just starting, it uses an extensive network to connect companies working with voice tech and conversational AI to new customers, partners, media, or investors, depending on needs and business objectives.Accelerating your business months ahead of where you otherwise would be.No matter what industry - publishing, healthcare, automotive, banking, gaming, hospitality - Project Voice: Catalyst is helping others and can help you.Contact Ray Kyle, Score Publishing's Director of Business Development, at Ray@ScorePublishing.us or (781) 929 1098 if you're interested in learning more.Using voice to make scientists more productiveWe always say that voice is quicker. That it can help you be more productive. Nowhere is this more relevant than in the workplace.LabVoice has been working with scientists in the lab using voice technology to streamline processes and help scientists be more productive.It has it's own custom smart speaker that sits in a lab environment and enables scientists to work entirely hands-free. Not only does it provide guidance throughout conducting experiments, but it also records results and integrates into a line of business system where the results are stored. It's used as a dictator, too, reducing the need for additional staff, and incorporates a scanner for easy recognition and confirmation of samples.In this episode, we're joined by Dan DeAlmeida, Director of Product Management at LabVoice to delve into the details of how LabVoice was created, and how you can do something similar to improve your processes using voice technology.Learn how to figure out where voice can help, how to design voice experiences for narrow, specific use cases, how to approach in-field testing, and how to choose and develop the right technology to bring it to life.LinksEmail Dan@LabVoice.comVisit LabVoice.comLabVoice on YouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sponsored by Project Voice CatalystProject Voice Catalyst is for companies working with voice and AI, whether heavily involved or just starting, it uses an extensive network to connect companies working with voice tech and conversational AI to new customers, partners, media, or investors, depending on needs and business objectives.Accelerating your business months ahead of where you otherwise would be.No matter what industry - publishing, healthcare, automotive, banking, gaming, hospitality - Project Voice: Catalyst is helping others and can help you.Contact Ray Kyle, Score Publishing's Director of Business Development, at Ray@ScorePublishing.us or (781) 929 1098 if you're interested in learning more.Designing conversations for SMS messagingSMS messages have over 98% open rates within the first 5 minutes of sending. And, unlike Alexa or Google Assistant, where a user has to respond within 7 seconds or the chat closes, with SMS messaging, the conversation can remain open indefinitely.We often talk about the value of conversational interfaces, but often, we're up against the task of encouraging users to try out our new channel. Whether that's an Alexa skill, a Google Assistant action or a Facebook Messenger bot. Each time, we're asking the user to perform a behaviour in an environment where they might not naturally expect to right now.What happens, then, when you add an automated conversational experience into a channel where users already understand, and have been using since the dawn of mobile phones; SMS messaging?What kind of results might you expect? What's the value of automated conversational SMS-based conversations? Should you consider creating one? How should you approach it? What's different or similar to designing a voice experience? Is there anything technically to consider?In this episode of VUX World, live on LinkedIn, we're joined by SMS platform, Mav, creators, Hillary and Matthew Black to explain all.LinksAdd Hillary on LinkedInAdd Matthew on LinkedInCheck out Hillary's online course: Chatbot writing and designJoin the chatbot conversation designers internet club Facebook groupHire Mav websiteMav on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kane Simms and Dustin Coates rundown this week's top stories in voice and conversational AI.Top stories this week:Open AI APIThe Beeb, BBC's voice assistant in public BetaFlipkart launches voice assistant for webMicrosoft files patent for smart speakerVeritonic Audio Logo Index 2020 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stories covered this week:Subvocal recognitionMIT Alterego Communicated with a Computer Through SubvocalizationNuEyes Partners with Third Eye for voice controlled device for low-visionGoogle assistant beta voice match for purchasesGoogle home is no more? Microsoft Cortana - new voice for work flow featuresApple glass leakedDatch - voice-visual platform for factories secures $3.2 mill in funding Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Magic happens when you take patterns and systems of nature and apply them to solve human problems.✈️ Aeroplane wings are inspired by birds🚗 Wet tyre treads have been inspired by the toe pads of tree frogs💡 LED bulbs can be made more efficient by mimicking the scales on a Firefly’s abdomen📸 Canon cameras imitate the structure of a moth’s eye to reduce lens flare🚞 High speed trains in Japan were based on a Kingfisher’s beak. They use 15% less electricity and are 10% fasterWhat happens when you take a conversational analyst and have them apply natural, human conversation patterns and techniques to conversation design and conversational AI?Can we create more engaging human computer interaction? Can we provide better, more natural customer experience? In this episode, you'll learn how to design conversations properly, based on those that have conversations properly: humans.Our guest, Bob Moore, spent over 20 years in Silicon Valley research labs working with the likes of Xerox PARC, Yahoo! Research and IBM ARC, studying conversations and analysing the natural patterns that occur. He has a Ph.D. in sociology, is a trained as a conversation analyst and the author of Conversational UX Design: A Practitioner's Guide to the Natural Conversation Framework.LinksConversational UX Design IBM Research AlmadenMoore, Robert J. and Raphael Arar. 2019. Conversational UX Design: A Practitioner's Guide to the Natural Conversation Framework. Association for Computing Machinery, New York. DOI: 10.1145/3304087. Available at Amazon and Morgan & Claypool.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every voice assistant needs three core components: Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and Text-to-Speech (TTS). We've already covered what Automatic Speech Recognition is and how it works with Catherine Breslin and in this episode, we're covering the latter, text-to-speech.To guide us through the ins and outs of TTS, we're joined by Niclas Bergström, a TTS veteran and co-founder of one of the largest TTS companies on the planet, Readspeaker.Text-to-speech is the technology that gives voice assistants a voice. It's the thing that produces the synthetic vocal sound that's played from your smart speaker or phone whenever Alexa or Siri speaks. It's the only part of a voice assistant that you'd recognise. The other core components, ASR and NLU, are silent.And, given how we're hard wired for speech - a baby can recognise its mother's voice from the womb - how your voice assistant or voice user interface (VUI) sounds is one of the most important parts of it.A voice communicates so much information without us necessarily being aware. Just from the sound of someone's voice, you can infer gender, age, mood, education, place of birth and social status. From the sound of someone's voice, you can decide whether you trust them.With voice assistants, voice user interfaces, or any hardware or software that speaks, choosing the right voice is imperative.Some companies decide on a stock voice. One of Readspeaker's 90 voices or perhaps Amazon Polly. Others create their own bespoke voice that's fit for their brand.We see examples of Lyrbird's voice cloning and we hear Alexa speak every day, so it's easy to take talking computers for granted. Because speaking is natural and easy for us, we assume that it's natural and easy for machines to talk. But it isn't.So in this episode, we're going to lift the curtain on text-to-speech and find out just exactly how it works. We'll look at what's happening under the hood when voice assistants talk and see what goes into creating a TTS system.Readspeaker is a pioneering voice technology company that provides lifelike Text to Speech (TTS) services for IVR systems, voice applications, automobiles, robots, public service announcement systems, websites or anywhere else. It's been in the TTS game for over 20 years and has in-depth knowledge and experience in AI and Deep Neural Networks, which they put to work in creating custom TTS voices for the world's biggest brands.LinksVisit Readspeaker.com to find out more about TTS servicesAnd Readspeaker.ai for more information on TTS research and samples Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.